`November 2002
The Canadian Heritage Rivers System
Draft Pre-Screening Document for the Ancient Canoe Routes
From
Lake Temiskaming to James Bay over the Height of Land
'In the Footsteps of deTroyes'
'Once
upon a time…’ the western waters of Lac
Massia (Summit Lake) flowed to James Bay while the eastern waters turned and flowed south into the Ottawa River System via
Lac Opasatica. A mere twenty kilometers to the west, in what is know Ontario,
the waters of Kinabec Creek flowed south while the waters of Wawagoshe Creek flowed east and north into the James Bay watershed. These two points in Ontario and Quebec mark the 'height of land' or the 'separation
des eaux'. The significance of these points along the height of land shall become
evident, as they are a liken to the entrance to and from a secret staircase of water that opened the door to conquest, wealth,
discovery and the future of North Eastern Ontario and North Western Quebec. Across
this divide, our ancient native precursors came into this land, as the great ice sheet receded. They established their forest
culture that is still being revealed to us today, by curious archeologists, anthropologists and historians.
James
Bay, the Abitibi and Lake Temiskaming are prominent mileposts along a system of rivers, lakes and creeks that compose a unique
arterial route up to and down from the height of land. Native Ojibway and Swampy
Cree used this route for centuries and they in turn revealed it to the French fur traders who in turn revealed it to their
military. Following the dramas of Iroquois incursions into Ojibway land in the
1600's, and the battle for the fur trade with England, the route carried more
explorers and prospectors in to the riches of the height of land. Today the adventurous
ply the wilds and waters for pleasure, in an attempt to recapture in their minds the great strengths and labours required
to tame this country.
It
is time to recognize the river and lakes of the Temiskaming-Abitibi-James Bay route for its role in Aboriginal history, French/English
history and the recent Gold/Silver Rushes of Cobalt and Larder Lake. In 1984
a joint venture between the Federal and Provincial/Territorial Governments, called the Canadian Heritage Rivers System was
introduced in order to honour Canadian river systems that processed outstanding natural heritage, cultural heritage and recreational
values. The ancient canoe routes from Lake Temiskaming to James Bay over the
height of land should be included in this system.
The Route to James Bay
The
verbal route to the Bay was easily memorized: (Tegusiewabi & the Wars of the Fur Trade-V.R. Dufresne) “Proceed to Mattawa on the Ottawa, turn right to Lake Temiskaming.
Proceed north on the Blanche River, identified by its milky colour. Turn
right on the first stream entering the Blanche and travel until a hill called Chanmanis by the local natives comes into view. Turn left into a large lake (Larder Lake) with Chanmanis on your right. Then turn left through a narrows with the mountain behind you and enter a large bay (Spoon Bay) and pass
through a series of portages a musket shot apart. Follow the lake (Beaverhouse)
north and turn right into the first large bay and follow a stream into a small lake (Kinabec Lake). Locate the stream flowing
into it and go upstream to the height of land portage into another small lake (Wawagoshe).
With Chanmanis on your right, follow the current to Lac Labrinte. At this
lake, place Chanmanis to your back and follow the current to Lake Abitibi and proceed onward to the Bay.”
For the sake of nomenclature and a lack of a definite historic name for this route,
it is proposed that the passage from Lake Temiskaming to James Bay over the height of land be called the ‘Route
of deTroyes.’ It shall also be revealed that the Larder Lake
route was not the only route from Temiskaming to Abitibi, but rather it is the only route that can be matched to the manuscript
that was written by deTroyes, describing his expedition. It has also been held
that deTroyes did not enter Larder Lake but rather carried on up Raven Lake to Lac Buies and from there he portaged into Opasatica
through a series of tough small portages. This particular route was revealed
to Willet Miller, (Ontario Geologist) in 1901 by Chief Tonene of the Temagami Ojibway, who had a cabin at Lac Massia below
the Serpent River. It must be assumed that both routes were used and known of and that further academic discourse and investigation
is called for. This two route possibility adds to the historic intrigue of this particular section of the deTroyes Expedition
Route and the fact that the two routes share paths in both Provinces, creates a dual interest for would be explorers.
The height of land watershed had many routes to the Abitibi, specifically the Montreal
River Route to Nighthawk Lake (Lac Piscoutagamy), down the Nighthawk River to the Abitibi River. This route first appeared on the Jaillot map of 1685. (See Maps)
The native Ojibway traveled these routes in the course of hunting, trapping, migration and trade with other tribes. They showed the French ‘courier de bois’ the routes to the Bay.
Natural Heritage Values
The
Route of deTroyes winds through an esker/moraine system that extends from North Bay to James Bay. This system was formed by the retreating Cochrane Ice Sheet over 9000 years ago and contains the Monro,
Misema, Boundary Eskers and the Roulier, McConnell and Hurricana Moraines. Lake
Temiskaming is one of the large remnants of glacial Lake Barlow that formed as the great ice sheet melted and receded. As
the ice sheet thinned and withdraw, the land up swelled and behind this height of land glacial Lake Ojibway formed. Thus the height of land separated two huge glacial lakes that eventually drained away into James Bay and
the Champlain Sea. It is surmised that the two lakes existed from 8100-6000 B.C.
and that it is calculated that the first peoples came into the area across the height of land at least 5000 years ago or around
3000 B.C.
Cheminis
Mountain, now called Mount Chadron, is located on the Ontario/Quebec border and stands 1673 feet above sea level. This monadock hill is the most prominent feature along the route and is suspected not to have been mentioned
by deTroyes for strategic reasons, as it is a ‘sign post ‘ in the wilderness.
The Ojibway held this mountain in great spiritual reverence. They called
the hill ‘Shewmeness’. This hill stands out from the Pearl Beach
site on Larder Lake where archeological investigation has turned up a very interesting conundrum. The Ojibway shamans were known to occasionally retire to the summit of Shewmeness to fast and meditate. Directly to the east, the Kanasuta ‘Swinging Hills’ bear testament to
the Iroquois massacres of Ojibway in the face of their holy mountain. These hills
mark the height of land at Lac Massia.
South
from the height of land, Larder and Raven Lakes flow down the Larder River through a series of small lakes, Ward, Skead and
Wendigo, composing the Larder River Provincial Park. The passage affords many
small rapids and at least two sizeable falls, passing through every type of Northern forest and terminating at Clear and Skeleton
Lakes just shy of the Blanche River. From here the Blanche passes through the Clay Belt and into Lake Temiskaming.
North
of the height of land Labrinthe Lake (Kwaskonadaga) flows into Lac Desserat that joins to Lac Duparquet by the Kanasuta River. From here the system enters Lake
Abitibi, at Rapides
Danceur. The
Abitibi (now harnessed for hydro power) flows north to the Moose River and thus into the Bay.
The Abitibi and Moose flow through the James Bay Lowlands into the Bay and pass through boreal forest that covers this
part of the Superior Geologic Province.
The Timmins-Larder-Cadillac fault crosses the route at Moosehead Lake, where Willet
Miller in 1901 observed this geologic formation. This fault is now the location
of many gold mines.
Cultural Heritage Values
The
Route of deTroyes has been the stage upon which many significant events have shaped the history of Ontario, Quebec and all
of Canada. From the old fort on an island in Lake Temiskaming to the forts upon
the Bay, this route was a link that played a key role in the outcome of the fur trade wars and the recent past gold and silver
rushes. It was a route that our Aboriginal peoples used as a trade and migration
corridor for their existence in this northern land.
Native Peoples
In
1973, Dr. John Pollack was the first to excavate the Pearl Beach site, on Larder Lake. (Tegusiewabi). The Pearl Beach sites may be dated 5000 B.C to 4000 B.C. (Northern Plano), 3000 B.C. to 2000 B.C. (Shield
Archaic) and 500 B.C. to 800 A.D. (Eastern Laurel)
Upon
the Pearl Beach, site Vernon Dufresne has investigated the Rock Structure that is suspected to be an ancient calendar used
by the Ojibway shamans to estimate the time within the year by using star positions relative to carefully placed rocks and
utilizing notched staffs as the actual time calibrators. This calendar was in
use about 1200 years ago and may be as important a find as Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains in Sussex England.
It
is known that the Swampy Cree of the Bay traded with southern tribes as the Abitibi Ojibway and the Nipissing Algonquin (Queen’s University Weeneebayko Program published on the Internet) All the rivers
flowing off the height of land to the Bay would likely have been used to travel inland.
From the verbal history of the Beaverhouse Cree of present day, we learn that the height
of land in Ontario and Quebec in the vicinity of Larder Lake and Kanasuta was an important settlement zone for hundreds of
years. Chief Tonene of the Temagami tribe had cabins at Temagami, Bear Lake near
Larder Lake and at the Serpent River near Lac Massia. He traded at the
HBC store in Temagami, using gold ore, that was extracted from his secret mine near or on the shores of Larder Lake. There are legends of Iroquois attacks upon the Ojibway at Kanasuta on the height of
land and of holy places such as Mount Cheminis. The time of these incursions would most likely be from 1640 to 1679 during
which time the Iroquois did their best to halt the northern furs from entering their trading area with the English and Dutch. It is evident that the route from Lake Temiskaming, extending into Temagami and up
the Blanche and Larder River system to the height of land and beyond, was an area rich in Aboriginal history. We gather glimpses of this rich culture today in stories and legends.
Legends
abound around the Iroquois Falls area of Iroquois incursions into Ojibway land and brave native exploits to foil these invaders. These legends bear similarity to other legends that are attached to different areas
of Ontario, such as Kakabeka Falls.
The Fur Trade
Chevalier deTroyes
(the abridged story, from Company of Adventurers, Peter C. Newman)
The
HBC posts on the Bay were becoming far too prosperous for the French to ignore. They
were returning an annual Ł20,000 and diverting a growing proportion of the
trade that had originally gone to Montreal. La Compagnie du Nord had little trouble
persuading Brisay de Denonville, the governor of New France, to mount a military expedition overland to capture the forts
of the English intruders. By March 1686, the little army had been assembled in
Montreal: seventy Canadian irregulars, a few native guides, thirty French soldiers and their leader, the Chevalier deTroyes,
a Parisian company commander who arrived in Quebec only eight months before. The
troop started out on sleds, dragging thirty-five canoes that they used as soon as spring breakup allowed them to paddle-up
the Ottawa River to Lake Temiskaming and down the Abitibi and Moose Rivers to James Bay.
The eight-hundred mile journey remains an epic of bush travel and was one of North America’s earliest and
most successful commando assaults. Because no large expedition
had ever traveled this route north overland, no portages had yet been cut. With
the canoes and loads of supplies the men had to struggle between various lakes and rivers, stumbling over fallen trees, slippery
rocks and tangled underbrush. Eighty-two days out of Montreal, they neared the
first of the HBC's installations, Moose Factory, tucked behind its square palisade, eighteen feet high and protected by bastions
at each corner. The little fort’s defenses were impressive, but they were
designed to repel attacks from the sea. Since visitors, friendly or otherwise,
could get through Hudson Strait until late summer, few lookouts had been posted and the seven-pound bastion-cannons had been
left unloaded. The local Governor, John Bridgar, had sailed for Rupert House
the previous day with most of his officers, leaving behind a garrison of sixteen leaderless men. Their main protection was the three-story redoubt inside the fort, armed with three cannon.
The
French attack was launched by two of the Le Moyne brothers, Pierre d’Iberville and Jacques de Sainte Hélène. Squad leaders
under deTroyes, they tippy-toed inside Moose Fort while the HBC men were asleep and roped the cannon together so that even
if the Bay men managed to stir themselves enough to fire the weapons, the recoil would only bring down the palisades. The dawn attack that followed lasted a scant two hours. The most dramatic moment in the brief scrap was the solo stand of the twenty-four year old Pierre de Moyne
d’Iberville, who had been leading the way inside the redoubt when the gate was shut behind him; he had to hold off the
entire garrison, sword in one hand and musket in the other, while his war whoop of the Iroquois, the one hundred Frenchmen
quickly overwhelmed the stunned HBC traders, who surrendered in the name of arithmetic and expediency.
DeTroyes
decided to follow up this easy triumph with an assault on Rupert House, seventy-five miles up the east coast of James Bay. Leaving forty men to guard the captured fort, he set off with the others in his war
canoes and soon sighted not only the fort but also the supply ship Craven, which had brought Bridgar and his officers
from Moose. The main body of Montreal troops attacked the fort and took it handily
a forgotten ladder was still conveniently propped against the side of the redoubt. Up
they swarmed to drop lighted grenades down the chimney on the sleeping Englishmen.
D’Iberville
was assigned the captured Craven. He silently boarded the ship, shot the one sailor dozing at anchor watch, then stamped
his feet on the deck, giving the customary signal to wake crews at times of emergency.
As the first three sleepy heads appeared through the companionway, each was greeted with the blunt end of a musket;
the rest of the crew meekly surrendered. The captured Bay men were escorted back
to Moose while d’Iberville took charge of the Craven for an assault on the more heavily armed HBC fortress at
the mouth of the Albany River. The main problem was finding it, because the site, a short distance up the river, was not visible
from the sea-side. The fort’s occupants resolved that quandary for their
would-be invaders by blithely firing their routine sunset gun just as the attackers were about to sail off in frustration.
Albany
was the best protected of the Bay forts, but deTroyes and d’Iberville had brought along the heavy siege guns from Rupert
House. They mounted them on a patch of frozen gravel outside the palisade and
patiently lobbed 140 shots into the fort. As the attacking troops shouted Vive
le Roi! An echo of their war cry could be faintly heard- so faintly, in fact, that d’Iberville realized it was
emanating from the fort’s cellar where cowardly defenders were huddled in refuge instead of firing back. None of the HBC regulars had dared mount the barricades to lower the Company flag. The cannonade stopped only when the bravest Englishmen present made an unexpected appearance. Through the gate the resident chaplain hove into sight, holding aloft a maid’s white apron tied to
his walking stick.
Henry
Sergeant agreed to rendezvous with deTroyes, choosing the middle of the Albany River as a neutral venue. Two small boats set out, one from each riverbank. Having lost his fort, Sergeant seemed concerned mainly
with the etiquette of the occasion. A bottle of vintage claret tucked under his
arm, Sergeant proposed that the two leaders drink a toast to their respective sovereigns.
DeTroyes more mundane concern was to prevent the English Governor from noticing how famished and exhausted his men
were after their three successive sieges, and how easily they might be overrun. The
only concessions the Englishmen won were that they could keep their personal possessions and that they would be shipped to
Charlton Island to await the next Company supply ship.
Leaving
forty men under d’Iberville to consolidate his gains, deTroyes and most of the other victors marched back to Quebec,
where they were welcomed by Brisay de Denonville-though in his reports to Versailles, the Governor hedged his bets by stating
that the HBC posts had been attacked without his direct orders. The French king
was only too delighted with the results of the expedition, but to placate James II of England, then still an uneasy ally,
he agreed to sign a treaty of neutrality that guaranteed the status quo on Hudson Bay.
On the bay itself d’Iberville fretted away the winter, longing for action.
Finally he too returned to Quebec and later went to France where he obtained a fast new frigate, the Soleild’Afrique,
and a commission to bring out the captured furs.
The
exploits of deTroyes and d’Iberville placed the HBC forts of the Bay in French influence well until 1713 when the Treaty
of Utrecht dissolved all the French gains on the Bay. D’Iberville went
on to distinguish himself as fine warrior and commander and a replica of his famous ship, the Pelican, acts as a museum in
Montreal harbour. His exploits on the Bay are historically notable as they defined
him as a true naval hero.
Gold and Silver Rushes
On
the 18th of May 1686, deTroyes landed at Fort Temiskaming at the mouth of the Montreal River (Metabetchouan) “
After Mass on the 23rd, we again set out to locate the mine, led by a man named Cognac. The 24th
was very windy and wet, but Cognac, who had finally got his bearings, assured me that he knew where he was and that the mine
was close…. We actually found it! This mine is situated on the West side of the Lake (Temiskaming) where there
is a semi-circular rock which measures fifty feet along the water, ten feet in height, and one hundred feet in depth.”
(The Battle for James Bay-Kenyon& Turnbull) They extracted a number of samples
of silver bearing ore and carried on to the Bay. At the turn of the century,
the Cobalt area exploded into one of the largest silver strikes in history and eventually earned this small town the distinction
as the most historic place in Ontario for its mining history. In the late 1800’s
the lumber barons were extending their search for good pine into the Temiskaming area, notably the Gilles and the Booth camps. Along with them came a few hardy farmers who broke open the rich clay belt north,
east and west of Lake Temiskaming. The centers of population were New Liskeard
and Hailybury, on the Lake. On August 7th 1903 J.H. McKinley and Ernest
Darragh struck silver on Loog Lake near Lake Temiskaming. They, exactly 217 years
after Cognac showed deTroyes galena ore on the west side of the Lake, capitalized on the secret mine known by the Natives.
Two hundred and fourteen years after the Battle of James Bay and the deTroyes Expedition;
in 1901 the Ontario government sent Willet Miller to a lake known as Tegusiewabi. The
findings of his exploration were presented to the Privy Council in England in order for them to determine the Northern Boundary
of Ontario. In 1906 the Albany River was chosen instead of the height of land.
During
the summer of 1904, Dr. W.Parks, a geology professor from Toronto, mapped the route to Larder Lake but his report was not
submitted until the winter of 1905-06. This report in conjunction with Miller’s noted the area as a potentially mineral
rich zone. Also in 1901 a Richard Bramble produced a map of Larder Lake that
he delivered to Ottawa on his return to Montreal. The Federal & Provincial
Ministries used this map for five years.
During
the spring of 1906, two prospectors from Ville Marie, Quebec, discovered gold on Lake Opasatica, just two miles south of the
HBC portage.
On
Tuesday July 31,1906, an Edward Flynn discovered gold on the North East Arm of Larder Lake.
He was with a party under the leadership of Dr. Reddick. An Ontario geologist,
Brock and a mine manager, H.C. Barber claimed that a certain Chief Tonene had shown Reddick gold on Larder Lake.
The
end of 1906 there were over four hundred claims on Larder Lake. Founded in 1936,
the Kerr-Addison Gold Mine proved to be the largest gold mine in North America, situated where the old Indian Chief had shown
Reddick.
As
had been with the fur trade, the Natives had shown the white man the path to riches.
Along this height of land route, the gold and silver flowed out, as had the furs, hundreds of year’s prior.
Recreational Values
The
Ottawa River is 780 miles long and it starts its southeastern journey at the end of Lake Temiskaming. In the near future, the Ottawa, which rivals the Rhine River in length, will be open to motorized craft
via a system of locks, lifts and shuttles. This opening will bring boat traffic
into New Liskeard and Hailybury and unto a long deep lake that marks the beginning of a canoe route to James Bay used by the
ancient natives, the courier de bois, the old prospectors and the new urban explorer/canoeist.
At
the onset of this route, the Larder River Provincial Park provides a very pleasant river/lake canoe route, which is
best enjoyed from Raven Lake down to Wendigo Lake.
Mid
way through the route, the Abitibi-deTroyes Provincial Park provides the canoeist with large lake travel, river travel
on the Black and Abitibi and ample opportunity to enjoy nature hikes. Further
down the Abitibi, access to the Little Abitibi Provincial Park, which again provides river travel and the enjoyment
of glacial history.
At
the north east end of the Raven Range of hills, in the Province of Quebec, Mount Cheminis (Chadron) provides an excellent
day hike to its top and back, with great photographic opportunities for the naturalist. To the east, the Kanasuta or Swinging
Hills provide skiing and hiking opportunities.
All
along the route fishing, boating, canoeing, camping and hiking are currently enjoyed.
In Larder Lake, Raven Beach provides access to the lake and the falls at Raven Lake, where the lower part of the route
enters the Larder River Provincial Park.
The
Abitibi River provides great power boating opportunities, fishing, touring and access to the Montreal River system via the
Fredrick house River and Nighthawk Lake.
In
addition to the recreational values and as an augmentation to the cultural value of this Route, there is also an educational
value that has become apparent. Beginning in 1986 through to 1990, Andre Saintonge,
a teacher at the Ecole Secondaire Sainte-Marie, in New Liskeard, co-ordinated successive trips, staged to complete the entire
route of deTroyes from Montreal to James Bay. Mr. Saintonge was awarded a National
Fellowship Award by the Roy C. Hill Foundation of Ottawa. (See Scedules) The 100 students who participated in this historic
re-enactment gained a great appreciation of the history of this country. The
objectives of the trip were: to obtain a historic appreciation of the impact of the deTroyes mission, to permit the students
to discover the natural heritage of the route, to acquire social aptitudes of responsibility, leadership and co-operation,
to provide the students with problem solving tools, to learn water safety and environmental adaptation, to learn map and compass
reading, to improve individual physical strength, to learn the art of canoeing and portaging, to extend the physical and mental
capacities of all involved, to obtain the appreciation of accomplishment, to learn the importance of modern canoe craft, to
learn the geography and geomorphology along the route, to create a visual document of the trip and to help commemorate the
300th anniversary of the deTroyes Expedition. \
In
the summer of 1995 another individual, Tim McDonagh of Iroquois Falls, co-ordinated another re-enactment of the deTroyes Expedition,
that tied into the July Festival in Mattawa and the festival in Iroquois Falls. They
paddled from Lake Temiskaming to Mattawa on the first leg and then traveled overland to Lake Abitibi and crossed the lake
and paddled down the river to Iroquois Falls. Some 23 individuals partook in this event which further promoted the Route of
deTroyes as an important recreational and cultural feature of the North.
Natural Integrity Values
The
Route of deTroyes meets the majority of the guidelines for natural integrity. The
route is of sufficient length to provide an amazing array of geological, biotic and hydraulic features. The lowlands of the Bay, Lake Abitibi and the entire system of lakes and streams down from the height of
land to Lake Temiskaming, provide habitat for all types of Northern species, including Woodland Caribou and many migratory
bird species.
Although
there are hydro dams on the Abitibi River at Abitibi Canyon and Otter Rapids, the river is intact. The Larder River has no
operating dams but remnants of two old dams that came into being during the gold rush.
The Kanasuta, Serpent and Desserat Rivers have no operating dams. The
rivers lakes and streams that comprise the Route of deTroyes are uncontaminated and provide excellent habitat for native fish
populations. Current road access to portions of the route allow for the appreciation
of the key sections.
Cultural Integrity Values
The
Route of deTroyes meets all the cultural integrity guidelines, it extends from Fort Temiskaming to Moose Factory and bears
the history of the Ojibway and Swampy Cree, the Fur Trade and the Gold and Silver Rushes.
The route is visually beautiful with waterfalls, rapids, Provincial Parks, lakes, streams, hills, forests and rushing
rivers. The route has many Native historic sites that should be respected in their anonymity to protect and honour their meaning
to the Aboriginal Peoples. The waters of the Water shed are clean and uncontaminated.
Recreational Integrity Values
The
Route of deTroyes meets all the Recreational Integrity Values. The rivers, lakes
and streams from both sides of the height of land provide a rich mixture of recreational activities for all people. The route may be traveled by canoe from beginning to end and indeed it has been by a number of different
groups. There is opportunity for a number of re-supply towns along the route
where the traveler could take time to absorb the history of these centers. The
entire route could be used as a canoe route to attract eco-tourism to the small towns along the route without any negative
impact to the natural and cultural values or its visual character. Ideally, the route is best explored in the manner it was
first traveled.
The Route of
deTroyes- A Part of Our Canadian Heritage
The
Route taken by deTroyes in 1686 to James Bay, merits inclusion in the Canadian Heritage Rivers System. Indeed the route is a system, of lakes, rivers, streams and portages.
It is very unique in that it will have a northern arm and a southern arm and it will have access to the nexus of the
two, where the water flows both ways. This will provide a very interesting choice
of routes for the explorer and great opportunity for eco-tourist businesses to cater to the many people who choose to discover
Northern Ontario and North Western Quebec.
The
Route has outstanding historical significance in all facets of our colourful past and cultural fabric. The route is beautiful, encompassing two Provincial Parks and skirting a third. The geological formation
of the route and its natural history are awesome. The mystery surrounding the
human migration immediately following the Ice Age, is ponder some. The battles
of the fur trade are the stuff that great epic movies are made. The gold and
silver rushes are not matched by anything other than the Klondike Gold Rush.
The
height of land has been a centre of Ojibway and Cree activity for centuries and inter-tribal trade occurred across the many
routes that flowed from this divide. The historic fact that deTroyes commanded
the FIRST passage from Montreal to the Bay by a non-native is enough to warrant Heritage consideration for the route. Given the additional importance of these routes to the Native people and the
subsequent use of the route by traders and prospectors augments its Heritage value.
This document was compiled by Mark P. Oehring in collaboration with, Vernon Dufresne, Andre Saintonge,
Gordon Carter, Tim McDonagh and David Oehring.
