Michipicoten
Michipicoten is the name of a river in the Canadian province of Ontario , the name of a first nation , namely the Michipicoten First Nation , which belongs to the Anishinabe , and a place (Michipicoten Harbor). As an area, it is referred to as the Michipicoten or Michipicoten Area .
history
From the 12th century BC There are four summer camps at the Michipicoten Harbor and at the confluence of the Michipicoten and Magpie Rivers . They existed there until 1894.
At the confluence of the Magpie and Michipicoten rivers, French fur traders set up the first trading post between 1717 and 1725. After the French withdrew in 1763, independent fur traders followed, and from 1783 they organized themselves into the North West Company . In 1797, the competing Hudson's Bay Company established a post on the opposite side of the river, but this only lasted until 1802. From 1816 to 1821 the company held a post again.
After taking over the competition in 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company vacated their posts and took over the buildings of the North West Company. From about 1827 to 1887, the trading post was the headquarters for trading on Lake Superior . Outposts existed on Batchawana Bay and at the mouth of the Agawa River . In 1895 the post was considered unprofitable, but it was not finally given up until 1904.
In 1850, the Michipicoten Ojibway signed, like numerous other Anishinabe tribes, the so-called Robinson Treaty ( Robinson Treaty ). Who signed for the Michipicoten Chief (Chief) Totomenai . The local Indians were forced to leave their village and move to the location of the mission station. This is how the Gros Cap Indian Reserve , today's Michipicoten Indian Reserve, came into being . Missionaries probably appeared as early as the 1820s, but the Sainte Margaret-Mary Church can only be identified from 1879. The church was used until around 1960. Louisa Mackenzie , wife of Angus Bethune and great-grandmother of Norman Bethune, was buried at the Michipicoten trading post in April 1833 . She was also a great cousin of Alexander Mackenzie . Angus Bethune was the chief factor of Fort Michipicoten .
With the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1881, the mission station and post of the Hudson's Bay Company became an important collection point for materials and a place of residence for the workers along the route from Cartier to the White River . Gold and iron also attracted prospectors and exploration companies to the region. In 1899 a branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Algoma Central Railway , was created and connected the Helen Mine with the port. At the same time, a first place arose at the port, which was inhabited by employees of the railway.
When William Teddy and his wife, who were both Michipicoten-Ojibway, discovered gold on the south bank of Wawa Lake in 1897 , a gold rush ensued until 1906, and iron ore was mined by Ben Boyer from 1898 to 1918 . The lake on a hill north of Wawa Lake was named Boyer Lake.
Francis Hector Clergue, who also played an important role in the economic development of Sault St. Marie , opened a mine which he named after his sister Helen. In 1900 the Michipicoten Mining District came into being . Within a very short time, around a thousand men lived in the village, only a few women. The Grade Mine , the Nonwalk , the Grace Gold , the Diamond Jubilee , the Kitchegami and the Golden Reed Mines were created . A 20 km long railway line was built between the Helen Mine and the port. The largest iron ore mine in Canada had its own steamer on the Upper Lake from 1900 and supplied the Algoma Steel Corporation with iron. Other mines, such as the Goudreau and Magpie mines, were built around 20 km north of the Helen mine. In 1918 and 1921, however, the ore reserves of the Helen and Magpie mines were exhausted. After that the place became a ghost town . The population collapsed from 1,001 in 1911 to 101 in 1921. In July 1921, a forest fire also destroyed large parts of Wawa and the Helen mine.
In 1904, under the direction of DB Detweiler from Berlin (now Kitchener ), a reservoir was built near High Falls on the Michipicoten River in order to generate electricity there. From 1907 the electricity was supplied to the gold mine operator, later to the Helen mine. The Magpie Mine, however, was supplied by its own dam at the Steephill Falls on the Magpie River. This dam supplied the three major mines in the region with electricity from 1909 to 1924.
The most important connection route besides the railway remained the Obere See, on which the two ships Manitou and Caribou , built in 1903 and 1904, regularly sailed . They belonged to the Dominion Transportation Company , which was owned by Chicago's Booth Fisheries Corporation . In addition to passengers and fish, she also transported all other necessities of life, including livestock. The two ships operated until 1939 and 1946 respectively.
When gold and iron mining resumed on an industrial scale in the 1920s and the Helen Mine reopened in 1937, the place now known as Wawa grew rapidly. The Grace mine had already reopened in 1926, followed by new mines such as the Jubilee , Minto , Darwin and Parkhill mine, as well as ten more mines. New places also emerged, such as Parkhill, but as soon as the mines were exhausted or world market prices were too low, they were abandoned. Parkhill Church was moved to Wawa.
The first road link was inaugurated on September 17, 1960.
literature
- Michipicoten Memories , Michipicoten Heritage Committee, Wawa 1992.
- Morris J. Brizinski, Kenneth T. Buchanan: Ceramics, Chert & Culture: An Analysis of Three Prehistoric Sites Located in the Michipicoten Area , Sudbury: Ontario Laurentian University 1977.
- Johanna Morrison: History of the Michipicoten Area , Sudbury: Ontario Laurentian University 1990.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ She fell victim to a fire in 1980.