Long Point Portage

Photo by Alan L Brown - August 24, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Norfolk
At the end of County Road 59 just before the entrance to Long Point Park at a pullover on the west side of the road just past Bluebill Avenue

Plaque Text

This portage, which crossed the isthmus joining Long Point to the mainland, was used by travelers in small craft following the north shore of Lake Erie in order to avoid the open waters and the length of the journey around the Point. Although used earlier by the Indians, the portage was first recorded in 1670 by two Sulpician missionaries, Dollier de Casson and René de Bréhant de Galinée. For about 150 years traffic increased over the carrying place, first as a result of the French expansion to the south-west, including the founding of Detroit in 1701, and, after 1783, because of the movement of settlers into this region. The portage was abandoned in 1833 when a storm broke a navigable channel through the isthmus.