Wagons North Recently someone said their ancestors came by covered wagon to settle in Simcoe County. This sparked an interest as I wondered how did many settlers travel in Canada. My voyageur ancestors came by bateaux, from Drummond island in 1828. I write about them in other blogs. My Duval family likely arrived by Railroad, following the lumber industry slightly after the train came to town. (I also have a blog on them) Neither of those came by covered wagon, but that doesn

There is a strange need to cover up the history of the native people of North America. Nothing to see here it didn't happen, nobody did anything till WE got here. This sometimes results in people using the analogy of seeing what you want to see, like sitting and looking at clouds and seeing shapes in them. This is often meant to discredit sites but in ironic fact it proves often that these sites are real. We have the audacity sometimes in our society to assume we are the firs

Champlain actually mentions Etienne Brule by name, at this point not quite the tender young age of 16 but maybe even into his twenties.

First, we need to eliminate cash or any semblance of cash from our memory. Ah no, I don't want to hear about shells or whatever. There is...

One ancestor, a very early arrival to Canada, Jean Adam was with Charles Lemoyne who travelled down south to Big Bone lick on an...

Penetang has long been a destination for all sorts of visitors. Way back in the day of the nomadic aboriginal peoples they would portage...

Council Rock is in the territory of the Wendat people, and where it would be easy if it was in the area of the People of the Stone, it is...

In the 1870's Penetang got the railroad to come to town. This was more important than perhaps we can understand today. At the time, cars...

The name of our small community is one that goes back as far as the late 1700's. Almost without fail the bay is called some form of...

Seems I used the hamburger we were supposed to make meat pies with, I could always go to the store. Well this century, and last but...

We know from the history of this country that men paddled canoes and traded furs and opened up this great country. Dig deeper and we find...

In 1828 many families came from Drummond island to Penetang. One of them, stopped at LA cloche. LA Cloche post was locally known as...

Last year I did a post on the Labatt homestead located in Thunder Bay, Tiny township Ontario. At the time it was threatened with...

How would they calculate a forest's worth in Pioneer times? This tool. It is made by Lufkin Rule company in Michigan. People involved in...

The following letter was written by Lumber Baron David Davidson to the Northern Advance and dealt with the issues involving running for...

War of 1812 Veteran Hypolite Brisette. Hypolite deserves better than I can do here. I will continue to work on him, but as I was asked to...

In the history of Penetanguishene there is a legend of an iron canoe. The pattern having been set by a native, Taw-ga-wah-ne-gha, and...