Canoe Route to the West

Photo by Brian Herling - May 29, 2005

Plaque Location

The District of Parry Sound
The Township of the Archipelago
In French River Park, just off Highway 69, beside the southern approach to the French River bridge (According to an email I received May 31, 2006, from George Nassas, this plaque has been removed due to the construction of a new museum/interpretation centre near the site).

Plaque Text

The French River formed a vital link in the historic canoe route via the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers and Lake Nipissing, which connected the settlements on the St. Lawrence with the upper Great Lakes and the far West. Most of the famous Canadian explorers, missionaries and fur traders of the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries followed this waterway. Here passed: Brûlé, discoverer of Lake Huron; Champlain, "Father of New France"; the Jesuit martyrs, Brébeuf and Lalemant; the colourful coureurs de bois. Radisson and Groseilliers; La Vérendrye, pioneer explorer of the prairies; Mackenzie, first European to reach the Pacific by land north of Mexico; Thompson, the great explorer and cartographer.