Hidden Ontario (24 page)

The island was first surveyed in 1816, by Major S. Wilmot. At the time a number of Mississauga Natives inhabited the island and vicinity. A paper, read before the Canadian Institute on January 12, 1889, by A.F. Chamberlain, on the archaeology of Scugog Island, indicated earlier habitation of the island by the Mohawks. There is a legend told that, at one time, the Mississaugas enticed their Mohawk enemies to Paxton's Point, where the Mohawks were subsequently killed in battle.

The first white settler on the island is said to have been Joseph Graxton, who came in 1834. On November 3, 1843, the Mississaugas of Lake Scugog purchased 800 acres of the island that subsequently became known as the Scugog Indian Reserve. The government hired William Taylor to build the Natives 12 houses and three barns. It was an attempt to assimilate them into the ways of non-natives. Some farm machinery was also supplied, but these efforts did not, as they say, “grow corn.”

In 1847, according to the missionary's report, the Native population totalled 64. In 1866 the band numbered 38, and other island residents on the island numbered 800 in total.

It was no easy task to settle this island, as cattle had to be transported by barge from the mainland. The first task was to construct a ferry or scow that required two men to each oar. Many tragic stories have been told of the old ferry. Sometime in the 1840s, John Thompson, with George Gilbert and his 17-year-old son, started out on the ferry from Paxton's point to the island. The lake was rougher than expected and the frightened animals started to struggle. A team of horses and a yoke of oxen were being held by young Gilbert, but to no avail. They carried him overboard, and when George Gilbert attempted to save his son, they were both drowned.

Another terrible accident involved John Thompson and his wife. John went to work at the mill, and his wife left the children in the house while she went a short distance to ask a neighbour to stay with her overnight. Although gone only a short time, her house and children went up in smoke.

Scugog was also the setting for a murder with a strange and tragic aftermath. This occurred shortly after the Farewell family had opened a trading post on Washburn's Island on Lake Scugog for barter with the Natives. One day the Farewells left their agent, John Sharp, in charge of the post. When they returned they found him dead. A hunt for the murderer followed, and it was discovered that a Native named Ogetonicut had done the deed. The motive was to avenge the murder of his own brother, Whistling Duck, who had been murdered by a white man. Ogetonicut was arrested, and after a preliminary hearing it was decided that the trial would have to be held at the Newcastle courthouse. Newcastle was the new district town planned for the districts of Northumberland and Durham, to be located at Presqui'le, and the murder had been committed within that judicial district. Ogetonicut was taken to York (Toronto) to await transportation to Presqui'le. A government schooner named the
Speedy
was chartered to take the officials who needed to be present at the trial down the lake. The party was made up of the following persons: Judge Cochrane, Solicitor General Robert Isaac Grey, Sheriff Angus McDonnell, High Bailiff John Fisk, interpreters Cowan and Ruggles, Mr. Herkimer, Captain Paxton, and Ogetonicut.

According to local lore, Ogetonicut's mother travelled from Lake Scugog to the shores of Lake Ontario, near Oshawa, to watch for the
Speedy.
When she caught sight of the vessel sailing by, knowing that her son was onboard, she began to chant against those who had taken him away.

The
Speedy
never reached Newcastle. When, during a snowstorm, it rounded the point near Presqui'le, the ship disappeared without a trace. Neither the
Speedy
nor her passengers were ever seen again!

Many Ontario towns had turbulent beginnings but, like most of them, Port Perry survived its fires, its native struggles, and its developmental challenges. Today, it is a beautiful “bedroom” community. It is much enjoyed as a graceful town with excellent dining, shopping, theatre, and simple beauty — all just an hour from downtown Toronto.

 

Presqu'ile Provincial Park is the fifth-oldest park in Ontario. This park, located just south of Brighton, Ontario, on Highway 2, is 2,300 acres in size — 1,050 acres are covered in water and 1,250 acres are land. This French name means “almost an island.” It is a boot-shaped peninsula that juts out 10 kilometres (six miles) into Lake Ontario and was formed when the last of the great glaciers retreated from the Lake Ontario basin about 10,000 years ago. The furthest extension of the peninsula is a limestone island. Gull and High Bluff are two offshore islands to the southwest of the peninsula. An extensive cattail and open water marsh is located to the lee of the peninsula. High Bluff was once connected to Presqu'ile by a sand and gravel bar, but over the years it and Gull Island were both eroded and separated by the pounding waters of Lake Ontario. These two islands were designated as a Wilderness Area under the 1961 Wilderness Areas Act and are off-limits to visitors, because large colonies of gulls and terns nest here.

Presqu'ile itself has forests, marshes, and sand dunes that together support a wide diversity of animal and plant life. Birdwatching is the major attraction. A total of 318 species have been recorded within the park; 130 species are confirmed as breeders. They are among the highest bird totals in Ontario. Migrating waterfowl rest here in the spring on their way north, and sometimes a waterfowl viewing weekend is sponsored by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Back in 1787, the Mississaugas ceded this area of land to the government. Mississaugas, and other Native tribes before them, gathered here for an annual hunt and honoured this bird habitat as a very sacred place.

Once the government had taken sole ownership of the land, it announced that Presqu'ile would become the site of a proposed town called Newcastle. It was to be the main town for the new district of Northumberland and Durham counties. By 1804, the first public building, a court house, had been built and its first trial was scheduled — a murder trial.

The accused was an Ojibwa native charged with the murder of a fur trader near the settlement of Port Perry. Unbeknownst to all concerned, this trial was an omen of things to come.

On October 7, 1804, the schooner
Speedy
departed from York (Toronto) with the prisoner and several influential people who were to be at the trial. As fate would have it, the crew, passengers, and prisoner vanished. According to the stories, the
Speedy
had reached Presqu'ile on October 9 and was rounding the point when it floundered in a sudden snowstorm and sank without a trace — no survivors, no bodies, no ship, no flotsam, and no jetsam. In fact, no trace of the
Speedy
has ever been found despite numerous attempts by divers in the Presqu'ile waters. What could possibly have happened? Was it magic; was it a curse? (See the story about Port Perry for more on this strange incident.)

Like the
Speedy
, the district town of Newcastle also vanished. In 1805 the Government of Upper Canada abandoned their plans for Presqu'ile with an accompanying declaration that the designated townsite of Newcastle was not convenient.

In 1840 a lighthouse was built at the tip of the peninsula to guide boats to safety, since Presqu'ile offered one of the best harbours on Lake Ontario. Today, the lighthouse keeper's quarters house a museum. After the disappearance of the
Speedy
and the cancellation of the town of Newcastle, Presqu'ile regained some prestige as a recreational centre. In 1905 construction of the Presqu'ile Hotel and some summer cottages ushered in the age of tourism.

The act of fate was a blessing in disguise when it stepped in to preserve this unusual, beautiful, and natural setting for recreation, this sanctuary where birds and people meet.

 

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the Ojibwa of the 17th century called the present site of Sault Ste. Marie
Pawating
, which means “turbulent waters.” The Jesuit missionaries arrived here in 1634 and named the location Sault Ste. Marie. It must indeed have felt like true virgin land in all of that natural beauty.

In 1671 Daumont de St. Lusson took possession of the entire interior of the continent for the French. An historic ceremony, to mark the event, was held at Sault Ste. Marie. For the next several years, Sault Ste. Marie was the major centre of French activity in Upper Canada.

The first fort in the area was constructed by the French at St. Ignace, in 1696. Five years later, the garrison was moved to what is now Detroit. The French re-established the fort at the tip of the lower peninsula. Occupation of the fort, by the French, continued until the fall of Quebec. By 1767 the fort was occupied by the British until the garrison was ordered to move to Michilimackinac Island. The British government kept possession of the fort until after the close of the War of Independence. Fort St. Joseph, built in 1796, was located 48 kilometres (30 miles) east of Sault Ste. Marie.

The North-West Company established a trading post at Sault Ste. Marie in 1783. In 1814 the village was attacked by the American forces during the War of 1812. The Americans torched the North-West Company post, and most of the village was burned to the ground. The company rebuilt after the war, and by 1821 became the Hudson's Bay Company.

The first recorded British settler to become a citizen of Sault Ste. Marie was Joseph Wilson. The government sent Wilson there in 1843 to carry out the duties of Indian agent, customs officer, postmaster, general military officer, and government contractor. Two years later, surveys of Sault Ste. Marie and the townships in the vicinity were made, and these lands were opened for general settlement by pioneers. However, land to be surrendered by the Ojibwa was needed in order to facilitate the government's objective: mining interests in the area and settlement.

The development of the mining industry created a strong government incentive for negotiations of land surrender from the Ojibwa. Many settlement sites were located close to mineral deposits, particularly copper. Prospecting, surveying, and technical teams scouted the countryside for mineral deposits. Interest increased with the development of successful mining operations on the upper Michigan Peninsula. Many entrepreneurs believed that copper deposits in particular would be found on both sides of the Upper Great Lakes.

By 1845 the Crown Lands Department had created prospecting regulations and licensing to determine the boundaries of mining claims and the price of lands that contained base metals. In May 1846 the department issued 34 licences to prospect for minerals on the north shore of Lake Superior.

One of the first companies to seek the opportunities of the north was the Montreal Mining Company. This English company purchased numerous mining locations totalling 466 square kilometres (180 miles); one single location extended eight kilometres (five miles) long and more than three kilometres (two miles) wide. In 1848 their holdings at Bruce Mines on Lake Huron reported that 1,475 tonnes of copper ore had been extracted. The government made a decision to send out its own surveyors to locate other sources of minerals.

The Natives were watching the antics of these newcomers and warned them to leave untouched any land that had been set aside for Native use. One surveyor in particular was threatened by Chief Shinguakouse of Garden River. The Chief wrote to the governor-general on June 10, 1846. In his letter Shinguakouse referred to his service to the British in the War of 1812, and he reminded the governor-general that he had been promised at that time that he would be able to live “unmolested forever.” He felt the promise had been broken with the arrival of men into his region of land.

In 1849 two gentlemen, Anderson and Vidal, were sent by the government to the northern shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior to determine the strength of any Native claim to the land. Their report stated that “the claim of the present occupants of this tract derived from their forefathers, who have from time immemorial hunted upon it.” They further noted “that the claim was unquestionably as good as that of any of the tribes who had received compensation for the cession of their rights in other parts of the Province; and therefore they were entitled to similar remuneration.”

The government was slow to act, and some people decided to take matters into their own hands. In November of that same year, a group of First Nations people and Metis, led by the white entrepreneur Allan Macdonell, travelled from Sault Ste. Marie along the shore of Lake Superior for about 320 kilometres (200 miles) to Mica Bay. Upon reaching Mica Bay, they attacked the mining installations of the Quebec Mining Company. Reports of the armed force, led by Macdonell, varied widely, as few as 30 and as many as 100 people. The company agent, John Bonner, surrendered the mining site without any resistance.

The government sent 100 soldiers to suppress the revolt. In December Macdonell and another participant, Metcalfe, were arrested, as were two Metis and two Ojibwa chiefs including Shinguakouse. They were sent to York (Toronto) to stand trial. Eventually, they all were all released.

The Anderson-Vidal report and the incident at Mica Bay prompted the government to settle the northwestern land question quickly. William Benjamin Robinson was appointed to achieve this goal. The government wanted him to buy as much land as possible, but not to settle for less than “the north shore of Lake Huron and the mining sites along the eastern shore of Lake Superior.” It was Robinson's intention during these meetings to acquire all the lands on both Lake Huron and Lake Superior for 4,000 British pounds ($10,000) in cash, and a perpetual annuity of 1,000 British pounds for the region.

W.B. Robinson was able to complete two agreements in September 1850 for virtually the whole of the Upper Canadian northwest for government use. These agreements are generally referred to as the Robinson-Huron Treaty and the Robinson-Superior Treaty. The first agreement called for the cession of the Lake Huron shoreline, including the islands, from Matchedash Bay to Batchewana Bay, and inland as far as the height of the land. The latter agreement gave the crown the shoreline of Lake Superior, including islands, from Batchewana Bay to the Pigeon River, inland as “far as the height of land,” which probably meant to the horizon. The first contained 92,500 square kilometres (35,700 miles) of land, inhabited by a total Native population of 1,240; the latter was occupied by 1,422 Natives and covered 43,250 square kilometres (16,700 miles) of territory.