| The Lake Nipissing area played an important role in the
colonization of Canada more than 500 years ago, and the lake itself is
steeped in colourful history. The Ottawa-Mattawa River, Lake Nipissing and the French River were the only Western passage from the St. Lawrence that made it possible for the English and French settlers, as well as fur traders, to explore and settle in many parts of Ontario. The Western passage was created several million years ago during the Precambrian Era, as a result of tectonic plate movements and violent volcanic eruptions. Following the Precambrian Era, the valley of the Nipissing Passage was submerged beneath a raging sea. Evidence suggests that the area was actually formed millions of years before the first ice age, and the face of Lake Nipissing is actually over 2 million years old. Approximately eleven thousand years ago, the area was buried under a tremendous layer of ice that retreated far enough about 1000 years later to expose the Nipissing Passage. The body of water was then formed by the Atlantic Ocean flooding up the St. Lawrence River and the Ottawa Valley. Around the same time as this formation occurred, there were primitive people wandering along the shores of Lake Nipissing. These aboriginals, known as Paleo-Indian, lived by hunting game and gathering berries and roots. The Nipissing Indians were known to the early French explorers and missionaries as Nipissings or Nipissiriens. These names translate to "People of the Little Water." The Nipissings are a branch of the Ojibway Tribal Organization, and most of their villages were found around Lake Nipissing itself, mainly on the north shore, but also on the Upper French River and a few on Trout Lake. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain was the French Commander of what was then New France. Wanting to expand the fur trade between the Indian tribes and France, he sent a young apprentice by the name of Etienne Brule to live among the native Huron people during the summer of 1610. Brule was the first white man to travel through this area, and he is credited with "discovering" Lake Nipissing and opening up an indispensable east-west fur trade route during 1611. The earliest descriptions of Lake Nipissing, the French River and Georgian Bay, as well as details of the landscape and inhabitants, are left for us to enjoy in the many diaries of Samuel Champlain, and in the Journals of the Jesuit Fathers that were recruited by Champlain. Lake Nipissing is a history book waiting to unfold before you. The area, people and sights make for a rich and interesting investigation for those traveling to its shores |