Geological, Biological, and Human History of the South Shore of
Prince Edward County, Ontario

Dr. Martin L. Nicolai

Introduction

Many residents of Prince Edward County can trace their ancestry back over two centuries, and Indigenous peoples in the larger region are aware of a history of humans and animals on Turtle Island, better known as North America, and in the county itself that goes back into deep time. If we explore our past as a story on a massive time scale, humans and their direct ancestors have an incredible association with this area’s rocks, microorganisms, animals, and plants going back billions of years.

The Creation of Prince Edward County Part 1: The Big Bang

There has been a recent revival among astrophysicists of the theory that our universe is the result of periods of cosmic expansion followed by a gravitational contraction or “Big Crunch” to a near-singularity inside an ultra supermassive black hole. This contraction reverses in a “Big Bounce” because subatomic particles called fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state. If valid, this would mean that the material of the universe does not come from nothing, and that the present laws of physics did operate even in the first milliseconds of the Big Bang. However, according to the prevalent standard cosmological model, in the Big Bang about 13.787 billion years ago a quantum fluctuation or temporary random change in the amount of energy in space created, possibly from nothing in a vacuum, an infinitely hot and dense singularity that experienced a picosecond of incredibly rapid cosmic expansion, greater than the speed of light, at a temperature of 2 trillion ℃. The speed of light in Albert Einstein’s Special Relativity is relevant to mass, time, and energy in space, but not space itself, which expands at a rate, not a speed. In less than a second, cooling resulted in the first subatomic particles of matter being formed, a gluon-quark plasma that appeared from and disappeared into an energy state. However, there was an excess of matter over antimatter (partner matter with reversed charge), and matter now existed in the form of three-quark neutrons and protons and other fundamental particles such as electrons and photons. A mere 379 000 years later the first neutral hydrogen atoms formed from neutrons, protons, and electrons. Stars, including the oldest ones in our Milky Way galaxy, began to form almost immediately after this point, and heavier atoms in the periodic table were created from new combinations of subatomic particles thanks to high energy input from fusion inside stars, supernovae (exploding stars), or neutron star collisions. By 13 billion years ago the old stars in the central bulge of the Milky Way disk were formed, with others in the wider, thinner disk forming later. One hypothetical former star in the Milky Way, tentatively named Coatlicue, at least 30 times the mass of the Sun, emitted stellar winds of gas in a molecular cloud or dense nebula that formed a spherical gas shell at least 16 light years away from its centre at Coatlicue. Stellar wind pressure on the nebula shell created stars, including our Sun, before Coatlicue went supernova. The solar system, a spinning disk of material that would form the Sun, Earth, other planets, moons, and asteroids, began to take shape 4.568 billion years ago. So much hydrogen accumulated at the centre of the disk that some of the dense mass of atoms fused and turned into helium, releasing a colossal amount of energy. This “ignited” the Sun and sent out a stream of protons and electrons called the solar wind, which is the local stellar wind. The solar wind pushed gases far away from the Sun, with much of the gas coalescing into two planetary bodies, Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter edged closer to the Sun, gravitationally scooping up in everything in its path during its millions of revolutions around the Sun, then was gradually pulled back away from the Sun by the gravity of a growing Jupiter. In the process, it cleaned up a lot of the loose material in the solar system. Meanwhile, the inner rocky planets formed as heavier elements in the rotating disk of the solar system were gravitationally scooped up into larger bodies that followed erratic revolutions around the Sun. Earth had a lot of iron and nickel and more internal convection and rapid rotation than Venus or Mars, and it developed a magnetic field that deflected much of the solar wind. As Earth coalesced, Prince Edward County’s rocks and its future plant, animal, and human inhabitants consisted of individual atoms and molecules of submerged molten material.

The Creation of Prince Edward County Part 2: The Hadean Eon

Early during the Precambrian Supereon, Hadean Eon (4.567 to 4.031 billion years ago), about 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth was very young, a Mars-sized planet called Theia with about 10% the mass of Earth collided with our planet and virtually dissolved in the cataclysm. Most of Theia’s material cascaded onto Earth and became part of our planet, but the impact also left an orbiting disk of debris that coalesced to create the Moon, with about 70-90% of its material being from Theia and the remainder being thrown up by Earth. Theia appears to have originated farther out in the solar system than the other rocky planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and contained more hydrogen, carbon, and liquid water, so its ingredients were important for the development of life on our planet. Small amounts of extraordinarily ancient rock low in potassium-40, hidden in the mantle during the collision and that later emerged in a semi-molten state on the surface, have recently been identified in Canada, Greenland, and Hawaii. The Earth and the Moon were 90% closer than today, and the gravitational pull on each other was so powerful that the Earth caused the rocks on the surface of the Moon to melt. The still molten Earth, accumulating mass from asteroids, meteoroids, and comets, gradually began to cool, and a relatively flat crust with a surface temperature of about 230 ℃ began to form, covered entirely or almost entirely by an acidic superocean. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms, bonding as H2O, have been present from the beginning of Earth’s history, and stores of water were added to by icy asteroids from further out in the solar system. The oldest fully solid rock, small zircon crystals from eroded granite, have been found at Jack Hills, Western Australia, dating to 4.404 billion years ago, and they show that water was already present at that time. The rocks of Prince Edward County would have been miscellaneous molten material under the surface of the planet.

Amazingly, life may have begun during the Precambrian Supereon Hadean Eon, as early as 4.33 to 4.09 billion years ago, a date usually expressed as 4.2 billion years before present. Strong evidence indicates that triple-bonded carbon and nitrogen called nitriles found in the solar system and elsewhere in the universe formed free-floating nucleotides or organic molecules with a nitrogenous base, a five-carbon sugar called deoxyribose, and a phosphate. After a trillion natural chemistry experiments, these nucleotides began to form longer and more stable folding chains, then ribonucleic acid or RNA enzymes, also called ribozymes, capable of storing, transmitting, and duplicating genetic information, which in turn led to deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA that could manufacture proteins from naturally occurring amino acids within a cell membrane. The last universal common ancestor or LUCA of all surviving species, including humans, is believed to have lived in an anaerobic hydrothermal vent where hot magma interacted with ocean water, a geochemically active environment rich in H2, CO2, and iron. Viruses, organisms at the edge of life, also appeared at about this time.

The Creation of Prince Edward County Part 3: The Archaean Eon

As the Precambrian Supereon Hadean Eon transitioned into the Precambrian Supereon, Archaean Eon (4.031 to 2.5 billion years ago), volcanic activity created a less dense, oxygen- and silica-filled granitic continental crust 25 km to 70 km thick on top of parts of the basaltic oceanic crust, which is only 5 km to 10 km thick. Acting much like a moving escalator, the oceanic crust emerges as rising, radioactive decay-heated material from the deep mantle at mid-oceanic ridges; it then cools, hardens, and moves slowly as plates underneath the oceans and continents, carrying the continents like passengers on the escalator. Then the cooler rock of the oceanic crust is pulled down to replace the hotter rising mantle material; it subducts or goes back into the mantle and becomes extremely hot, although seismic measurements indicate that these subducted plates of oceanic crust can maintain much of their form incredibly deep inside the Earth’s mantle. The oceanic crust and mantle are technically solid, but like all rock are somewhat plastic under extreme pressure and move at a rate of about 1 cm a year. Changing currents within the mantle dictate the movement of the oceanic crust, which in turn dictates the migration of the continental crust above it. In subduction zones there tends to be a lot of volcanic and earthquake activity, as well as mountain-building or orogeny where the lighter continental crust piles up. Along what is now the Acasta River, Northwest Territories, southeast of Great Bear Lake, Acasta gneiss of the Slave Craton or mini-continent formed starting 4.02 billion years ago. This is the oldest evidence of a craton or stable core expanse of continental crust found on the planet, and was the nucleus of Laurentia, the future continent of North America. It was a relatively small island near the equator surrounded by a superocean. Approximately 80% of the world’s continental crust was formed between 3.5 billion and 2.5 billion years ago, but Prince Edward County is younger and was not part of the earliest and rather controversial continents or supercratons Vaalbara (3.6 to 2.7 billion years ago), Ur (3.1 to 1.1 billion years ago), Kenorland (a possible supercontinent 2.7 to 2.1 billion years ago, including the nucleus of Laurentia slightly above the equator; it is named for Kenora, Ontario), Superia (2.7 billion years ago, with part of Ontario), or Arctica (2.6 billion years ago, including the nucleus of Laurentia close to the North Pole, then drifting south to mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere). More abundant radioactive elements made early continents prone to melting and reworking.

About 3.5 to 3.4 billion years ago single-celled hyperthermophile or extreme heat-loving organisms diverged into the domain Bacteria and domain Archaea, with our ancestors in the latter group. We were single-celled organisms with a slightly different membrane and a more complex genome than bacteria, but no nucleus, and like bacteria reproduced asexually through binary fission, in other words splitting in two.

The Creation of Prince Edward County Part 4: The Paleoproterozoic Era

During the Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Paleoproterozoic Era (2.5 to 1.6 billion years ago) the Slave Craton and other cratons began to collide and merge to form Laurentia or the North American craton in the northern hemisphere between 2.0 and 1.8 billion years ago. Prince Edward County did not exist yet in solid form and was not part of the continents Columbia (a supercontinent 2.1 to 1.8 billion years ago, including Laurentia in the northern hemisphere), Cathaysia (1.8 billion years ago), Mawson (1.7 billion years ago), Atlantica (1.5 billion years ago from part of Columbia, while pieces of Laurentia drifted in mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere), Nena (1.9 billion years ago, an acronym for Northern Europe-North America, including Laurentia), or Baltica (2 to 1.7 billion years ago).

About 1.65 billion years ago, as the Paleoproterozoic Era came to an end, our domain Eukarya separated from the domain Archaea. Organisms in our domain have cells with a membrane-bound nucleus and include animals, plants, fungi, seaweeds, and many protozoa such as amoebas. But we remained single-celled organisms for the time being. All life was still in the oceans. Cyanobacteria began to engage in photosynthesis about 2.4 billion years ago, creating oxygen as a byproduct, a permanent change to the atmosphere called the Great Oxygenation Event. This oxygen chemically bonded with hydrogen and prevented the light hydrogen atoms from floating away into space, preserving and even increasing the depth of Earth’s ocean. Mars, by contrast, had a weak magnetic field that ground to a halt due to the planet’s solidifying core and slow rotation, and Mars’ 120 m deep ocean and its atmosphere, both created and kept warm by water and carbon dioxide expelled from volcanoes, became vulnerable to the solar wind. This resulted in the planet’s water being either frozen into ice at the poles or its decoupled hydrogen atoms being carried away by the solar wind. Venus, with its thick clouds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, had a mean temperature of 464 ℃, and water could not accumulate on its surface, boiling away into space. Conditions for life did not exist on these planets, or on dry, 164 ℃ Mercury. Oxygen on Earth also turned the potent greenhouse gas methane into water and the weaker greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and low volcanic activity and low greenhouse gas levels made this period very cold. During this early period the Sun was smaller and dimmer than at present, for as the Sun’s hydrogen fused into helium, it only slowly increased its size and its luminosity or wattage.

The Creation of Prince Edward County Part 5: The Mesoproterozoic Era

Prince Edward County became a land formation during the Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Mesoproterozoic Era (1.6 to 1 billion years ago). This was a result of the formation of the supercontinent Rodinia, with Laurentia situated on the equator in the middle of the supercontinent. About 250 to 300 m underneath the surface of Prince Edward County is the hidden Grenville Basement or Eastern Grenville Province of the Grenville Orogen, the base of the 6 000 m or so tall Grenville Mountains that once spanned from Mexico to Georgia to Labrador, with massive modern outcroppings in the Laurentides or Laurentian Mountains of Québec and Labrador and the Adirondack Mountains of northeastern New York State, not to mention Scotland and southern Norway and Sweden that adjoined Labrador at the time. The almost 10 000 km long mountain chain was created between 1.250 billion and 980 million years ago by elements of North America and South America pushing against each other, with the rocks forming the base of Prince Edward County being in the collision pressure zone between the northern Ontario part of the Laurentia craton and the Peru part of the Amazonia craton. In Ontario, the Grenville Mountains formed in two wide belts of rocks. One band of rocks was the Central Gneiss Belt running southwest-northeast between the Grenville Tectonic Front (running from Windsor through Lake Huron and Georgian Bay to near Sudbury) and the Central Metasedimentary Belt Boundary Zone (running from Erie, Pennsylvania, across eastern Lake Erie, through the Niagara Peninsula, through western Lake Ontario, the Greater Toronto Area, past the southern edge of Algonquin Park, to Pembroke on the Ottawa River). The other band of rocks was the Central Metasedimentary Belt, which also ran southwest-northeast between the Central Metasedimentary Belt Boundary Zone and the Appalachian Front (running along the Lake Champlain Valley of New York State, the city of Québec and the northern shore of the St. Lawrence River and Gulf of St. Lawrence). Prince Edward County, part of the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Basement or Eastern Grenville Province, was now land. Where county people stand today would have been underneath some of the tallest mountains on Earth, but erosion laid these peaks low between 1 billion and 800 million years ago, the result being a flat plain. Despite the 200 million years of mountain erosion above sea level, the Canadian Shield below the county is still 40 km thick. In Prince Edward County the Eastern Grenville Province is covered by younger Phanerozoic Eon Paleozoic Era rock, except in one place, a knob of 1.3-1.1 billion-year-old granite of the Canadian Shield at 272 Victoria Road, Ameliasburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario. This 30 m tall, 400 m wide, 5.3 ha knob, called the Ameliasburg Inlier or Gibson Mountain, is the southernmost exposure of the Canadian Shield in Canada. At one time it may have been the only part of the county to peek above sea level. It was the result of the Elzevirian orogeny stage of the Grenville orogeny about 1.350 to 1.185 billion years ago. A large amount of juvenile or new calc-alkaline magma from the mantle, highly-deformed metamorphosed ocean sediments, including marble formed from ocean crust limestone deposited by coral reefs compressed and heated to over 600 ℃, were piled together in the Elzevirian orogeny stage of the Grenville Mountain-building process. The Grenville Mountains, the youngest part of the Canadian Shield, were welded onto Laurentia, making the North American craton or continental plate even bigger.

In Prince Edward County there was geological activity in the Precambrian rock as far down as the mantle, and this created a series of southwest-northeast faults. Later earthquakes caused these ancient faults to split younger, Ordovician rock above them. The Picton Fault ran northeast from the north shore of Picton Bay through the Hayward Long Reach sector of the Bay of Quinte to become the Napanee Fault following the Napanee River Valley and eventually the Rideau Fault as far as the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben. In the opposite, southwest direction the Picton Fault rounds the west slope of Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area and the south side of Picton Airport, goes through Woodrous on the east shore of East Lake, and follows the north side of County Road 24 to the south edge of Soup Harbour near Point Petre; it then continues under Lake Ontario to join the Clarendon-Linden Fault System near Rochester, New York. At Woodrous there is a side branch or prong of the Picton Fault called Wicked Fault that runs southwest just offshore from Cherry Valley and continues along the south shore of East Lake and along Salmon or Wicked Point to join the Clarendon-Linden Fault System in the middle of Lake Ontario. Another fault, which does not seem to be attached to the Picton Fault, runs along the south shore of West Lake to Lakeshore Lodge Road on West Point, probably to join the Clarendon-Linden Fault System under Lake Ontario. The Scotch Bonnet Fault is another Clarendon-Linden Fault System fault that goes from west of Rochester, New York, northeast under Lake Ontario, through Scotch Bonnet Island, Nicholson Island, and Hillier Ward, northeast to the Bay of Quinte via the north shore of Big Island. Parallel to it to the north is yet another fault that runs northeast along the north shore of Lake Consecon and through Massassauga Point Conservation Area, then under the Bay of Quinte to the Salmon River, where it becomes known as the Salmon River Fault. The Picton Fault has a vertical displacement or slippage of 70 m, with Macaulay Mountain, the edge of a plateau running west to Smith Bay and north-south between Glenora and Milford, being a remnant of the higher side, and the fault formed a small valley about 100 m across when new, filling in with later deposits. The edges are slightly asymmetrical, with the south edge a scarp higher than the north edge, a feature not liked by farmers with their plows, which is why much of the fault is covered by a ridge of trees quite obvious in satellite view. The fissure also allows trees to develop deeper roots in areas, so sugar maples and beech trees can be found in addition to the usual bur oaks and eastern red cedars. These deep faults would be reactivated under geological pressures up to modern times. Small tsunamis caused by earthquakes under Lake Ontario were recorded in 1847, 1855, 1895, 1923, and 1940, and during the tsunami of 1847 the water receded over 100 m from the beach before rushing back in a great wave with a terrifying roaring sound. A 2.4 Mw (moment magnitude of mechanical work accomplished) earthquake near the Picton Fault took place 18 km under Lake Ontario south of Prince Edward County in 1979, another small earthquake occurred in the Salmon Point area in 1987, and yet another 2.2 Mw earthquake 10.3 km below Consecon, Hillier, Prince Edward County, in 1988, all associated with the Precambrian Supereon Clarendon-Linden Fault System. However, small earthquakes of these 2.2 Mw and 2.3 Mw moment magnitudes are rarely even noticed.

Our domain Eukarya ancestors were still marine microorganisms during this entire period, with too much radiation scouring the surfaces of existing craton proto-continents for life to migrate beyond the radiation-reflecting and radiation-dissipating ocean.

Prince Edward County during the Tonian Period

During the Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Neoproterozoic Era, Tonian Period (1 billion to 720 million years ago) Prince Edward County was part of Laurentia, in turn part of the supercontinent Rodinia. It was situated close to what is now Chile, the latter on part of what would become the South American continental plate. During this period Prince Edward County, enclosed by land, was moving with it south from the equator into the southern hemisphere and finally very close to the South Pole. About 900 to 850 million years ago, rifting led to the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia.

Oxygen had been produced since about 2.45 billion years ago, but had been absorbed by the oceans and seabed rock, and later by land rock and the new but struggling ozone layer, but about 850 million years ago these oxygen sinks were saturated and the gas began to accumulate in the atmosphere, exterminating massive numbers of anaerobic species but provided opportunities for species that could adapt to oxygen, like our ancestral Eukarya single-celled organisms.

Prince Edward County during the Cryogenian Period

During the Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Neoproterozoic Era, Cryogenian Period (720 million to 635 million years ago) the dispersed cratons of the former supercontinent Rodinia reassembled into the Pannotia supercontinent, lasting from 650 to 550 million years ago. Prince Edward County, in Laurentia and part of Pannotia, remained close to the South Pole. Low carbon dioxide levels and low volcanic activity resulted in the land and much of the sea surface being frozen in a series of ice ages, the longest lasting approximately 57 million years. These ice ages are collectively called ‘Snowball Earth”, or more accurately “Slushball Earth”, for evidence indicates that over half of the ocean surface remained fluid even when the global mean temperature was -12 ℃ and that warmer tropical currents made even shallow seas in higher latitudes ice free at times.

About 665 million years ago, kingdom Animalia emerged from the domain Eukarya and our line of ancestors, differing from sponges, jellyfish, and corals, lived as sea bottom-dwelling worms millimetres in length with a single body opening. Prince Edward County would have been uninhabited by any life and covered by 1 km to 2 km of ice close to the South Pole. However, our ancestors, delving through the mud at the bottom of the sea, survived the deadly freeze, as did many other species.

Prince Edward County during the Ediacaran Period

During the Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Neoproterozoic Era, Ediacaran Period (635 to 538.8 million years ago), Prince Edward County and Laurentia remained part of the supercontinent Pannotia, moving east near the South Pole until Pannotia began to break up. Then Laurentia began to drift north by itself into mid-latitudes of the southern hemisphere, away from the next supercontinent Gondwana. The geology of Prince Edward County was strongly affected by the 590 million-year-old St. Lawrence Rift that ran from the Gulf of St. Lawrence southwest (in terms of modern orientation) to the western end of Lake Erie, with side forks forming the Ottawa River Valley and Richelieu River-Lake Champlain Valley. Rifts are deep splits in the crust that can often create separate continents, but in this case the process stopped and no new continents or cratons formed. This tectonic activity is believed to be associated with the shift in the current of molten rock in the Earth’s mantle that opened the Iapetus Ocean, breaking up the supercontinent Pannotia, and the rift was about 100 km wide, with the St. Lawrence River Valley, Lake Ontario, Prince Edward County, and Lake Erie being in the gap. The north shore of the Bay of Quinte was on the northern edge of the rift, with the land in between subsiding slightly in a graben and becoming a runway for rivers and gradually filling with sediment. There was much less subsidence from western Lake Erie to Montréal than from Montréal to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and as a result far fewer earthquakes than in the lower St. Lawrence Valley and the Ottawa Valley. The deep Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Mesoproterozoic Era Clarendon-Linden Fault System, including the Picton-Napanee Fault going just north of Point Petre, reactivated during this time.

From about 635 million years ago our ancestors belonged to the domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, having true tissues organized into two germ layers, the beginnings of neurons and muscles, and an embryo that goes through a layered gastrula stage. About 580 million years ago we became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, a bottom-dwelling worm with one opening acting simultaneously as a mouth and anus, a clade defined more by genetic code characteristics than physical characteristics. Domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, our next stage of evolution, appeared about 567 million years ago with the tissue of three germ layers (ectoderm that would one day become skin and hair, mesoderm or future muscles and blood vessels, and ectoderm or future internal organs) and bilateral symmetry with an identical or mirrored right and left side, a front and an end, and a belly and back. Special sense organs and central nerve ganglia became concentrated at the front end, creating the beginnings of a brain. They were soft-bodied, worm-shaped creatures up to about 1 m long capable of locomotion at the bottom of the ocean. By about 600 million years ago the ozone layer was strong enough to protect the land from deadly levels of solar radiation. This made it theoretically possible for plants and animals to leave the protection of the oceans, which reflected a lot of radiation, and begin the colonization of the continents.

Prince Edward County during the Cambrian Period

About 500 million years ago, during the Phanerozoic Eon, Paleozoic Era, Cambrian Period (538.8 to 485.4 million years ago) Prince Edward County and much of the rest of North America was turned into shoreline or outright flooded by the opening Iapetus Ocean to the south of us. Laurentia, just south of the equator and upside down from our perspective, was carried northeast and then east away from the new large landmass or supercontinent of Gondwana, which existed from 600 to 335 million years ago. The fragments of our present-day continents were oriented in such strange ways compared to the present that you would need a map to make sense of the randomly distributed puzzle pieces, but the mass of North America is evident even though it is upside down and roughly where Australia is today, heading northeast through the Panthalassic Ocean or Paleo-Pacific toward its present location and a future rendezvous with the western edge of Gondwana. By the end of this period Laurentia was crossing the equator into the northern hemisphere, but Prince Edward County was still south of the line. The Canadian Shield experienced subsidence, sinking closer to sea level, while the newly-revealed oceanic crust under the Iapetus Ocean was hot. This heat, with more carbon dioxide and consequent hotter world temperatures, caused water molecules to vibrate more, increasing the volume of the ocean and raising the sea level. Prince Edward County and Ottawa were above water and had multiple rivers flowing “southeast”—from our modern reversed north-south geographic perspective—across the Cashel Peneplain of southeastern Ontario into the shoreline of the Iapetus Ocean, and the sand and pebbles, when buried under the weight of younger deposits, eventually turned into a layer of quartz-rich sandstone and quartz conglomerates. During the Cambrian the county was just above sea level and the shoreline, and therefore subject to erosion by rivers rather than deposition near river deltas. This erosion created what geologists call “The Great Unconformity”, a material and time gap in the rock layers. The Cambrian layer does not exist under the county. Greenhouse conditions with high but fluctuating levels of carbon dioxide and low levels of oxygen in the atmosphere created very warm conditions on the planet, with worldwide temperatures, including the poles, averaging 20 ℃ to 25 ℃.

The Cambrian explosion describes a rise in the diversity of life, and many modern phyla of animals came into existence. During periods of lowered oxygen levels, there were mass extinctions, but when oxygen levels rose there were evolutionary outbursts of diversity. On land, microorganisms lived in mats on tidal flats, creating organic soil, and millipedes and other arthropods crawled across or burrowed through these tidal flats, but otherwise, life was in the sea. Tides at that time were more extreme because the Moon was closer and exerted a greater gravitational pull. Not far “southeast”—actually northwest at the time because northern Canada was aimed toward the South Pole—of Prince Edward County, trilobites and other arthropods and the ancestors of sea stars flourished, although Cambrian Period deposits and fossils are not found locally. Our worm-like ancestors in domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia appeared 557-538 million years ago and had a mouth, gut, and anus, the latter forming first during the embryonic stage, then the gut, and then the mouth. By 525 million years ago domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata had evolved. This ancestor looked like a modern lancelet and may have moved like an eel. It had a notochord, an elastic, rod-like structure that would later become a spine. It also had segmented blocks of skeletal muscles running the length of its body and a dorsal nerve cord alongside the notochord and gut tube that connected to what can be called a primitive brain. Our ancestor also developed gill slits for obtaining oxygen from water during this period.

Prince Edward County during the Ordovician Period

The Phanerozoic Eon, Paleozoic Era, Ordovician Period (486.9 to 443.1 million years ago) was the most important geological period for Prince Edward County because this is when our surface bedrock, most prominently seen on our cliffs and rocky beaches, was formed. Prince Edward County, situated about 2 000 km south of the equator during this period at roughly the same latitude as Paraguay, South Africa, the Great Barrier Reef of Queensland, Australia, and Tahiti in French Polynesia, was initially during the Lower Ordovician (486.9 million to 471.3 million years ago) and Middle Ordovician (471.3 million to 458.2 million years ago) covered by shoreline and clear, shallow seas and lagoons with extensive coral reefs, with more silt layers appearing among the coral reefs in the Upper Ordovician (458.2 to 443.1 million years ago). However, Cambrian and Lower and Middle Ordovician rock are missing due to lack of deposition or erosion; only Upper Ordovician rock remains. Laurentia was drifting east through the Panthalassic or Proto-Pacific Ocean, spinning gradually counterclockwise as it travelled so that the present east coast of North America was now facing south instead of west. Prince Edward County and eastern North America were south of the equator and western North America was north of the equator, a line that ran through Mexico, Manitoba, and the future Hudson Bay. The Western Cordillera Mountains, including the Rocky Mountains, and the land under them did not exist yet. The craton or continent approached pieces of the future Eurasia and more importantly the supercontinent Gondwana, which included South America, Africa-Arabia, India, Antarctica, and Australia. The Iapetus Ocean was to our south, separating us from Gondwana near the South Pole, but now instead of expanding it began to contract as Laurentia began to shift south and Gondwana began to move north. Starting about 553 million years ago in the southern hemisphere, deposits on the Iapetus Ocean floor and the ocean plate itself, squeezed by Morocco and the rest of Africa and Gondwana on the one hand and by the New Jersey to Nova Scotia region of Laurentia on the other, began to pile up the igneous and metamorphic Taconic Mountains in the Taconic orogeny (mountain-building process). The much-eroded Taconic Mountains still exist as part of the Appalachian Mountains, running through northern New Jersey and southern New York State, and then along the border between New York and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. It follows the eastern side of the Hudson Valley, and the tallest peak is Equinox Mountain, 914 m, near Manchester, Vermont.

The Ordovician coral reefs created layer after layer of limestone, and inroads of silt coming from rivers in the Taconic Mountains created thin deposits of mud that turned into shale. During the Upper Ordovician, the county was covered by deeper, muddier seas fed by eroded materials from the Taconic orogeny as the Iapetus Ocean closed between 553 and 440 million years ago, an ocean shrinkage spanning the Cambrian, Ordovician, and early Silurian Periods. In the cliffs of the county you can see broad bands of light-coloured solid limestone, often separated by thin layers of darker, crumbly shale, representing occasional changes in local conditions. During later ages, the pressures of continental collisions and orogony or mountain formation caused all the rock in Prince Edward County, including the Precambrian layer, to tilt down to the southwest so that the rim of the oldest rock layers tended to be exposed at the surface in the northeast of the county while the younger rock tended to be exposed in the southwest of the county. Most of it belongs to the Lindsay Formation of the Upper Ordovician, which was deposited from about 453 to about 452 million years ago. A million years is a long time, and 22 m of rock can easily be deposited during that interval, with 44 m in two million years. Proceeding from the youngest rock to the oldest, the southeastern quarter of Prince Edward County, including Hillier, Hallowell, and the western half of Athol wards, from Consecon to Picton and everything west of Picton, Cherry Valley, and Point Petre, is covered by about 65 m of Upper Ordovician Simcoe Group Hillier or Upper Lindsay Formation limestone. Below that is about 65 m of Upper Ordovician Simcoe Group Picton or Lower Lindsay Formation, harder limestone exposed in most of Ameliasburg, most of Sophiasburg, the eastern half of Athol, most of North Marysburgh, and almost all of South Marysburgh, essentially almost all exposed bedrock between Carrying Place and Roblin Mills and east of Picton, Cherry Valley, and Point Petre. The bedrock of the south shore of the county just below the soil belongs to this Simcoe Group Picton or Lower Lindsay Formation. Below that is some of the 50 m of limestone and occasional shale layers of the older Middle Ordovician Simcoe Group Glenora or Verulam Formation of about 454 to 453 million years ago created by coral and mud in shallow seas, which is exposed in the area north of Prince Edward County, including Trenton, Belleville, Napanee, Adolphusown, Amherst Island, and the Bay of Quinte, and some areas of Prince Edward County, including the north shore of Ameliasburg Ward from the eastern edge of Carrying Place to just south of Massassauga Point Conservation Area, Big Island and the rest of the north shore of Sophiasburg Ward, the shore of Picton Bay in Hallowell Ward, Point Pleasant and the area around Prinyer’s Cove, Waupoos, and Waupoos Island in North Marysburgh Ward, Morrison Point and the Black River valley, the end of South Bay, the bottom of Prince Edward Bay, and the lowest 2 m of the cliffs and shoreline along the north shore of the Long Point peninsula in South Marysburgh. Layers of rock older than this appear nowhere on the surface, except for the Precambrian granite of the small Ameliasburg Outlier. Below the Simcoe Group Glenora or Verulam Formation rock, about 180 m to 210 m down, is a layer of about 30 m of Middle Ordovician Simcoe Group Bobcaygeon Formation limestone of 460.9 million to 449.9 million years ago deposited in shallow seas. Then, about 210 m to 260 m down, there is a layer of about 50 m of Middle Ordovician Simcoe Group Gull River Formation limestone deposited in lagoons about 461 to 449 million years ago. This Gull River Formation includes a 5 cm ash layer from a volcano associated with the building of the Taconic Mountains that deposited 8 m of ash at Windsor, Ontario, and 11 m of ash in Michigan. Finally, about 260 m to 262.7 m down, there is a thin layer of about 2 m to 3 m of early Middle Ordovician Simcoe Group Shadow Lake Formation siltstone, sandstone, and conglomerates deposited on a shoreline almost 470 million years ago. According to a borehole at the end of Long Point, 262.7 m of Ordovician rock lies on top of about 35 km of Precambrian continental rock that rests on the Earth’s mantle. Every 1 cm of rock you see in a cliff edge required over 450 years of deposition, but in geologic time this created an incredible accumulation of rock. The 60 m view from Lake on the Mountain over the Bay of Quinte required about 2.7 million years of deposition. Lake on the Mountain itself is believed to be a 34 m deep sinkhole or doline created by rainwater with carbon dioxide seeping through cracks in the bedrock and producing groundwater with a weak carbonic acid solution. The acid gradually dissolved underlying limestone and created a cavern, which in this case collapsed. An interesting geologic event about 460 million years ago was the impact of a meteorite northeast of Main Duck Island that created a hole originally at least 450 m deep and 1 km in diameter, with enough iron buried in it to later throw ship compasses into disarray. It would not be good for a ship to lose its way here because even after being shaved off by the ice sheet, the rim of Charity Shoal crater is only 2 m below the surface of Lake Ontario on one side and 4 m on the other side.

Bivalve mollusk animals related to modern clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, and scallops, gastropod mollusk animals related to modern sea snails and slugs, bryozoans or coral-like anchored colonies of marine invertebrate animals, horn coral, and crinoids or sea lilies, which were marine invertebrate echinoderm animals with an anchoring stem and feathery pinnules to collect planktonic particles, flourished in these seas, and their fossils are abundant in the county. Trilobites can be found if you are lucky. It was only at about this time that the ozone or O3 layer in the Earth’s atmosphere was finally able to form a thick, stable layer. Ozone is a pale blue gas formed from dioxygen or O2 by ultraviolet light reacting with electrical discharges in the atmosphere and is most common in the stratosphere 20 km to 50 km above the Earth’s surface. It protects the DNA of life on the surface of the Earth from photons of 10 nm to 400 nm (nanometres) wavelength ultraviolet electromagnetic radiation emitted by the Sun. Marine iodide salts in the oceans rising into the atmosphere had kept destroying ozone until about 500 million years ago, and only about 450 million years ago were plants and animals of any complexity able to colonize land. But our direct ancestors would remain sheltered from ultraviolet radiation under the reflective waters of the sea for a long time to come. Our ancestors evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores about 518 million years ago, known as such because they developed an olfactory and respiratory system that would later become nostrils. They also had a neural crest, a sign of the neural tube which was the origin of the central nervous system, in particular the brain and spinal cord. Almost immediately, about 518 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, developing a vertebral column (backbone), a skull of cartilage or bone, a large brain divided into two or more sections, a muscular heart with multiple chambers, an inner ear with semicircular canals, sense organs including eyes, ears, and a nose, and digestive organs including an intestine, liver, pancreas, and stomach. We looked a bit like jawless modern lampreys, and doubtless swam around the coral reefs and lagoons that covered Prince Edward County, although unfortunately our cartilage and soft-tissue bodies tended to break up and dissolve easily, leaving few fossils.

Prince Edward County during the Silurian Period

During the Phanerozoic Eon, Paleozoic Era, Silurian Period (443.8 to 419.2 million years ago) the Iapetus Ocean was a relatively narrow channel south of the east-west (now north-south) Taconic Mountains, but Gondwana and Laurentia were still squeezing the rocks under the ocean and causing major geological stress as these two continental plates pushed closer together. The Silurian Period has left no trace in Prince Edward County due to the fact that what is now Lake Ontario, Prince Edward County, and almost all the rest of Ontario was dry land, although there were barrier reefs on top of the Niagara Peninsula and Lake Erie and a basin of deep water covering Michigan and much of Lake Huron. The rim of the Michigan Basin is now the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara Falls to Tobermory, consisting of soft limestone converted by saline waters containing the mineral dolomite into much harder dolostone resistant to erosion. Lower Silurian rocks dating to when the Taconic Mountains reached their peak about 440 million years ago are now gone, although Lower Silurian sandstone of a later date can be seen near the bottom of the Whirlpool below Niagara Falls. Eroded rock travelling north at the time and “west” in modern geographic terms in a large river down the slopes of the Taconic Mountains was deposited in the large Queenston Delta in the Niagara Falls area. The Niagara Gorge consists of Upper Ordovician Queenston Shale at the bottom with Lower Silurian sandstone, dolostone, and shale and Upper Silurian dolostone above it. A certain amount of this material may have been deposited in Prince Edward County, but if it did it later eroded. The Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Mesoproterozoic Era Clarendon-Linden Fault System, including the Picton-Napanee Fault going just north of Point Petre, reactivated as a result of the rise of the 12 km tall Taconic Mountains, with major shifts in the Precambrian rock splitting the Middle Ordovician rock above right to the surface.

The future human inhabitants of Prince Edward County were swimming about 200 km away in the ocean covering the Niagara Peninsula. They became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata about 439 million years ago. They were jawed fish, had elastin to allow skin to retain its shape after stretching or contracting, a horizontal semicircular canal of the inner ear, myelin sheaths to coat neurons in the brain and the rest of the nervous system, an adaptive immune system with specific lymphoid organs—the spleen and thymus—and antigen recognition sites. By 425 million years ago we were domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata (with teeth as well as jaws), superclass Osteichthyes, toothed bony fish with endoskeletons (interior skeletons) primarily composed of bone instead of cartilage, with cranial bones forming a braincase, rooted, mandibular muscle in the lower jaw, foregut pouches that would later become swim bladders or lungs and helped us breathe in low-oxygen water, fleshy, paddle-like fins, and opercula or gill covers that could draw water across the gills so that we could breathe in a stationary position. We now looked like average modern fish. However, an important difference quickly appeared. Around 425 million years ago we became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, which were lobe-finned fish. We had four prominent muscular limb buds or lobes within our fins, fleshy, paired scaly stalks extending from the body supported by articulated appendicular skeletons. In the future, these would become legs and eventually arms and legs.

Prince Edward County during the Devonian Period

During the Phanerozoic Eon, Paleozoic Era, Devonian Period (419.2 to 358.9 million years ago) the Iapetus Ocean finally closed and disappeared as the continent of Laurentia moved southeast below the equator and the continent of Gondwana, consisting of South America and Africa welded together, moved northeast. Morocco approached Prince Edward County and Venezuela approached Texas. The Acadian orogeny led to the uprise of the modern Appalachian Mountains about 360 million years ago, although the range was much taller and sharper then, about 4 000 m to 6 000 m and resembling the Andes. On the western side of this mountain range the Appalachian Basin, Michigan Basin, and Illinois Basin were 200 m deep seas inhabited by plants, algae, and microorganisms that filled with mud flowing down from the slopes of the Appalachians. Only the Petrolia-Oil Springs-Sarnia-Thamesville area of southwestern Ontario was covered by water and oil- and natural gas-rich shale deposits composed of compressed, organically-rich mud. Oil comes from hydrocarbons produced principally by dead plankton and algae broken down by anaerobuc bacteria in oxygen-poor, stagnant water, and natural gas contains 95% methane as well as alkanes, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and helium emitted by decaying archaea, algae, plants, and animals. The rest of Ontario, including Prince Edward County, was land and therefore subject to erosion of old rock instead of deposition of new rock.

About 416 million years ago our lobefin fish ancestors became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, which includes lungfish. Our palatoquadrate or upper jaw bone fused to the cranium or skull and our lymph (a fluid similar to plasma)-pumping lymph heart developed a divided atrium. The amazing feature of lungfish is that they are fish with lungs and can breathe air. Lungfish do not have simple gas bladders, but rather one or two lungs divided into many smaller air sacs, minimizing the area surface available for gas exchange. Lungfish also have rows of teeth, elongated bodies with paired pectoral (front) and pelvic (back) fins, and a single unpaired caudal fin or tail fin. We were omnivorous, feeding on fish, insects, crustaceans, worms, molluscs, amphibians, and plant matter. Lungfish could live in ponds by the shore and burrow into the mud as the ponds dried up, changing their metabolism to survive until rain or tides fill the ponds with water again. They gradually adapted to live in freshwater environments, and judging by modern lungfish may have been able to live for over 100 years. About 390 million years ago we became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha or four-limbed vertebrates. These creatures had a humerus with a convex head articulating with the socket of the shoulder joint. We also had an internal nostril or choana on the edge and then in the interior of the mouth. Our ancestors looked like fish, but could crawl on hard fins from pond to pond when their own pond was getting smaller. We lived full-time in bodies of freshwater on land and may have been able to travel a fair distance inland in swampy areas. Trackways of this creature have been found in Poland dating to the Middle Devonian, about 370 million years ago. It seems doubtful that we could have travelled inland all the way from the wetlands of southwestern Ontario to Prince Edward County, however.

Prince Edward County during the Carboniferous Period

The Phanerozoic Eon, Paleozoic Era, Carboniferous Period (358.9 to 298.9 million years ago) was marked by the Alleghanian orogeny that completed the Appalachian Mountains and the final assembly of the Pangaea supercontinent, the last time all the continents were linked together. Laurentia, integrated into the new supercontinent, moved very slowly northward so that by the end of this period Prince Edward County was almost on the equator. The Appalachians and a side branch in New England and Québec’s Estrie and Gaspésie regions were part of the 10 000 km long Central Pangaean Mountains that stretched from northern Mexico through the southern and eastern United States, the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the Iberian Peninsula, France, the Alps, the Balkans, and Turkey. This massive range was oriented east-west, and Laurentia’s southern edge, dry land at the time, is now North America’s east coast. In many parts of the world plants in rainforests, swamps, and lakes of the humid equatorial zone turned into oxygen-poor peat mires when sea levels rose and drainage declined. The peat was compressed into deep coal beds. Ice sheets in the southern polar region accumulated frozen snow as ice and then melted, causing fluctuations in ocean levels. Carbon dioxide levels also fluctuated, but were generally low. Wyoming, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kentucky in the United States and Russia, China, Australia, and India developed major coal deposits, as did Alberta in Canada. Ontario, in the interior of Pangaea and just north of some of the highest mountains in the world, was well drained and parts only briefly covered by water, so the resulting sedimentary deposits have long since been eroded.

Animals could migrate across this world continent without being blocked by oceans, although there were still some islands such as Siberia across a shallow sea, with all land surrounded by the massive Panthalassic Ocean. Some animals of the time included 2.6 m long millipedes, dragonflies with a 75 cm wingspan, shark-like fish, 6 m long amphibians, and diversifying reptiles. Dominant plants included horse-tails, some 50 m tall in contrast to today’s tiny plants, club mosses, and ferns, later joined by cycads and conifers. By about 340 million years ago we were domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, or four-footed creatures. Stem tetrapods were living in both water and on land by about 350 million years ago, but scientists consider 340 million years ago the beginning of the true tetrapods, amphibian-like creatures that spent most of their lives on land. We had four limbs and distinct digits or toes, visible head and neck structures for feeding and movements, appendicular skeletons with shoulders and pelvic girdles for weight bearing and locomotion, better eyes for seeing, middle ears for hearing, and more efficient hearts and lungs for oxygen circulation and exchange on land. Looking much like newts and salamanders, we laid eggs in the water, but could live on land. This means that our ancestors could now colonize virtually any area with slow-moving water and that they almost certainly lived in Prince Edward County again. The period 340 million years ago also marks the beginning of domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, as the Tetrapods divided into amphibian-type creatures and reptile-like creatures, our branch belonging to the latter group. We developed a narrow premaxilla at the front of the upper jaw, with vomer bones behind them tapering forward, making our head look more like that of an iguana or alligator. Our toes also became more distinct. By about 330 million years ago we had evolved further into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, with the development of eggs with three extraembryonic membranes: an amnion or amniotic sac with amniotic fluid for embryonic protection, a chorion or fetal membrane for gas exchange, and allantois or embryonic fluid for metabolic waste disposal or storage. We could now lay thick-shelled eggs on land without them drying out. Our ancestors also evolved through natural selection thicker, fortified, keratinized skin (like our nails) with less respiration through the skin than amphibians, breathing instead by expanding and constricting the rib cage. We had more complex kidneys and an astragalus or ankle bone for better extremity range of motion. These ancestors also experienced atrophy and loss of features that were no longer needed: metamorphosis (moulting), gills, and lateral lines for detection of movement in the water. In natural selection, if mutations occur in features no longer required for survival, the changes are not checked and the organism lives on. In fact, individuals that lack these features due to mutations and do not have to devote calories to growing and maintaining them have a survival advantage. We were now full-fledged land animals resembling small lizards similar to geckos. Soon after this, 218 million years ago, we branched off into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, stem mammals separate from reptiles, birds, and dinosaurs. We developed a single temporal fenestra, which is an opening low in the skull roof behind the eye sockets, probably aiding jaw musculature and higher metabolic rates. Our ancestors also had differentiated teeth—canines, molars, and incisors—for specialized purposes. Eventually, we developed a secondary palate with a C shape and then a U shape separating the mouth and nasal cavity. Instead of burying our eggs or having nests, like reptiles and birds, in common with Australian platypus and echidna monotremes we carried our eggs in pouches, kept moist with hair-delivered secretions from what would become mammary glands. Next, about 308 million years ago, we became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, which had a narrow supratemporal bone or skull roof behind the eyes and a frontal bone with a wider connection to the upper margin of the orbit of the eye. Next to evolve, at about the same time, was domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha. This was followed about 304 million years ago by domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontia, which had a thickening of the maxilla or upper jaw bone above large caniform or middle large front teeth and premaxillary forward teeth set deeply in the upper jaw. The most famous of this group, often confused with the later dinosaurs, was the Dimetrodon, the largest predator of the middle Permian, when it rose to prominence. It had a sail on its back, probably used for thermal regulation and perhaps also for attracting mates. Our closely-related ancestor was much smaller, less than 10 kg, and lacked a sail, but would have looked similar otherwise as it scuttled across Prince Edward County. This was immediately followed 300 million years ago by domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontia, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontoidea. These were 1 kg to 10 kg carnivorous lizard-like animals that would have lived in Prince Edward County.

Prince Edward County during the Permian Period

During the Phanerozoic Eon, Paleozoic Era, Permian Period (298.9 to 251.9 million years ago) Canada was part of the supercontinent Pangaea, migrating just north of the equator and spinning counterclockwise with the rest of Laurentia to its modern orientation. Prince Edward County was finally in the northern hemisphere, even if it was still in the tropics roughly where the Caribbean Sea is today. Most of the country was land, except for British Columbia, where the Coastal Range and Rocky Mountains lay in the future and the material that would make up the province was still slowly oozing in the magma somewhere under the Panthalassic Ocean. The regions of Alaska, British Columbia, and the Western Continental United States were occupied by the ocean, with a long ocean bay at one point coming up what is now the Ohio Valley as far as northwest Pennsylvania. Morocco and Portugal were east of Ontario across the 4 000 m to 6 000 m tall Appalachian Mountains and Anti-Atlas Mountains, which continued on northeast through Europe as far as the Paleo-Tethys Ocean in the vicinity of Ukraine and southeast as far as Mexico, collectively called the Central Pangean Mountains. Prince Edward County was about 100 km “west” from our modern compass perspective of this huge mountain range, with rivers draining “southwest” into the Ohio Valley or continuing toward the open ocean in what is now the American Prairies. Other rivers could have drained north toward what is now Greenland and Norway. As a result, there may have been some river deposition in Ontario, but far more erosion. Much of the continental interior was desert. There were some extinction periods, and the worst by far was the Permian-Triassic extinction event 251.9 million years ago, when 81% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species died out, 83% of all genera. The worst extinction event in Earth’s history, it is believed to have been caused by volcanic basalt flows in central Siberia that released sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide and acidified the ocean. Coal and oil deposits may have been set alight, adding more carbon to the atmosphere. An asteroid hit south-central Brazil about 254.7 million years ago, with an impact crater 40 km across, and this may have released methane and destroyed the ozone layer. Radiation from the Sun, carbon levels in the atmosphere increasing six-fold from 400 parts per million (roughly the same as today) to 2 500 ppm, severe heat, and acidified oceans were a lethal combination.

Despite this mass extinction, some species of our group survived, and 279.5 million years ago we formed domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontia, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontoidea, clade Therapsida. We developed limbs more under the body, as opposed to sprawling out from the side, like many reptiles and amphibians. Our feet were more symmetrical, with the first and last toes short and the middle toes long, indicating that our gait was more like that of later mammals. Our skin lacked scales and hair and resembled elephant skin. We looked like lizards with an almost tiger-like head. About 266 million years ago domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontia, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia appeared. These creatures looked a lot like dogs without ears. Several bones migrated from the jaw to the ears, allowing the animals to hear better and open their jaws wider. Their teeth were larger and they could chew better. They were also endothermic, generating their own heat instead of warming up in the Sun like snakes and lizards. By 265 million years ago we had evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontia, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontoidea, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia. We lost teeth on the palate, expanded the epipterygoid bone at the base of the skull, and narrowed the skull roof to a sagittal crest to support powerful chewing jaw muscles, accompanied by large temporal openings in the skull behind the eye socket. Not long after that, 260 million years ago, we had become domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade ParaHoxoa, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Eupelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, meaning dog teeth. These ancestors had many of the skeletal characteristics of mammals, with fully differentiated teeth and a braincase that bulged at the back. They had large temporal fenestrae or bone gaps to the rear of their eye sockets, a wider zygomatic arch or cheek bone for stronger jaw musculature, and a secondary palate dividing the nasal cavity from the oral cavity that helped us chew and breathe at the same time. These animals had a warm-blooded metabolism and probably possessed some fur, although there is no fossil evidence for it this early. Lacking moving, muscular lips and cheeks, they also probably lacked whiskers, but this soon changed. Epipubic bones projected forward from pelvic bones, linking the femur to the ribs, and acted as levers to stiffen the trunk and support abdominal and thigh muscles during locomotion and aid in breathing. The creatures also laid eggs in nests, probably warmed and protected by the female. Almost immediately in geologic terms, 260 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia. Some of these animals, which resembled a strange earless dog with stubby legs, survived the disastrous Permian-Triassic extinction event.

Prince Edward County during the Triassic Period

During the Phanerozoic Eon, Mesozoic Era, Triassic Period (251.9 to 201.4 million years ago) Laurentia continued to migrate north, still part of the supercontinent Pangaea. It was firmly attached to South America in the south and Africa in the east, but with a small channel opening between Greenland and Eurasia in the northeast. After the Permian-Triassic extinction event, the world’s biodiversity was very low, and it took as long as 30 million years for life to diversify to something like its former self. Reptiles were the chief vertebrates on land, with creatures that would become crocodilians, and some even began to fly, notably the pterosaurs. The late Triassic saw the appearance of small dinosaurs such as the 1 to 2 m tall raptor-like carnivorous Coelophysis and 6 m long herbivores ancestral to the sauropods. Early ancestors of frogs appeared among the amphibians. During most of the Triassic, the supercontinent Pangaea had a hot and dry desert continental interior. Prince Edward County was part of this inland desert, and not much deposition took place, probably some red sandstone from accumulations of sand, a layer that later eroded. Ocean levels rose from about 10 m above where they are today to 50 m above today, then fell to 50 m below today’s sea level. The poles were temperate, and Antarctica and Australia, at the far south of Pangaea, had forests of conifers, ginkgos, and ferns inhabited by reptiles and dinosaurs. A cooling trend was interrupted by the Carnian pluvial episode of 234-232 million years ago, which saw 1-2 million years of global warming and rain, probably as a result of basaltic volcanic eruptions under what is now the Alaska panhandle and coastal British Columbia that acidified the ocean enough to kill many corals, crinoids, and sea plants, although ammonites and bivalves did well, as did marine reptiles, turtles, and fish. The Cimmerian orogeny that thrust up mountains in a belt including modern Turkey, Iran, Tibet, and Southeast Asia may have created monsoons similar to the monsoons created by the modern Himalayas. This rain and humidity were beneficial to the diversification of many species, including our line. At the end of the Triassic, however, around 215 million years ago, Pangaea began to rift apart, with Laurasia (Laurentia/North America and Eurasia) in the north and Gondwana (South America, Africa, Arabia, Antarctica, Australia, and India) in the south. Canada and Prince Edward County continued to drift farther north from the equator. The Central Pangean Mountains began to break up, with the Appalachian section staying with Laurasia. The Paleo-Tethys Ocean, soon the Tethys Ocean, expanded where the Indian Ocean is today, but it was linked to the Panthalassic world ocean. The Triassic-Jurassic extinction event at the end of this period, around 201 million years ago, was probably caused by the breakup of Pangaea and the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean, with the Central Atlantic magmatic province, now the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, appearing under and to the east of the Appalachian Mountains, with massive volcanic activity.

Some 251 million years ago, right after the Permian-Triassic extinction event, we became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia or “true dog teeth”. By about 247 million years ago we were part of domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus. We still looked a lot like earless dogs and ate insects and meat, with some variants becoming herbivores. Next, by 233 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia. We looked a lot like badgers and had a number of small bone changes. About 232 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha or “mammal shape”. This is when we became fully endothermic or warm blooded, able to generate and control our internal temperature by the consumption of extra calories rather than by conserving energy and warming our bodies as temperatures rose in the daytime, like ectothermic or cold-blooded amphibians and reptiles. This allowed us to be more active during cooler nights, in winter, and in cooler climates. Next, about 227 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, or “mammal form”. This branch, our branch, turned very small and shrew-like in appearance, and instead of constantly replacing teeth, we had a set of baby teeth replaced by a set of adult teeth that fit together precisely. This made grinding food more efficient and digestion faster, which aided in supplying the extra energy needed for warm bloodedness. To protect the adult teeth from wearing out, we developed prismatic enamel with crystallite discontinuities that spread out the force of a bite. A harderian gland kept our fur clean, which along with fossil imprints proves that we had fur by this time. Indeed, it seems that we had two layers of fur—guard hairs and underfur—like many mammals today, as well as whiskers. Our limbs tended to be even more under the body instead of sprawling, with more erect forelimbs and more curved hindlimbs, like dogs, cats, horses, and many other mammals today. This was also an important transitional period for the way we gave birth. At first species in our line may have continued to lay leathery reptile-like eggs in nesting burrows and curl around them for ten days until the eggs hatched and the young switched from yolk consumption in the egg to watery milk that leached through pores in the skin of the mother and pooled to be lapped up, like the modern Australian platypus. A next step was having miniscule eggs in the body that hatched early, with the blind fetal or larval forms creeping up the body of their mother to a teat in the open or in a pouch or external womb, where they continued growing, like modern marsupials in Australia or the Virginia opossum in North America. Our line may have given birth to blind fetuses or larval forms that latched onto a teat without a pouch. In the late Triassic, about 225 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia. We were now true mammals, with milk-producing mammary glands for feeding our young, a broad neocortex region of the cerebral cortex of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle ear bones. The dominance of large reptiles such as dinosaurs may have caused our line to shrink through natural selection into very small shrew-like quadrupeds hiding in burrows. We were mainly nocturnal to avoid dinosaurs and other reptiles who were awake during the day, and specialized in eating insects. Our growing cerebral cortex allowed us to actively think of strategies for avoiding danger and finding prey instead of automatically following our genetically-programmed instincts. It is likely that our ancestors burrowed in the soil of Prince Edward County during the later Triassic when there was more rain and the area was less desert-like. Living in burrows may have sheltered us somewhat from volcanic activity to the east as currents in the mantle changed and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge began to open the North Atlantic Ocean.

Prince Edward County during the Jurassic Period

Phanerozoic Eon, Mesozoic Era, Jurassic Period (201.4 to 145 million years ago). By the beginning of the Jurassic Period, Pangaea had begun to rift into two landmasses: Laurasia (Laurentia/North America and Eurasia) in the north and Gondwana (South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Zealandia, Arabia, and the Indian subcontinent) to the south, with a very narrow Atlantic Ocean forming about 175 million years ago and a Caribbean Sea about 150 million years ago linking the North Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. There was no South Atlantic Ocean yet. Greenland and Europe were separated by a narrow strip of salt water, so Laurasia was not strictly one continent. The Americas were situated more or less where they are today. Most of North America was solid land, but there was a shallow sea centred on the southern Prairies in Canada and the northern Prairies and Colorado in the United States, with an outlet going northwest across southern Alberta and northern British Columbia to the future Pacific Ocean, still the Panthalassic Ocean. There were still no serious mountains along the west coast of the Americas, and British Columbia and the present American west coast did not exist. The planet was about 5℃ to 10℃ warmer than today, with four times as much carbon dioxide in a greenhouse atmosphere. Brazil and North Africa on the equator were dry with summer rains, and southern Africa and southern South America were desert. The combined landmass of Antarctica, Australia, and India, attached to South Africa, was a warm zone with a cool zone closest to the South Pole. While what is now Mexico and the southern United States were desert, and the central strip of the United States was dry with winter rains, most of Canada was in a warm zone, with only central Nunavut being a cool zone, so Prince Edward County had sufficient rain and was teeming with life. Organic material produced oil deposits in what is now Arabia, Iraq, and the North Sea and created coal deposits in China. Seismic activity in the late Ordovician Period to after the Jurassic Period caused new faults. About 176 million years ago during the Jurassic Period the McMahon Fault, probably associated with the Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Mesoproterozoic Era Clarendon-Linden Fault System in some fashion because it is parallel to the Picton Fault, caused the southeast side to move up 10 m relative to the northwest side. It runs northeast from under Lake Ontario through Gull Pond and Charwell Point Road, across Monarch Point Conservation Reserve, close to the north shore of South Bay, along the north side of McMahon Bluff, through Black River and Smith Bay, and ending at Waupoos. Strangely, the McMahon Bluff mesa of Picton Formation caprock was on the lower, southeast side of the fault, but erosion wore away the northwest side of the fault faster, exposing older Glenora Formation rock. Parallel to the McMahon Fault to the east was a smaller fault that ran northeast under Lake Ontario to Petticoat Bar, then on to the junction of County Road 13 and the western end of Babylon Road, and then along the south shore of South Bay to Johnson’s RV Park at 3235 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and out into Prince Edward Bay in the direction of the mouth of the Black River. One short underwater fault runs northeast between Timber Island and Swetman Island/False Duck Island, and three more short underwater faults run northeast between Swetman Island/False Duck Island and Main Duck Island. In each case, there was a small upward movement of the southeast side of the fault compared to the northwest side. Again, these probably reflect an old, underlying Precambrian fault that reactivated and fractured the overlying Ordovician rock. A series of 1 m pop-ups in Prince Edward County not associated with the Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Mesoproterozoic Era Clarendon-Linden Fault System also appeared. They may be connected to the “Oswego Trend”, a suspected fault running northwest-southeast from Oswego, New York, toward the middle of the south shore of Prince Edward County, a phenomenon detected only by earthquake epicentres. Many of these small faults, which only go down about 10 m, are found along the south shore of the county between Point Petre and Prince Edward Point and are partly infilled by younger, seeping calcite material that turned to rock. The faults in Athol Ward tend to run northwest-southeast at a 90% angle to the Picton Fault, including several in Monarch Point Conservation Reserve. Six of them cross the southern end of Charwell Point Road. The ones on Long Point, South Marysburgh Ward, tend to run north-south or slightly northeast-southwest, with two cutting across Petticoat Point south of Helmer Road, two cutting across Ostrander Point and the southern part of Ostrander Point Road, one travelling from Gravelly Bay near 522 Gravelly Bay Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, north across 1243 Babylon Road to the north shore at 4039 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, and one crossing the isthmus from 121 Long Point Road to the dammed stream forming a pond east of Gravelly Point. Another goes north-south from the north shore of Long Point at 5319 Long Point Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, south to Little Poplar Point, two are between Little Poplar Point and Rocky Point, and three go northwest-southeast visible in the cliffs at the northwestern end of Point Traverse, accessed by the Point Traverse Woods Trail but better seen from a boat. Much later during the Quaternary Ice Age there was reactivation of these faults and pop-ups both as a result of the increasing compression caused by the weight of advancing glaciers and the declining weight of retreating glaciers, the latter causing isostatic rebound. It is unlikely that these faults will do anything in the future unless there is a dramatic change in local geology. Underwater ridges parallel the faults, with Point Petre Ridge and Scotch Bonnet Ridge running half way across the bed of Lake Ontario.

The county had forests of ginkgos, conifers such as the first sequoias and pines, horsetail trees, ferns and tree ferns, and cycads, and was populated by increasingly large herbivorous sauropods and carnivorous dinosaurs, the first birds, our early mammal ancestors, crocodilians, lizards, frogs, salamanders, and many insects such as beetles, wasps, butterflies, moths, and dragonflies. Famous dinosaurs of this period include Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Diplodocus. In the air above Prince Edward County were the feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx and the flying reptile Pterodactylus, and in the oceans were marine reptiles such as Ichthyosauria and later Plesiosauria as well as turtles, the first sharks and rays, modern-looking fish, crabs, and octopuses. Prince Edward County’s altitude above sea level was similar to today, so the dinosaurs would be walking roughly where we do. About 184 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, which includes all mammals except egg-laying monotremes like the platypus and echidna of Australia and the island of New Guinea. About 174 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic, a period of rapid, succeeding changes for our ancestors, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, when we were rodent-like mammals ranging in size from mice to beavers and living in burrows and, notably, trees. About the same time, 174 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria. Our teeth were good for shearing, and we had various minor skeletal changes. Also in this small period of time about 174 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, with changes to the molars and a loss of a connection between the middle ear bones and the dental area. During yet another stage about 174 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria. These rodent-like creatures especially liked to eat insects.

Prince Edward County during the Cretaceous Period

In the Phanerozoic Eon, Mesozoic Era, Cretaceous Period (145 to 66 million years ago) the supercontinent Pangaea fully broke apart, with continents going their separate ways. Greenland was just separating from Canada and the North Atlantic Ocean was getting wider. About 120 million years ago Africa and Eurasia became separate continents, with most of Europe underwater. Madagascar-India was carried north though the Tethys Ocean or future Indian Ocean. The South Atlantic Ocean opened about 110 million years ago and South America and Africa-Arabia were now separate continents. The Andes, which had appeared in the Jurassic due to a collision with a Pacific plate, now reached their modern height. Antarctica and Australia nearly broke apart by 66 million years ago. The Cretaceous period was, like the Jurassic, warm, with higher sea levels due to water molecule agitation as well as a large volume of volcanic magma spreading on parts of the ocean floor. This created large, shallow inland seas where the deposition of coccolithophore algae calcite skeletons led to major chalk strata such as the white cliffs of Dover. This period was named for creta, the Latin name for chalk (the English word chalk is from Latin calx or limestone, also created in abundance during this period). Stagnation of deep ocean currents, as in the Jurassic, meant that lack of oxygen prevented sinking organic material from decomposing, creating more oil and natural gas deposits in locations such as the Gulf of Mexico and Persian Gulf. The 1 000 km wide Western Interior Seaway ran from the ocean in the north through the Yukon, the Canadian Prairies, and the American Prairies to the Gulf of Mexico, with an eastern side branch covering Hudson Bay. To the west of the Western Interior Seaway was a new landmass called Laramidia (from the Laramie Mountains and Laramie River named for Jacques La Ramée, a Canadian coureur de bois from Yamaska, Québec who led a group of independent mountain men into the area) featuring the emerging North American or Western Cordillera, including the Coastal Range and Rocky Mountains, running from Alaska to Mexico. These mountains, pushed up in only 10 million years, 155 to 145 million years ago, were the result of the westward-moving North American plate riding over the subduction zone of the eastward-moving Farallon plate under the Pacific Ocean, a process that is still taking place today with accompanying volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. To the east of the Western Interior Seaway was a landmass called Appalachia, of course featuring the Appalachian Mountains, but also the lowlands of eastern North America from Nunavut to Georgia; you could walk its entire length since Baffin Island was part of the mainland. Prince Edward County was on the western side of the Appalachians still far from the ocean, and the Great Lakes did not exist yet. As a result, there was as much erosion as deposition, and there is no rock of this period anywhere near the county. Generally the period was warm, but wetter at the equator than during the Triassic and Jurassic. The 95 000-year, 124 000-year, and 405 000-year cycles of eccentricity variation in the Earth’s orbit, which goes between circular and elliptical, and a 41 000-year cycle of axial tilt, added to fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels, created periods of cold with snow and glaciation. Southern Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central Eurasia were a mid-latitude warm-humid zone, with the present Arctic a high latitude temperate zone, forests extending to the vicinity of the North Pole. So Prince Edward County was still abundant in life.

As a result of the breakup of Pangaea, the animals and plants on the migrating continents were separated and went on diverging evolutionary paths. This was the classic age of the dinosaurs, the dominant group of animals on the planet, with the carnivorous Tyrannosaurus, Gigantosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Velociraptor and the herbivorous Hadrosaurus, Iguanodon, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, and Ankylosaurus among dozens of genera. New mammals and birds appeared during the Cretaceous. The clade Angiospermae or flowering plants with seeds enclosed in ovaries such as fruits appeared early in this period, and by the end of it angiosperms had displaced and sometimes driven to extinction many genera of the clade Gymnospermae or unprotected seed plants such as the conifers, cycads, and ginkgoes. The first grasses also emerged. During the early Cretaceous about 145 to 113.2 million years ago we became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, with minor changes in the premolars, but more significantly modern ears, modern shoulder blades, and several new features of the hindlimbs. Our next stage at about the same time, 145 to 113.2 million years ago, was evolution into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, with three-cusped molars or cheek teeth and some other dental changes. Another change about 145 to 113.2 million years ago was our mutation into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria. These mammals developed their young in a placenta with an umbilical cord, a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that facilitated nutrient, gas, and waste exchange between the mother and fetus’ separate circulatory systems. The placenta was accompanied by hormones that regulated the mother’s and fetus’ bodies during pregnancy. Pregnancy started to get longer and offspring were more developed at birth. Females now had a menstrual cycle of 21 to 28 days, and mammary glands became teats. In addition, the urogenital system (urine and genital tracts) separated from the anus. External ears appeared, a flexible, protruding nose, and definitive whiskers. Still another change about 145 to 113.2 million years ago in the early Cretaceous was evolution into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria. These animals lacked epipubic bones, which allowed expansion of the abdomen during pregnancy. In addition, various small bone and tooth changes took place. Unfortunately, we now looked almost exactly like rats. About 120 to 105 million years ago natural selection turned us into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia. We had now separated from the monotremes and marsupials, and we carried the fetus in the uterus to a relatively late stage of development, which required a wide opening in the bottom of the pelvis and the absence of epipublic bones that would inhibit the expansion of the abdomen during pregnancy. Other new characteristics were that the rearmost bones of the foot fit into a socket formed by the ends of the tibia and fibula, forming a mortise and tenon upper ankle joint. There was a malleolus or bony prominence at the bottom of the fibula, in other words on the inside of the ankle. In addition, the hemispheres of the brain were separated by a corpus callosum, a wide, thick nerve tract that allowed communication between them. Also, between 107 and 90 million years ago we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria. Males now had scrotums. Next, between 95 and 88 million years ago we mutated into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euchontoglires, which includes the rodents, lagomorphs (rabbits, hares, and pikas), treeshrews, culogos (flying lemurs), and primates. We now looked and behaved much like squirrels, living in burrows in the ground or trees and searching for food in both environments. Then about 88 million years ago we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, including the treeshrews, culogos (flying lemurs), and primates. We probably still looked a lot like squirrels or treeshrews, and were omnivores who lived in hollows in trees feeding at night and sometimes in the day on insects, small vertebrates, fruit, and seeds. About 80 million years ago we mutated into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, which includes the culogos or flying lemurs and primates. The nocturnal flying lemurs of Southeast Asia have bodies a lot like a squirrel, but their four limbs have a kite-shaped skin that allow it to glide for about 100 m from tree to tree while losing only 10 m of altitude. It eats leaves, buds, shoots, flowers, fruits, and sap. However, they were not able to glide yet 80 million years ago when they were the same as our ancestors, and we were more likely similar to an omnivorous squirrel. About 79.6 million years ago we parted ways with the treeshrews and became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates. The primates include the lemurs, galagos (bush babies), lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes. They were well adapted to life in trees with large brain sizes, binocular vision to estimate distance, and colour vision to see a wide range of colours in daylight and a corresponding decline in their sense of smell. They had vocalizations for communication, shoulder girdles or a clavicle and scapula to allow a wide range of movement in the upper limbs, and opposable thumbs for improved grasping and dexterity when leaping from branch to branch or tree to tree. They could also spend long periods on the ground and walk on four limbs via knuckle-walking. Primates were also among the most social of all animals, reached maturity later, and had longer lifespans. Of course, they were also distinguished by a high level of intelligence. They could communicate by facial expressions, hand gestures, and vocalizations. However, although these primate characteristics were emerging, our common ancestor looked exactly like a squirrel or tree shrew, being about 15 cm long and weighing about 37 g, capable of burrowing in the ground but spending a lot of time in the trees, doubtless taking shelter in tree hollows. It was active during daylight and preyed mainly on insects. About 75 million years ago our ancestors became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini. This group includes tarsiers, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes. The common ancestor was much like a tarsier, with large eye orbits for big eyes, cheek teeth adapted for eating insects and fruit, and a small body mass of about 500 g. They had grasping hands and feet and digits with nails, as well as a grooming claw. Their upper lip was separate from their nose and gum, allowing for more varied facial expressions. They may have been active day and night, and their brains were large in relation to the rest of their bodies. The common ancestor usually had single births, although twins and triplets were possible, with these babies dependent on their mothers for a longer period of time. The continents were close enough to each other that the Haplorhini range was large, including North America and probably Prince Edward County.

Prince Edward County during the Paleogene Period

Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Paleogene Period (66 to 23 million years ago). The geological Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary with its iridium and ruthenium metal deposits and sharp biological division due to a mass extinction of 75% of all animals and plants on Earth was caused by an object from space. Our ancestors survived the 5 km to 15 km wide Chicxulub impactor asteroid travelling from the outer solar system at 72 000 km/h that struck the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico about 66 043 000 years ago, creating the 160 km to 200 km wide and 1 km deep Chicxulub crater, the second largest impact crater on Earth after the 2 billion-year-old 150 km to 300 km wide Vredefort crater in South Africa. It has since filled in with sediments, but has been studied by geologists since its discovery. A 1.5 km tall tsunami caused by the 300 ZJ (zetajoules or 1021 J of energy) and a 9 Mw to 11 Mw (moment magnitude of mechanical work accomplished) seismic event caused devastation over a wide area. As much as 25 trillion metric tonnes of material was ejected, and 70% of the planet’s forests were set on fire by material that flew into space and vaporized on reentry. New Jersey, 2 500 km away from the impact zone, was covered by 10 cm of debris containing fossils of multiple species that suddenly went extinct. Most lethal was a cloud of hot sulfate aerosols, dust, ash, and steam that filled the atmosphere. The atmospheric cloud blocked the Sun for over a decade and caused cold temperatures, sulfuric acid rain, and acidified oceans, arresting photosynthesis and killing all vegetation. This starved many large herbivores and the carnivores that ate them, including almost all of the 600 to 1 100 species of dinosaur alive at the time, but birds and small Haplorhini primates could eat insects, larvae, worms, and snails that fed on dead animals and plants, and they required only a modest amount of calories compared to larger animals. Omnivores (animals that eat both animals and plants), insectivores (animals that eat insects), and species that lived in streams and at the bottom of the ocean were more likely to survive than carnivores and herbivores. Crocodilians were scavengers that could live for months without food and hibernate if necessary, and their young were small, grew slowly, and ate almost anything, so they tended to survive as well. Seeds sprouted after sunlight returned and mammals and the few surviving dinosaurs—the birds—would do well in a world no longer dominated by giant reptiles and dinosaurs.

The continents were starting to look a lot more like the present. Central America did not exist yet, so Mexico and Columbia were separated by ocean. The 6 200 km long Hawaiian-Emperor volcanic seamount chain was initiated, created by the Pacific plate travelling northeast over the Hawai’i hotspot that is now creating the island of Hawai’i. The older, eroded, extinct volcano cones are underwater while the newer, mostly extinct volcano cones form the Hawaiian Islands. The seamounts continue all the way to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The African-Arabian plate collided with Europe and Southwest Asia in the late Cretaceous and early Paleogene, driving up the Atlas (as opposed to the older Anti-Atlas) and Rif of Morocco, the Baetic Mountains, Cantabrian Mountains, and Pyrenees of Spain, the Alps of Switzerland and Austria, the Sudetes of Czechia, the Apennines of Italy, the Balkan Mountains, the Carpathians of Romania, the Pindus of Albania and Greece, the Rhodopes of Bulgaria, the Pontic Mountains and Taurus of Turkey, the Caucasus of Georgia, and the Zagros and Alborz of Iran. Meanwhile, the Red Sea rift started to split Africa and Arabia. India had detached from Madagascar about 83 million years ago and collided with Asia about 55 million years ago, starting to push up the Hindu Kush and Himalayas, and Australia separated from Antarctica about 77 million years ago and was moving north, as it still is today. The oceans had more or less their modern dimensions. Canada was physically almost identical to today. The North American Cordillera was still growing in British Columbia, and the rise of the Rocky Mountains closed up the Western Interior Seaway in the Prairies. The Arctic islands were still part of the mainland, under pressure from Greenland. By the end of the period the climate was becoming similar to today. In the early Paleogene, the climate was cool and dry, then temperatures rose about 56 million years ago due to the release of greenhouse gases by volcanic activity under organic sediments, with tropical and subtropical forests extending to the polar regions, and finally, about 48 million years ago, it cooled again, so much so that by about 37 million years ago ice formed on the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica developed an ice sheet.

Mammals drastically diversified during the Paleocene, with some terrestrial mammals becoming so accustomed to finding food in the water that they evolved into marine mammals, one branch forming the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and another branch the dugongs and manatees. Birds also diversified, and some became enormous such as the flightless predatory terror bird Kelenken guillermoi of Argentina, which was 3 m tall and over 100 kg and could chase down small animals and probably kill some larger ones. In the cooler climate grasses and herbs proliferated and conifers did well in the mountains, while tropical plants decreased in range. Prince Edward County was still far inland and subject to as much erosion as deposition, with no rocks of this period surviving in the area. But it can be surmised that typical North American species of the time lived here: two species of lemur-like primates that made it from Eurasia to Greenland to Canada, rhino-like Brontotheres, tapirs, the first horses, wild boar-like peccaries, stocky camels, hippo-like Coryphodon, early elephants, early bats, dog-like carnivores named Creodonta, alligators, giant tortoises, salamanders, lizards, boa-like snakes, Gastornis terror birds, ancestors of ducks and geese, and fish. Dawn redwoods, cypresses, elms, maples, alders, birches, beech, oaks, walnuts, sycamores, willows, sassafras, palms, ferns, and flowers such as magnolias and roses would have thrived. About 60 million years ago we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini, infraorder Simiiformes. This group includes New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes. They lived in Asia, but about 40 million years ago some crossed a narrow stretch of the Tethys Ocean to reach Afro-Arabia on natural rafts of vegetation, perhaps after an Asian monsoon. Soon afterward some reached South America by similar means, since the South Atlantic Ocean was not yet particularly wide. They were small primates with varied diets, forward-facing binocular eyes, acute colour vision for daytime activities, and brains devoted more to vision and less to smell. They had fewer teeth and were more sexually dimorphic, that is males tended to be larger than females. At this point our ancestors looked a lot like modern monkeys, with longer forelimbs and hindlimbs than before. About 40 million years ago we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini, infraorder Simiiformes, parvorder Catarrhini. The New World monkeys colonized the Americas and went on their own evolutionary path, leaving us, the monkey-apes (really just monkeys in appearance) that would become the Old World monkeys and apes, behind in Afro-Eurasia. We were distinguished by our downward-pointing, not sideways-pointing, nostrils, tails that were incapable of holding onto a branch and supporting our body weight, our flat fingernails and toenails, a tubular ear bone, and eight (not 12) premolars, with two incisors, one canine, two premolars, and three molars on each side of the upper and lower jaws. We had strong grasping hands and feet to clasp branches and move around easily in trees or jump to neighbouring trees without descending to the ground. We showed a lot of sexual dimorphism, males being larger than females, with no pair bonds after reproduction. Most of us lived in social groups in Africa and Arabia, and were active in the daytime. By now we looked and behaved like modern African and Asian Old World monkeys. About 30 million years ago we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini, infraorder Simiiformes, parvorder Catarrhini, superfamily Hominoidea, as apes separated from Old World Monkeys (baboons, colobus, and macaques). The most obvious distinction is that we, the apes, had a mutation that eliminated our tails, which we no longer used. We spent about equal time in trees and on the ground, and our bodies began to get heavier. On the ground, we walked on our knuckles as quadrupeds or sometimes walked upright as bipeds. The majority of our food was plant material, including fruits, leaves, stalks, roots, nuts, and grass seeds, but also insects, eggs, and sometimes other vertebrates, including monkeys. We had more mobile shoulder joints and arms due to the dorsal position of the scapula, broader rib cages that were flatter front to back, and a shorter, less mobile spine. We engaged in vertical hanging and swinging in trees and bipedalism on the ground, and the less mobile spine and loss of our tails made bipedal balancing easier. A mutation allowed us to accumulate fat to avoid starvation. Apes were also more intelligent than monkeys and were capable of cooperating with each other, solving problems, and teaching their young what might be termed cultural behaviour such as modifying natural objects like twigs and leaves to use as tools.

Prince Edward County during the Neogene Period

During the Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Neogene Period (23.03 to 2.588 million years ago) the continents and mountain ranges looked virtually identical to today, with minor differences. Hudson Bay, the Arctic Archipelago of Canada, the Great Lakes, and sometimes the Bering Strait were dry land. The Isthmus of Panama closed at the very end of this period and united the Americas, diverting the warm waters of what we call the Gulf Stream from the tropics toward Newfoundland and Western Europe. The Irish Sea and the English Channel were dry land, Spain was attached to Morocco, the Baltic Sea was dry land, India pushed up more of the Himalayas, and the three main islands of Indonesia were part of the Southeast Asian mainland. During the Neogene there was a general but fluctuating drying and cooling trend from the moister and warmer mid-Paleogene, culminating in the Quaternary Ice Age that followed the Neogene. The default temperature of Earth is warm with high carbon dioxide levels and no ice caps. However, as with all periods of glaciation in Earth history, very low rates of carbon dioxide-emitting volcanic activity combined with dispersed continents and high mountains that increased rainfall caused a reduction in temperatures. The mixing of water and carbon dioxide in heavy rainfall resulted in the production of carbonic acid, and the carbonic acid dissolved silicate and carbonate rock. This eroded rock increased soil production and the growth of carbon-sequestering forests and other vegetation. More significantly, a lot of the dissolved rock ended up flowing into the sea, where marine calcifying organisms absorbed the carbon into their shells. When these organisms died, their skeletons were deposited as carbonate rock. This rock was carried down into the Earth’s mantle at subduction zones, and if volcanoes did not return it to the atmosphere, this gradually removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and contributed to cooler temperatures. The cooler temperatures caused a fall in ocean levels because cold water is less dense than warm water with its more energized and agitated molecules. More importantly, about 11 million years ago snow in Antarctica began to accumulate as ice instead of melting back into the ocean. Ice also formed on the Arctic Ocean, but since it displaces liquid water, floating ice has little effect on ocean levels. You could say that Earth’s climate was more like today’s—no alligators and primates were living on Ellesmere Island in the far north of Canada anymore. The Sahara Desert varied between desert and green savannah on a 21 000 year cycle, affected by the Earth’s orbit eccentricity.

On land mammals such as bears and primates diversified, as did birds. Most other life forms did not change very much and remained in their ecological niches. As we shall see, some hominids or great apes began to walk on two feet toward the end of this period. Tropical plants retreated toward the equator and were replaced by coniferous and deciduous forests and, in drier areas, prairie, steppe, pampa, or savannah grasslands. With the rise of grasses came the diversification of grazing herbivores such as horses, antelope, and bison, and at the very cold end of the Neocene, some elephant and rhinoceros species evolved thick fur, becoming woolly mammoths, mastodons, and woolly rhinoceroses. The oceans were dominated by megalodon sharks and a species of sharp-toothed sperm whale, with other new whale species and sea lions, walruses, and seals appearing and many shark species disappearing. In Prince Edward County, a forested area rather than a prairie, there would have probably been horses, sabre-tooth cats, bears, dog-like carnivores, Gomphothere elephants, mammoths, mastodons, porcupines, and various types of deer, but not ancient camels, which were in drier areas farther west. When North and South America joined at the end of this period, about 3 million years ago, North American llamas and tapirs entered South America and ground sloths, armoured armadillos the size of a small car, and capybaras came north. There was likely both deposition and erosion in Prince Edward County during the Neogene, when it was above sea level, but if any soil was deposited, it was bulldozed away during the Quaternary Ice Age. About 17 million years ago we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini, infraorder Simiiformes, parvorder Catarrhini, superfamily Hominoidea, family Hominidae. The lighter and smaller gibbons went off on their own evolutionary path and the great ape ancestors of orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans went on a different one. Our great ape ancestor probably looked similar to a modern chimpanzee. We were relatively heavy, with adults about 30 kg to 60 kg, but were probably not as large as modern gorillas. Males were on average larger and stronger than females. The ancestral great apes used their hands to build complex sleeping platforms in trees, but they could also build nests on the ground or on occasion sleep on the bare ground (as modern gorillas and humans sometimes do). They were omnivorous, preferring fruit above all, but also ate shoots, leaves, insects, eggs, and some meat. Gestation lasted 8 to 9 months and females had one child or occasionally twins, looking after these helpless infants for a very long time. Weaning took place between four and five years, and the young did not become sexually mature until they were 8 to 13 years old. Mothers, who needed to breastfeed their children for long periods of time, only gave birth once every few years, and there was no distinct breeding season. About 14 to 12.5 million years ago we became domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, claude Eugnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini, infraorder Simiiformes, parvorder Catarrhini, superfamily Hominoidea, family Hominidae, subfamily Homininae. The orangutans separated on their own evolutionary path, leaving the ancestor of the gorilla, chimpanzee, and human. Not long afterward, about 10 to 8 million years ago, we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini, infraorder Simiiformes, parvorder Catarrhini, superfamily Hominoidea, family Hominidae, subfamily Homininae, tribe Hominini. The gorillas separated from us, leaving the ancestor of the chimpanzees and humans, creatures with brains about 350 to 400 cm3 in volume. Our obvious similarity to each other has been known for centuries, and British scientist Charles Darwin published a theory of biological evolution that linked apes and humans and other living things in 1859.

About 7 million years ago we evolved into domain Eukaryota, kingdom Animalia, subkingdom Eumetazoa, clade Paraoxon, clade Bilateria, superphylum Deuterostomia, phylum Chordata, clade Olfactores, subphylum Vertebrata, infraphylum Gnathostomata, clade Gnathostomata, superclass Osteichthyes, clade Sarcopterygii, clade Rhipidistia, clade Tetrapodomorpha, superclass Tetrapoda, clade Reptiliamorpha, clade Amniota, clade Synapsida, clade Pelycosauria, clade Sphenacomorpha, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Pantherapsida, clade Sphenacodontidae, clade Therapsida, clade Theriodontia, clade Eutheriadontia, clade Cynodontia, clade Epicynodontia, clade Probainognathus, clade Prosthodontia, clade Mammaliamorpha, clade Mammaliaformes, class Mammalia, clade Theriimorpha, clade Theriiformes, clade Trechnotheria, clade Cladotheria, clade Eutheria, clade Tribosphenida, clade Boreosphenida, subclass Theria, clade Eutheria, infraclass Placentalia, magnorder Boreoeutheria, superorder Euarchontoglires, grandorder Euarchonta, mirorder Primatomorpha, order Primates, suborder Haplorhini, infraorder Simiiformes, parvorder Catarrhini, superfamily Hominoidea, family Hominidae, subfamily Homininae, tribe Hominini, subtribe Australopithecina. With the ancestor of the two species of chimpanzees, the common chimpanzee and bonobo, going off on their own evolutionary path, this left fully bipedal or walking apes we call humans. This subtribe included many types of African ape-like creatures that had the same brain size as a chimpanzee, and much of its behaviour in terms of tree climbing, child raising, and socialization, but it habitually walked on two legs when on the ground. Members of the subtribe were the genera Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, and Ardipithecus, as well as the genera or genetically united genus Australopithecus/ Kenyanthropus/ Paranthropus/ Homo, which some scientists believe should be grouped together as Homo. So far, however, tradition and widespread usage has prevented this. Early human history is difficult to sort out because we do not have DNA evidence of extinct humans until about 430 000 years ago, but only fossils that are hollow impressions filled by leaching minerals that turn to stone. With the earlier human species we have to depend on interpreting the structures of incomplete sets of bones, although new evidence and techniques to interpret it accumulate every year. It is possible that we became the species Sahelanthropus tchadensis about 7 million years ago, Orrorin tugenensis about 6.1 million years ago, followed by Ardipithecus kadabba about 5.8 million years ago, and then Ardipithecus ramidus 4.5 million years ago, but these connections are still speculative. About 4.3 million years ago we evolved into the genera or cladistically united genus Australopithecus/ Paranthropus/ Kenyanthropus/ Homo. It is possible that we became Australopithecus anamensis 4.3 million years ago, Australopithecus afarensis 3.9 million years ago, and then Australopithecus africanus 3.3 million years ago. All of these species still spent time in trees and on the ground and were very ape-like in their behaviour and appearance, with brains slightly larger than chimpanzees, 400 cm3 to 500 cm3.

Prince Edward County during the Ice Age: The Gelasian Age

During the relatively short Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Pleistocene Epoch, Gelasian Age (2.58 to 1.8 million years ago) there were few physical changes to the continents in terms of continental drift, although ocean levels were 130 m lower than today, exposing the continental shelves and creating land bridges. Siberia was attached to Alaska, Ireland was attached to Great Britain and indirectly France, Spain was attached to Morocco, Italy was attached to Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Tunisia, there was no Adriatic Sea or Persian Gulf, Japan was attached to Russia and Korea, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and parts of the Philippines were attached to mainland Southeast Asia, and New Guinea was attached to Australia. Prior to the Quaternary Ice Age that began about 2.6 million years ago, there were no Great Lakes, although 4 million years ago the Erigan River flowed from the west end of Lake Erie through the middle of Lake Erie, and the upper Ohio River system flowed north into it near Ashtabula, Ohio, until the Ohio River was blocked by the ice sheet, built into a lake that overflowed high ground near New Martinsville, West Virginia, and created a new channel southwest toward the Mississippi, following the southern edge of the ice sheet. The Erigan River cut through what is now the Niagara Peninsula, going through Lowbanks, Wainfleet, Fonthill, Saint Johns, Rockway, and Fifteen Mile Creek in Lincoln to Charles Daley Park on Lake Ontario, merging south of Toronto with the 30 km wide Laurentian River. This massive waterway flowed from what is now the drainage basins of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan through the middle of Lake Huron, around the eastern side of the Bruce Peninsula into Georgian Bay, through Wasaga Beach, the Nottawasaga River Valley (more or less), Minesing, the west side of Barrie, Bradford, and the western edge of Newmarket and Aurora. Before it reached Toronto it divided into several channels, carving the Credit River Valley, Humber River Valley (this branch went through Strange, Nobleton, Kleinburg, the western edge of Vaughan, the Humber River Valley, and along Spring Creek by Spring Road in High Park in Toronto), Don River Valley, and Rouge River Valley. These channels of the Laurentian River flowed south into the northeast-flowing Erigan River in the middle of Lake Ontario, continuing northeast past the south shore of Prince Edward County through the St. Lawrence River Valley to the Atlantic Ocean. The Quaternary Ice Age is divided into seven periods of extensive glaciation, with different names in North America and the Alps, although there were also many minor advances that punctuated the interglacial periods. Northern Europe and Switzerland were covered by separate ice sheets. In North America the Cordilleran Ice Sheet covered British Columbia, the southern Yukon, and coastal Alaska, the Greenland Ice Sheet covered Greenland and the northern Arctic Archipelago, and the rest of Canada was covered by the huge 13 million km2 Laurentide Ice Sheet, 3.2 km thick in Québec and 1 km thick in southern Ontario (twice the height of Toronto’s 553 m tall CN Tower and even taller than the 828 m Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates). The Laurentide Ice Sheet experienced seven major advances corresponding to these periods of glaciation. The first took place during the Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Pleistocene Epoch, Gelasian Age, when the Pre-Illinois J-K or Biber glaciation 2.6 million to 1.8 million years ago had a major impact.

It is during this glaciation that our genus proper Homo finally appears, although only at the very end of the Quaternary Period did humans reach Prince Edward County. We probably became Homo habilis about 2.3 million years ago in East and South Africa. These people had brains with a volume of 500 cm3 to 900 cm3 and females were about 148 cm tall and 35 kg in weight, with both sexes having fur. They could still climb in trees, but probably spent a lot of time on the ground, and it is believed that they walked long distances in search of food. They fashioned Oldowan tools, chipping one or two flakes off a stone with another stone to use as tools or employing cobbles for pounding, and they likely also used tools of wood and bone. They appear to have used these tools to butcher animals and crack bones to get at bone marrow. It is believed that they were not particularly distinguished hunters, especially when it came to larger game, but rather threw sticks and stones to scare off predators such as jackals and cheetahs that had made the kills and then scavenged the remains. Fruits and fish were other important sources of food, but tough plant material was avoided. Groups may have numbered 70 to 85 members and appear to have acted communally as opposed to in distinct family units, with a group of adult males confronting and collectively scaring off sabre-toothed cats, leopards, hyenas, and other humans and everyone butchering and eating animals together. In one location piles of stones in a circular shape may indicate the construction of a windbreak or hut. The protein and fat these people ate may have helped humans sustain natural selection in favour of larger brains.

Prince Edward County during the Ice Age: The Calabrian Age

The Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Pleistocene Epoch, Calabrian Age (1.8 to 774 000 years ago) more or less corresponds to the existence of our next human species, which was impacted by the Pre-Illinois G-H or Danube glaciation 1.8 million to 900 000 years ago. We became Homo erectus about 2 million years ago, a species with adult brains of 546 cm3 to 1 251 cm3, averaging around 1 000 cm3. Their height ranged from 146 cm to 185 cm, and men had an average weight of 63 kg and women 52 kg. A species that lived such a long time with semi-isolated bands inhabiting radically different geography on three continents could experience wide variations in mental and physical characteristics. Major changes in temperature, rainfall, and primary production had an important impact on the distribution of human populations. During the early Pleistocene humans lived in regions with low climate variability, preferring cool, dry savannahs with few seasonal changes. Early, African-based Homo erectus lived in limited parts of Africa with a savannah climate: a narrow northwest-southeast corridor from Angola to South Africa and a narrow north-south corridor along the Eastern Africa rift valley from South Africa to Eritrea. However, about 1.9 million years ago positive climate change and some adaptability by these clever creatures allowed Homo erectus to expand out of Africa and live along the Mediterranean coast from Spain to Israel and in Southern Asia and China. They produced Acheulean oval and pear-shaped hand-axes with harder, chiselled edges to use as picks, knives, and cleavers, and there is evidence that they used fire, at least collecting and nurturing flames from fires caused by lightning. They may have built huts and possibly even primitive rafts to cross the Strait of Gibraltar and reach islands such as Crete in Greece and Flores and Timor in Indonesia; it seems unlikely that they colonized these islands by complete accident, and they had to make the trip in large enough numbers to create a viable new population. There is also evidence that they collected red ochre paint, threaded ostrich-shell beads, and modified natural stones to make small human sculptures. The species had less sexual dimorphism or size differences between males and females than their primate ancestors, a sign of more cooperation between males for hunting and defence. This reduction in sexual dimorphism may also represent a transition from alpha male-dominated harems to more monogamous relationships with a sexual division of labour and food sharing for child support that could last at least for several years at a time. Having fire meant that people had to keep them going, and women with babies, who were slightly less mobile than hunters, may have stayed closer to the fire and gathered fuel, fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and tubers and other more predictable resources. Young women without babies, however, may have helped with hunting. Fire also protected Homo erectus from predators, permitted them to sleep in the open, and allowed them to socialize after sunset. It would also have allowed humans to enter Eurasia, but these pioneers did not have fire, at least not right away, and had to stick to warmer lowlands. Bands also looked after some disabled people instread of abandoning them. Homo erectus were the first humans with a flat face, a prominent nose to moisturize dry air, and little body hair, making them look a lot more like us despite the prominent brow ridges above their eyes. Their legs were long, their gait was modern, and their modern shoulders indicate that they could throw objects like stones at high speed and with great accuracy. Their lack of body hair meant that they could run for long distances in pursuit of game and sweat to cool their bodies. Hunting and gathering in groups, they were able to kill bovines (wild cattle, European bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, and antelopes), fallow deer, boars, rhinos, hippos, and elephants. Sometimes they may have used persistence hunting—walking, intermittently running, or running until the fur-bearing animal, which cannot sweat, collapses or is paralyzed by heat exhaustion. They could also scare these animals into areas such as bogs where they could be trapped and killed. Some prey may have been sick, injured, or trapped in bogs on their own and finished off by opportunistic humans. It is possible that Homo erectus had sharpened wooden spears, but we have no evidence of this, only their handaxes. It is amazing that they were able to kill such large animals, and they must have used more lethal weapons than thrown stones. People also ate fish, shellfish, birds, turtles, crocodiles, and amphibians, and it is possible that this species wiped out the giant turtle Megalochelys in Southeast Asia, a creature with a shell over 2 m long, and locally exterminated the 4 m tall straight-tusked elephant in the eastern Mediterranean. Experiments with captured sources of fire led to cooking, which softened hard plants, killed parasites and dangerous bacteria, and made digestion and absorption of nutrients more efficient, again making possible a growth in brain size. A consequence of losing fur and exposing skin to ultraviolet radiation meant that black skin developed in our African ancestors by 1.2 million years ago, with Eurasian Homo erectus possibly evolving lighter skin to absorb more vitamin D, although it is quite possible that they retained their darker skin. Fire, huts, and caves may have kept Homo erectus warm at night and in colder weather. We have no evidence of clothing, although it would not be surprising if they draped untailored hides over parts of their bodies. Even Africa can get very cold at night. It is also possible that they communicated through some kind of proto-language, although evidence of a modern hyoid bone to support the tongue and control pitch and volume does not appear until later. The last of several thousand magnetic pole reversals, which are statistically random, took place about 781 000 years ago, and the reversal process took place over only about 200 years. Usually the reversal process was sufficiently slow that migrating animals such as birds, sea turtles, salmon, and whales, which navigated using radical pair mechanisms or pairs of electrons with opposite spins sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field, would have gradually adapted to the shift. Individuals or groups too reliant on the magnetic field and not using other cues may have been confused by the quickly moving magnetic poles and could have ended up in the wrong place such as a rocky, barren shore instead of a bay filled with food sources and therefore died, removing them from the gene pool.

Prince Edward County during the Ice Age: The Chibanian Age

The Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Pleistocene Epoch, Chibanian Age (774 000 to 129 000 years ago) was a difficult period for us because humans barely survived no less than four periods of extensive glaciation, marked by advancing ice sheets in the north and devastating drought in other parts of the planet: the Pre-Illinois D or Günz glaciation 676 000 to 621 000 years ago, the Pre-Illinois B or Günz-Mindel glaciation 478 000 to 424 000 years ago, the Pre-Illinois A or Mindel glaciation 374 000 to 337 000 years ago, and the Illinois glaciation 191 000 to 130 000 years ago. Horses expanded from the Americas to Eurasia, with steppe bison, ancestors of modern bison, expanding in the opposite direction, and woolly mammoths and mastodons flourished.

The cold temperatures and decreasing precipitation created major problems for Homo erectus, but a group of Homo erectus in Africa adapted to these conditions and became Homo heidelbergensis. They are ancestral to all modern humans, including the modern inhabitants of Prince Edward County, although it would take a while for their descendants to reach the county. From their home base in Eastern and Southern Africa, they expanded into Western and Southern Europe, the Caucasus and Western Asia, India, and China. However, an even more savage Ice Age cold, accompanied by wide-ranging desertification in Africa and much of Asia, tested human survival throughout Afro-Eurasia, and human populations became confined to refugia. Homo heidelbergensis gradually split into a Eurasian or northern group and an African or southern group between 850 000 and 650 000 years ago as contact became increasingly rare and then stopped. Members of Homo heidelbergensis had an average brain size of 1 206 cm3, virtually the same as modern humans, with men averaging 170 cm in height and women 158 cm. Body sizes ranged from a narrow-chested, gracile build like modern humans and a broader-chested, robust build like Neanderthals, the latter physique being more common during this period. Few individuals lived longer than 45 years. Homo heidelbergensis were big game hunters, feasting on elephants, rhinoceroses, horses, roe deer, boar, ibex, aurochs bovines, and baboons. Perhaps because of this, they seem to have shown little interest in exploiting the resources of ocean or lake shorelines or rivers. Doubtless plants featured in their diet, but since plants decay quickly, evidence is lacking. These people used an Acheulean stone tool kit, with some improvements, and had probably found a means to artificially ignite fire in Europe by about 400 000 years ago. Our habitual use of fire, as well as perhaps some hides for clothing, allowed us to reside not only in Africa and southern Eurasia, but in colder areas of Europe and Asia. People were using sharpened wooden spears, and by 300 000 years ago Homo heidelbergensis were attaching a stone spearhead to wooden shafts made of yew, pine, or spruce. They also probably used cooperative hunting strategies. Rock foundations in spots sheltered from the weather indicate that they made huts about 3.5 m by 3 m in area, probably just for sleeping, with other activities being outside. They had a modern hyoid bone and middle ear bones capable of detecting subtle voice frequencies, suggesting that they probably had languages. Red ochre and carvings have been found at their sites. They also sometimes placed their dead in natural pits in caves, probably to keep them away from scavengers.

The Eurasian or northern Homo heidelbergensis split into two species. In eastern Eurasia between 475 000 and 473 000 years ago Denisovans emerged in East Asia and Southeast Asia, including southern Siberia, Tibet, Laos, and almost certainly China and the Philippines. It is becoming clearer that members of the species Homo longi in northwestern China are Denisovans, so this may become the Denisovans’ scientific name. The species has not been named yet because of the lack of an actual skull or skeleton, but a skull found in China may change this. DNA from a finger bone and some teeth suggests that Denisovans had dark skin, eyes, and hair, a robust physique with a wide chest and hips, a long, broad, protruding face and jaw, a large nose, a sloping forehead, an elongated and flattened skull, and very large, archaic molars that made their rows of teeth longer than those of other humans at the time. Denisovans’ brains may have been physically large, as much as 1 800 cm3, although brain size is not exactly proportionate to intelligence. They interbred with Homo sapiens in southeast Asia and the Philippines and possibly on or near the island of New Guinea during the period 46 000 to 30 000 years ago, and they may have survived until as recently as 14 500 years ago. As a result of these contacts, the Papuans of New Guinea, Melanesians and Polynesians of the Pacific, Indigenous Australians, Black Indigenous Filipinos, and East Indonesians have some Denisovan DNA, with trace amounts among mainland East Asians and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, including those of Ontario. In addition, Tibetans may have acquired their ability to live at high altitudes from Denisovan DNA. Strangely, Icelanders also have some Denisovan ancestry, possibly introduced to their Norwegian ancestors by a few modern humans who interbred with Denisovans in Siberia and then migrated to Scandinavia thousands of years ago.

In western Eurasia between 400 000 and 300 000 years ago Homo heidelbergensis evolved into Homo neanderthalensis or Neanderthals, partly ancestral to the European and Indigenous inhabitants of Prince Edward County. These people lived in Western, Southern, and Central Europe, along the eastern Mediterranean coast, along the Black Sea coast, in the Caucasus Mountains, and in a few spots in Central Asia as far east as the Altai Mountains on the border or Mongolia, where they had contact with their Denisovan cousins. It is possible that they migrated as far north as Scandinavia during interglacial periods, but the ice sheets have ground up all the evidence. Their total species population was small, only 3 000 to 12 000 people of breeding age. Approximately 43% of children died by age 20, and about 80% of Neanderthals who survived to age 20 died before age 40, but this mortality rate is probably similar to that of modern humans during the same period. Although they were physically similar in a few respects to modern Arctic Inuit, compared with modern humans as a whole, Neanderthals had a more robust, stocky build with wider, barrel-shaped rib cages, large lung capacity, thick neck vertebrae, wider pelvises, proportionally shorter forearms and forelegs, and specialized body-fat storage, probably all adaptations to keep them from losing body heat and energy in a frigid climate. They had less developed chins, sloping foreheads, longer, broader, and more projecting noses, wider skulls, and larger eyes than modern humans. Average Neanderthal men were around 165 cm tall and women about 163 cm, with male brains averaging 1 640 cm3 and female brains 1 460 cm3, which is almost 300 cm3 larger than those of modern humans. However, their brain shapes indicate differences from ours in terms of language comprehension, emotions, decision making, sense of smell, and rates of brain growth and development, all of which may have given modern humans small advantages when we came in contact. Most had brown eyes, dark skin, and brown hair, although a minority had mutations for red hair, which is associated with pale skin. It is possible that they required more calories per day than modern humans to sustain their physiques. Although they were apex predators, they still competed with cave lions, cave hyenas, and other large predators. Neanderthals suffered a high rate of injury, with 79-84% of specimens showing healed major trauma, of whom 37-52% were severely injured and 13-19% injured before reaching adulthood. However, animal attacks may explain most of these injuries, with 36% caused by bear attacks, 21% by cave lion and leopard attacks, and 17% by wolf attacks, 74% of the total injuries. Cave hyena attacks also probably occurred, and cave hyenas stole food and leftovers from Neanderthal sites and scavenged Neanderthal bodies. Competition for prey and cave space, such as humans invading a cave they needed and exterminating a pack of wolves or a bear that resided there, may explain this high number of injuries, with conflict between Neanderthals—there are some blade and projectile injuries—and accidents explaining the rest. The fact that people survived such serious injuries, though, indicates that those injured were fed and cared for by other members of the group for months or even years, not just abandoned. The proper healing of bones suggests that they made splints and some sort of bandages. We have found poplar with salicylic acid like that in aspirin for tooth pain and traces of Penicillium chrysogenum fungal mould with antibiotic properties in caves, although it is conceivable in the latter case that they simply had food that was going mouldy. Neanderthals liked forested terrain and may have engaged in ambush hunting tactics, using a short burst of speed to strike their prey at close range. In some cases they surrounded and slaughtered a large herd and then selected certain carcasses for butchery, leaving the rest. They preferred red deer, roe deer, and reindeer, but also ate chamois, ibex, mouflon sheep, wild boar, steppe wisent, aurochs, Irish elk, woolly mammoths, straight-tusked elephant, woolly rhinoceros, Merck’s rhinoceros, the narrow-nosed rhinoceros, wild horse, cave bear, brown bear, rabbits, and tortoises. They were also capable of killing cave lions, cave bears, and wolves, species that liked to reside in the same grottoes as humans and may have moved in when humans were absent for the season. On the Mediterranean, Neanderthals ate 143 bird species, monk seal, short-beaked common dolphin, common bottlenose dolphin, purple sea urchin, shellfish, and crabs, as well as Atlantic bluefin tuna, sea bream, freshwater trout, chub, eel, European perch, and farther east Black Sea salmon. There is a lot of evidence that Neanderthals practiced cannibalism, perhaps during periods of starvation, butchering human bodies much like they butchered reindeer, although with less finesse. Plants, including mushrooms, pine nuts, figs and palm tree fruits (in the eastern Mediterranean), cereals, edible grasses, legumes, and acorns also made up an important part of their diet. They roasted food, possibly smoked meat and fish to preserve and store it, and may have been able to use heated heated stones placed in water-filled basins to boil soup, stew, or fat stock from bone marrow, fat being important for nutrition considering their high-protein diet. Like our species, their teeth evolved to a smaller size, suggesting that they were eating softer foods. Yarrow and camomile may have been used as medicine or as flavouring. Genetic inbreeding issues and a high rate of birth defects may be the result of the small and widely-dispersed Neanderthal populations, with bands averaging 10 to 30 members. However, they were likely in contact with other bands as far away as 300 km, forming macro-bands. There were three main genetic populations of Neanderthals, one in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe from northern Spain to the Urals Mountains of Russia, one along the northern Mediterranean coast from Catalonia to Bulgaria, and one in Central Asia and southern Siberia, with rare contact between the three groups. They preferred south-facing caves, and caves were occupied seasonally, which suggests seasonal rotation between them to take advantage of local resources and at least the occasional use of open-air sites. They also suffered from gastrointestinal infections and parasites, but had fewer cavities than modern humans. It is possible that they were capable of symbolic thought, art, and even religious beliefs, but solid evidence for this is still lacking. They used ochre clay pigment, although it is unclear if it was used as body paint, as an insect repellant, or for tanning hides. There is evidence that they collected seashells and painted them for personal adornment, made use of large bird feathers, and wore white-tailed eagle and Spanish imperial eagle talon necklaces. Leopard bones may indicate the preparation of a leopard skin prestige item. One Spanish cave shows dots, disks, lines, and hand stencils on cave walls that are claimed to date to 66 000 years ago, 20 000 years before the arrival of modern humans in the area, but the dating is controversial. They picked up crystals and fossils and bright them home, and one mammoth tooth has an incision. They also developed Mousterian stone technology, superior to the Acheulian technology of their ancestors, and must have actively taught the process of making these tools to the next generation. It is likely that they used the sharpened spruce, larch, and pine spears found in Germany as javelins, and they may have also had wooden darts. For a while there was a theory that Neanderthals thrust their spears at close range rather than threw them because the range of reproduced Neanderthal spears was so pathetic and because of the many serious wounds on Neanderthal skeletons. However, when scientists put the spears in the hands of modern Olympic athletes instead of urban couch potatoes, the range of these spears dramatically increased, indicating that they were indeed used as javelins by people whose powerful arm muscles and arm bones grew for the task from long practice. Similarly, the thick muscles and bones of modern Olympic cross-country athletes resemble those of our Neanderthal and archaic modern human ancestors. We have found cord fibre and shell beads with holes, which suggests that they would have been able to make string and cordage for weaving and knotting, making possible the manufacture of nets, containers, packaging, baskets, carrying devices, ties, straps, harnesses, clothes, shoes, beds, bedding, mats, flooring, roofing, walls, and snares, but these applications are speculative. They probably used animal hides, birch bark, and tortoise shells, and prepared birch sap for adhesive purposes. Clothing could have been bound tightly to their bodies with string, since we lack evidence of sewing tools. But Neanderthals in the eastern Mediterranean may have been naked, since they did not transmit lice to modern humans. Placement of Neanderthal hearths near the mouths of caves shows that they considered ventilation of the smoke. In the plains of Ukraine they made large 7 m by 10 m oval huts with a frame of mammoth bones, like later modern humans. They were likely capable of building reed boats since they reached islands such as Crete and Sardinia. Neanderthals almost certainly spoke languages, but probably lacked certain sounds that we can make. They interbred with their new modern human neighbours on several occasions, resulting in humans outside Africa, including Europeans and Indigenous Canadians, having about 1.4% Neanderthal DNA, with Africans having about 0.3% due to humans migrating back into their home continent, so in some sense our Denisovan and Neanderthal ancestors have survived in us. The principal reproductive encounters between Neanderthals and modern humans were in Southwest Asia about 100 000 years ago and again in the same region between 65 000 and 47 000 years ago, in southern Siberia between 58 000 and 52 000 years ago, and in Europe between 54 000 and 24 500 years ago.

Life for the African or southern Homo heidelbergensis, sometimes still called Homo rhodesiensis, got much worse in two periods, 415 000 to 360 000 years ago and 340 000 to 310 000 years ago, roughly corresponding to the extensive Pre-Illinois A or Mindel glaciation 374 000 to 337 000 years ago, and by the time climatic conditions improved in the period 310 000 to 210 000 years ago, we can say that Homo sapiens had emerged. Modern human men have brains about 1 260 cm3 in volume and women about 1 130 cm3; in terms of height, men average about 171 cm and women about 159 cm; finally, in terms of weight, men average 77 kg and women 59 kg. Homo sapiens scraped by in eastern South Africa, a hemisphere away from other humans, and adapted to extremely dry conditions with all the ingenuity they could muster. As conditions worsened in other parts of Africa, groups of genetically diverse humans in our home continent either died out or were forced into the refuge in eastern South Africa and amalgamated into Homo sapiens. But when conditions improved about 300 000 years ago, our species recolonized much of Africa, with the common modern human lineage being in the vicinity of southern Cameroon in Central Africa on the border of Western Africa, soon spreading into Western Africa and Eastern Africa. A climate disruption occurred about 210 000 to 200 000 years ago, and this is when the human population began to split into different Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplotypes or groups within Africa. Roughly 150 000 years ago our ancestors in Central and Eastern Africa spread into Southern Africa, with distinct populations in Eastern, Central, and Western Africa 130,000 years ago, and in Northern Africa 100 000 years ago or more.

Prince Edward County during the Ice Age: The Tarantian Age

The Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Pleistocene Epoch, Tarantian Age (129 000 to 11,700 years ago) or Late Pleistocene saw the Wisconsin or Würm glaciation 29 000 to 14 000 years ago, the last period of glaciation so far. Each time the ice sheets advanced, they further gouged out the Great Lakes Basin, making the bottom of Lake Ontario 170 m below sea level. The Ontario Lobe of the Wisconsin Glaciation advanced west across the basin of Lake Ontario, covering Prince Edward County and probably widening Prince Edward Bay as it ground forward, often several metres a day, along the existing contours of the land. In the process it bulldozed the topsoil and carried with it stones and gravel embedded in the ice that ground away the rock beneath the topsoil, depositing all this material in what is now the fertile plain of the Ohio Valley of the United States. There are prominent ice scours going east-west just west of South Bay. Then, after 18 000 years ago the ice began to recede, leaving the Oak Ridges Moraine on the north flank of the Ontario Lobe, sandwiched between more ice to the north. About 14 200 years ago, where Lake Ontario is now, there formed what geologists call Glacial Lake Iroquois, with its waters washing against an ice sheet bordering modern-day Sharbot Lake Provincial Park, Brockville, Ontario, and Potsdam, New York. About 13 800 years ago Glacial Lake Iroquois drained via a huge river passing Syracuse, New York, into the Mohawk River and Hudson River, reaching the Atlantic Ocean at New York City, and was fed by Lake Tonawanda’s two waterfalls from Early Lake Erie near Lockport, New York, east of the modern-day Niagara River. Lake levels were 30 m higher than today, with Davenport Road being the shoreline in Toronto, and Prince Edward County, in the centre of the lake, was entirely underwater, with the south shore of Prince Edward County being about 35 m under the surface. Fine silt from rivers draining into Lake Iroquois accumulated as clay in many parts of Prince Edward County, in particular between West Lake and Picton, but also in Waupoos and South Bay.

The Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Pleistocene Epoch, Tarantian Age marked the expansion of modern humans from Africa into Eurasia and the Americas. Remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens have been found in Morocco, Ethiopia, and South Africa. About 130 000 to 100 000 years ago a first group of modern humans migrated out of Africa, although this first wave may have died out, unable to cope with Ice Age conditions. A second wave, which survived, left Africa about 70 000 years ago and travelled along the southern coast of Asia through the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Southeast Asia as far as the Philippines, New Guinea, and about 65 000 years ago Australia. A third wave left Africa about 50 000 years ago and moved into Southwestern Asia, having some children with the local Homo neanderthalensis or Neanderthals. This third group moved into Europe, Central Asia, and East Asia about 45 000 years ago and what is now southern Siberia about 40 000 years ago. By about 30 000 years ago two successive small groups of modern humans arrived in an ice-free enclave in Alaska and the Yukon. Their ancestors had migrated from Africa to Southwest Asia and then, after parting ways with the ancestors of Europeans and others about 45,000 years ago, travelled north and south of the Himalayas to what is now Siberia, Mongolia, and China. These hardy people who crossed the Ice Age Bering land bridge into Alaska and the Yukon in pursuit of megafauna such as horses, steppe bison, muskoxen, woolly mammoths, caribou, and lions, were the ancestors of the Indigenous inhabitants of the Americas—with the exception of the Athabaskans or Na Dene and Eskaleut or Inuit-Yupik-Unangan people, who arrived later from Northeast Asia but had mixed with Ancient Beringians who had migrated back into Northeast Asia. Contact between Northern Eurasians (including some Europeans) and Beringians continued from about 25 000 to 20 000 years ago. Footprints in New Mexico dated to 23 000 to 21 000 years ago indicate that an initial party of humans, almost certainly belonging to mitochondrial DNA haplotype D4h3a, managed to get from northeastern coastal China near the Huánghǎi or Yellow Sea to Alaska and then, probably by boat, around the ice sheets covering what is now Canada from coast to coast about 26 000 years ago. It was recently discovered that the marks accompanying their footprints were from the poles of a wooden travois they were using to pull their baggage. Archaeological sites in South America that appear to date to about 25 000 years ago have long been controversial, but it is now looking more likely that they are valid. People of this haplotype had migrated from Africa through Southwest Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia to East Asia, and from there into Northeast Asia and the Americas. In the Americas their DNA shows up in Indigenous people on the west coast of the United States, remains of ancient but not modern people in Canada, and in modern Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. The very similar haploytpe D4h3b is found in China and another variant among the Indigenous Ainu of Japan. More obvious in the DNA record is a second wave of migration in boats along the Aleutian and British Columbia islands of the Pacific coast between 20 000 and 18 000 years ago—we can average this out to about 19 000 years ago. Once past the ice sheet, the Lithic stage culture or Paleo-Indians, as they are known by archaeologists, moved south along the beaches of the Pacific coast of the Americas by boat and on foot to the Monte Verde site in Chile by 14 600 years ago, with others fanning out east into the rest of North America and South America. They did not necessarily sprint or paddle at top speed across the Americas, for shifting campsites a mere 2 500 m each year would have produced this geographic spread, and they had to adapt to new animals, plants, and climatic conditions as they moved. But evidence suggests that these humans moved quickly and were eager to scout out new resources. One of the oldest sites in North America is Meadowcroft Rockshelter near Avella, Pennsylvania, close to the border of Ohio and south of Lake Erie. It is likely that people from this region migrated north into New York and Ontario after the Ice Age and constitute some of the genetic ancestors if not the linguistic ancestors of the present Indigenous inhabitants of the province. Amazingly, the rock shelter may have been inhabited 19 000 years ago, and certainly by 16 000 years ago, suggesting that pre-Clovis Lithic stage people from Alaska quickly reached this spot, with their artifacts buried 3.5 m under the surface when found. Lithic, Archaic, and Woodland cultures lived or camped here over thousands of years. Bifaces, lamellar blades, a lanceolate projectile point, and chipping debris have been found, the earliest artifacts with a Eurasiatic style. We have also found the bones of 149 species of animals, as well as fruit pits, nuts, and seeds. It was during the period 13 800 to 11 400 years ago that mass extinctions of the megafauna of North America took place. This coincides with the dry Younger Dryas period, but more crucially the arrival of the pre-Clovis and Clovis Lithic culture in North America. These people, ancestors of most of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, were extremely skilled hunters, and local apex carnivores and herbivores had not evolved in company with humans and may not have recognized these puny creatures as dangerous. When humans arrived in North America and areas just south of the Laurentide ice sheet—the Ohio River Valley and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Long Island, New York—they found ancient bison, giant bison, western bison, giant muskoxen, shrub-oxen, Harlan’s muskoxen, Soergel’s oxen, stag moose, the Torontoceros hypnogeos or “horn of Toronto” deer found in excavations for the Bloor-Danforth subway line in 1977, dwarf pronghorn, flat-headed peccaries, Western camels, horses, stilt-legged horses, tapirs, smilodons or sabertooth cats, scimitar cats, American cheetahs, North American cougars (range later repopulated from South America), Pleistocene North American jaguars, American lions, dire wolves, short-faced skunks, steppe polecats, giant short-faced bears, American mastodons, Columbian mammoths, woolly mammoths, giant beavers, giant pika, Megalonyx ground sloths, Harlan’s ground sloths, and beautiful armadillos. Many of these animals would have moved north toward Prince Edward County from Pennsylvania during interglacial periods. All of them disappeared, and in many cases their bones have been found at human kill sites. Controversy remains as to whether climate change killed them, humans, or a combination of the two; the last option seems most likely. Some species survived, however: grey wolves, lynxes, grizzly bears, American black bears, caribou, moose, wapiti, white-tailed deer, and muskoxen.

Prince Edward County in the Aftermath of the Quaternary Ice Age

The Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Holocene Epoch (11 700 years ago/9700 Before the Common Era or BCE to the present) is marked by the end of the Quaternary Ice Age, a rise in temperature by 10℃ between 10 000 and 8000 BCE, a rise in ocean levels by 120 m, a flourishing of animals and plants, and the arrival of agriculture, villages, towns, cities, and civilizations. Our ancestors also finally made it back to Prince Edward County for the first time in about 150 million years, having been cut off in Afro-Eurasia during the breakup of Pangaea in the late Jurassic Period. About 11 200 BCE, as the ice sheet retreated to Carleton Place and Cornwall, Ontario, water from Lake Iroquois began to drain around the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York south of Montréal into modern-day Lake Champlain and on south into the Hudson River to the Atlantic Ocean. Water levels may have fallen 20 m in a single year. Geologists now rename Lake Iroquois Lake Frontenac and then Lake St. Lawrence. Parts of Prince Edward County began to peek above the water, notably the heights of Ameliasburg Ward above Rednersville and north of Lake Consecon, part of Hillier Ward southeast of Lake Consecon, the heights of Sophiasburg Ward overlooking the Skyway Bridge to Deseronto, and the plateau from Picton’s Macaulay Mountain in Hallowell Ward to Glenora and the Rutherford-Stevens Lookout overlooking Smith Bay in North Marysburgh, McMahon Bluff at Black River, and the small height overlooking Milford from the south in South Marysburgh. The south shore of the county was still underwater. Icebergs that broke off the ice sheet and drifted east through Lake St. Lawrence dragged and caught on the lake bottom near Roblin Mills north of Picton, and the scouring lines can still be seen in the fields at 358, 385, 427, 582, and 698 Bethesda Road, Prince Edward, Ontario, and 100 Machill Road, Prince Edward, Ontario. From the ground they look like straight, overgrown ditches, but from the air they are more obvious and impressive. Lake Algonquin, which in about 11 200 BCE included Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Simcoe, drained through three channels near Peterborough, Ontario, into the Trent River and into Lake St. Lawrence at Trenton, Ontario. In about 10 900 BCE the ice in the St. Lawrence Valley gave way near Trois-Rivières, Québec, and the land had been so compressed by the weight of the ice sheet that Atlantic Ocean rushed into the St. Lawrence Valley, Ottawa River Valley, and Lake Champlain, bringing salt water as far as Perth and Kingston, Ontario, with whales swimming over Ottawa; the bones of a humpback whale have been found at Smith Falls and those of a bowfin whale near White Lake just north of Smith Falls. Only the pressure of fresh water flowing out of Lake Admiralty, a smaller Lake Ontario, kept salt water from entering its basin, which at the time was at sea level. Prince Edward County was suddenly and completely drained as most of the water of Lake St. Lawrence quickly merged with the sea and left a small Lake Admiralty. The shoreline, as much as 35 m lower than the present water level, was about 20 km away from the present shore of the county, and Swetman/False Duck Island, Timber Island, Waupoos Island, and Prince Edward Bay were part of the mainland. The huge river from Lake Algonquin via the Trent River now continued its course east through what is now the Bay of Quinte, draining into Lake Admiralty near Point Pleasant, that is the tip of North Marysburgh. A smaller branch of the estuary flowed from Trenton west through Carrying Place and drained into Lake Admiralty well off Brighton and Presqu'ile Provincial Park. These two rivers isolated the county from the mainland. Water from the Trenton River/Bay of Quinte River carved a deep channel north of Amherst Island, and water from the river and the rest of Lake Admiralty carved a deep channel on both sides of Wolfe Island opposite Kingston. As rain replaced snow during much of the year and the land experienced isostatic rebound once relieved of the weight of the ice sheet, the water level of Lake Ontario began to rise in about 8500 BCE and filled Prince Edward Bay and the Bay of Quinte. Between 9600 BCE and 8200 BCE the salt water of the Champlain Sea had receded and Lake Ontario began draining into the St. Lawrence River as it does today, with water levels more or less stabilizing in about 4000 BCE at their present level. Uplift around Kingston, Ontario, was faster than the in centre of the lake, and the eastern end of Lake Ontario is rising faster than the centre of the lake due to rebound, trapping more water in the lake. The water level of Lake Ontario has been rising about 10 cm a century, or 1 cm every decade.

As the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated from Lake Ontario starting in about 12 200 BCE, it dropped glacial erratics or 1.3 to 1.1 billion-year-old Precambrian Supereon, Proterozoic Eon, Mesoproterozoic Era granite boulders in random places in the county. Glacial and post-glacial sediments including sand, gravel, and clay were deposited in a wide belt between West Lake and Picton. Drumlins or oval hills of gravelly glacial till, typically deposited in the intervals between advancing glaciers that followed the lower elevations of land, are found all over the county. An esker, the deposits of a glacial meltwater stream flowing underneath the ice sheet or between ice walls, left gravel and sand glacial till along Ridge Road between West Lake and Picton, and today gravel and sand quarries line the road. Wave action of the prevailing west winds of a falling Lake Iroquois and then a rising Lake Ontario eroded some of the glacial sand deposits of this east-west ridge of glacial till and turned them into the north-south dunes of Sandbanks Provincial Park, forming baymouth bars and creating East Lake and West Lake. Lakeshore Beach on West Lake is 8 km long, the world’s longest freshwater baymouth bar dune system. Clay and sandy soil in the centre of the county supported a new forest dominated by enormous white pines. The Lake Iroquois clay deposited along the shore of Waupoos and South Bay eventually supported the growth of sugar maple, red oak, American elm, American beech, and white pine trees. In other places, most of Athol and North and South Marysburgh, including Long Point, the terrain was virtually bare bedrock limestone and shale tableland. This area was farther away from rivers that were depositing silt, and the stormy waters and strong currents in the middle of Lake Ontario that washed over the rising but still submerged tableland were more likely to wash sediment away than deposit it. Once above water, this barren expanse of rock developed thin, stony limestone Farmington loam soils less than 30 cm deep created by the weathering of bedrock as annual winter ice entered small crevices and cracked apart the solid rock and organic plant material gradually accumulated. This soil eventually supported bur oak, shagbark hickory, eastern red cedar, and common juniper shrubs, with eastern white cedar in areas with moist, moderately shallow soil, such as steep slopes on Prince Edward Bay. A bur oak and shagbark hickory forest with some meadows dominated the south shore of Prince Edward County when the Europeans arrived, making them believe that the soil below was very fertile when this was not the case. Even with tree cover, the alvar tableland dried out quickly in periods of drought, with water draining into the bedrock, unimpeded by a clay layer. A few wetlands on the south shore with reedy marshes, treed swamps, pools, and ponds had different vegetation such as black willows and eastern white cedar and built up a layer of muddy soil.

Lithic Stage People Settle in Prince Edward County

In about 10 500 BCE modern humans, in the form of the Lithic stage cultures or Paleo-Indians (22 000 BCE to 8000 BCE), arrived in Prince Edward County. Lithic stage people had bypassed the ice sheet covering Canada by travelling via boat island to island from Alaska along the coast of British Columbia about 22 000 BCE (24 000 years ago). Arriving in the northeastern United States, some of them migrated east across the continent to the vicinity of Pennsylvania. As soon as the ice began to recede in about 12 000 BCE, they explored the Ontario tundra with clumps of dwarf spruce. However, genetic evidence indicates that the bulk of the early arrivals in Ontario came from the west, the vicinity of British Columbia and Alberta, and continued on east to Labrador. Prince Edward County would have looked a lot like Nunavut does today. Changes in climate and therefore of vegetation caused the extinction of mammoths, mastodons, and giant species of bear, beaver, and bison, but Lithic stage hunters probably played a role in finishing off animals that had no fear of humans. One of their chert spear points, younger than 10 500 BCE when Prince Edward County emerged from the water, has been found in the county; however, since this was prior to the land rebounding, and the shoreline was farther out, most of their beach campsites are now under the waters of Lake Ontario. Indigenous people exploited a number of chert rock sites to create sharp spearheads, axeheads, knives, scrapers, fire starters, and eventually arrowheads, with the products traded around southern Ontario. Ordovician Period Bobcaygeon Formation Bobcaygeon or Marmora chert was found around Marmora, Marmora and Lake, Hastings County, Ontario, and the Trent Valley, not far from Prince Edward County. Balsam Lake speckled chert was found in Ordovician Period Bobcaygeon Formation rock at Balsam Lake in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario. Another relatively close source of chert was Fossil Hill Collingwood chert, a light blue to creamy yellow Middle Silurian Period Lockport Group chert found under dolomite in the northern Niagara Escarpment near Red Wing, Clarksburg, Grey County, Ontario. Chert nodules of the Ancaster Chert Beds of the Midlle Silurian Lockport Group were also mined in the southern Niagara Escarpment near Lower Sydenham Falls, 115 Sydenham Road, Dundas, Hamilton, Ontario. Hunters followed caribou herds on the tundra, and like many other cultures of the age and more recent times they probably practiced shamanism to connect with animal spirits and improve their fortune in hunting. The total population of Ontario was only about 100 to 200 people, but some of them probably hunted caribou and muskoxen on the plain that is now Prince Edward Bay and much of the bottom of Lake Ontario off the south shore.

Glacial Kame People in the County during the Early Archaic Period

In about 8000 BCE the Early Archaic period (8000 BCE to 6000 BCE) began, characterized by the Glacial Kame culture of southern Ontario 8000 BCE to 1000 BCE. The Glacial Kame culture practiced the custom of burying their dead on top of glacial-deposited gravel hills called kames. These nomadic hunter gatherers were probably direct descendants of the Lithic stage inhabitants of Ontario, with slightly more sophisticated and more diverse types of stone spear points. We do not know what language they spoke, although it is conceivable that the Glacial Kame people spoke a language or languages related to Beothuk, who were living in Québec in 1600 BCE before expanding into Newfoundland and Labrador. Some of their genes are almost certainly still in the modern Indigenous inhabitants of the province. The climate was very warm from 8000 until about 3000 BCE, then a very long and fluctuating cooling trend called neoglaciation began that continued until about 1850 CE. Early Archaic people, slightly more numerous than their Lithic predecessors, lived in wigwams made from coniferous trees and later from mixed coniferous and deciduous trees as the climate changed. Barren-ground caribou and boreal woodland caribou having followed the retreating tundra and boreal forest north, the local inhabitants hunted deer, elk, and moose with spears powered by atlatls and collected and processed nuts for consumption. Early Archaic people used the shells of marine animals for various purposes and began to trade copper made from 99% pure copper nuggets and copper veins along the southern shoreline of Lake Superior. They cold-worked the copper instead of melting it before working it. Major quarries were located on Isle Royale, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Brule River, all in northern Michigan, but the copper could end up in communities thousands of kilometres away. In addition, they began to produce thick, plain ceramics. Glacial Kame people would have hunted and gathered food in Prince Edward County.

Glacial Kame People in the County during the Middle Archaic Period

The Middle Archaic period (6000 BCE to 2500 BCE) was characterized by the Glacial Kame culture of southern Ontario 8000 BCE to 1000 BCE and the Old Copper complex of the Western Great Lakes 4000 BCE to 1000 BCE. The neoglacial trend was cooler and rainier, and some coastal areas of Lake Ontario like Hamilton Harbour flooded. Forests in southeastern Ontario were now mainly deciduous, as they are today. Old Copper complex people made widespread use of copper artifacts, including tools, weapons, and ornaments, created by cold-working and some heating. By 3000 BCE copper was being used more for ornaments than for utilitarian items. Some of that copper made it from Lake Superior where it was mined to eastern Ontario. The Lake Ontario shoreline was about where it is now in 4000 BCE, and Galcial Kame culture people of the Middle Archaic, with bands of 35 to 50 individuals, eventually adopted nets with sinkers to increase fish catches. They also had stone knives, adzes, ungrooved axes, and finely-made bannerstones, which were polished stone tubes with wings probably used as atlatl counterweights for spears. Bone was used for barbed points, harpoon points, and needles. Glacial Kame Archaic spear points have been found at Wellington and around East Lake, with the Whiteford site, Borden system number AlGh-18, recorded by James Kenneth “Ken” Swayze, being where various Archaic spearpoints were found by a campsite owner on the southwest shore of East Lake. An Archaic grooved axe was found in Picton by James Kenneth “Ken” Swayze at a site with Borden system number BaGg-3. Average life spans were probably around 30 to 35 years, although there are remains of individuals 50 to 60 years old. Burials involved both cremation and bodies interred with grave goods. It can be taken for granted that Glacial Kame Middle Archaic hunters, fishers, and plant gatherers, possibly speaking a language related to Beothuk, walked across or paddled past the south shore of Prince Edward County.

Glacial Kame People in the County during the Late Archaic Period

The Late Archaic period (2500 BCE to 1000 BCE) was still characterized by the Glacial Kame culture of southern Ontario 8000 BCE to 1000 BCE and the Old Copper complex of the Great Lakes 4000 BCE to 1000 BCE. Lifestyles were similar to the earlier stages of the Archaic, although spear points were smaller. The East Lake point is a spearpoint made of Ramah Quartzite extracted at the northern tip of Labrador and traded to its final resting place near East Lake before 2000 BCE, showing the extensive band-by-band trade routes of this period. A Glacial Kame burial has been found near Picton. Cremations and burials with grave goods have been discovered in southern Ontario, with grave goods including slate gorgets, copper adzes, marine shell gorgets, and bird stones with protuberant eyes. The purpose of stones carved to resemble birds, with holes near the top and base, is uncertain, although one proposal is that the holes were used to straighten fibres for weaving and making mats. Bird stones may also have had a ceremonial purpose. Cemeteries suggest that bands of 35 to 50 individuals lived in specific territories rather than roaming widely, but people frequently switched between bands, probably due to marriage. While family groups likely dispersed in winter hunting camps, we know that bands would congregate seasonally at sites by larger lakes and rivers where food was abundant, and their artistic pursuits indicate that they may have had more leisure time than their ancestors.

Algic-speaking people lived in the Columbia Plateau of Washington, Oregon, and part of Idaho in about 5000 BCE and mixed with the Athapaskan peoples moving around Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, British Columbia, and Alberta. The Proto-Algonquian branch of the Algic people, destined to reach Ontario, migrated east from the northern Washington area across the Rocky Mountains into Alberta or Montana in about 3000 BCE. With a Shield Archaic culture, they probably reached the north shore of Lake Superior by about 2000 BCE, and were north of Lake Huron and the upper reaches of the Ottawa River in about 1000 BCE, expanding south into southwestern Ontario by 600 BCE. There is no archaeological evidence of violence, so the bands of Algonquian hunter-gatherers may have peacefully lived alongside the Glacial Kame people already living in Ontario and traded and intermarried with them. The language of the Glacial Kame people assimilated by the Algonquians may have been related to Beothuk, whose ancestors were living in Québec in 1600 BCE before moving into Newfoundland and Labrador. Meanwhile, Iroquoian people were living in the Allegheny Plateau of the Appalachian Mountains in New York and Pennsylvania in about 2700 BCE, but had probably not descended into the lowlands of northwestern New York to reach the southern shore of Lake Ontario yet.

The Algonquians in the County during the Early Woodland Period

The Early Woodland period (1000 BCE to 1 BCE) was characterized by the Red Ochre culture of the western Great Lakes 1000 BCE to 400 BCE, the Saugeen complex of southeastern Ontario 600 BCE to 500 CE, the Point Peninsula complex of central and eastern Ontario 400 BCE to 1000 CE, and the Laurel complex of northwestern Ontario 300 BCE to 1100 CE. Linguistic, genetic, and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that all of these cultures were Algonquian-speaking, although earlier languages may have still existed beside them, with the Saugeen complex of southeastern Ontario being the centre of Algonquian expansion east to found the Point Peninsula complex of central and eastern Ontario. Some Algonquians then migrated back north in about 300 BCE with new Hopewell-influenced technological and cultural characterisitcs due to contact with the peoples of the Ohio Valley south of Lake Erie, and these migrants founded the Laurel complex. Other Algonquians, continuing east from Ontario in about 300 BCE, reached Québec, the Maritimes, and New England, with the Mi’kmaq language of the Maritimes evolving unusual characteristics showing that it had separated from neighbouring Algonquian languages by 200 BCE. The Siksikáí’tsitapi/Blackfoot Algonguian language of Alberta and Montana, adopted by people who were genetically distinct from Algonquians but traded with them for Lake Superior copper, probably existed before 1000 BCE, and there were soon separate Plains-Central Algonquian (Prairies, Great Lakes, and Québec) and Eastern Algonquian (Maritimes and U.S. East Coast) languages, with dialectal differences starting in about 150 BCE and a linguistic barrier in place by about 700 CE.

In eastern Ontario, including Prince Edward County, the Point Peninsula complex is divided into three phases, the first being the Trent phase of about 400 BCE to 1 CE. The Algonquian-speaking Point Peninsula complex of central and eastern Ontario is marked by the introduction of a new type of ceramics with superior modelling of the clay, thinner vessels that were better fired, and finer grit or siliceous sandstone temper added to prevent shrinkage and cracking during the drying and firing of the vessels. Pots have a thin, everted, pointed or rounded lip, a thicker everted rim 2 cm below it, and pseudo-scallop-shell impressed decorations, as well as thin serpentine lines arranged obliquely, vertically, or horizontally. Comb-like, dentate-tool-marked vessels and cord-wrapped-stick stamped vessels are also common. Small campsites by water are typical for these Indigenous bands. Some Algonquian people of the Point Peninsula culture lived on Main Duck Island during this period, and doubtless elsewhere in the county. Point Peninsula people were influenced by the Hopewell culture or tradition of 200 BCE to 500 CE centred in the Ohio Valley, which was not a single culture but rather a wide trading system. This system included the products of the Point Peninsula people, as well as obsidian or volcanic glass from the Yellowstone area of Wyoming, copper from Lake Superior, and seashells from the Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, being exchanged band by band over thousands of kilometres. As with later Indigenous cultures, trade was not capitalistic, but rather to solidify social bonds, with gift giving bestowing prestige on the givers; reciprocity could occur, but was not expected. This latter point would later frustrate and enrage later European fur traders, who generously distributed goods before the trapping season and then expected Indigenous people to reciprocate with an exactly equivalent value of furs. They might get the furs they wanted, or they might not.

The Algonquians in the County during the Middle Woodland Period

The Middle Woodland period (1 CE to 600 CE) was characterized by the Rice Lake phase of the Point Peninsula complex of eastern Ontario, 1 CE to 800 CE, the Laurel complex of northwestern Ontario, 300 BCE to 1100 CE, and the Saugeen complex of southwestern Ontario 600 BCE to 500 CE, all influenced by the Hopewell tradition of 200 BCE to 500 CE in the Ohio Valley. The Hopewell tradition may have broken down around 500 CE due to Algonquian expansion. Archaeology and linguistics indicates a migration of Algonquians, likely ancestors of the Thâkîwaki/Sauk, Meshwahkihaki/Fox, Kiikaapoa/Kickapoo, Mashkotêwi/Mascouten, Myaamiaki/Miami, and Šaawanwaki/Shawnee, from southwestern Ontario into Michigan and northern Ohio, perhaps aided by their acquisition of the bow and arrow, with some of these people then moving east in about 600 BCE along the north or south shore of Lake Erie, the south shore of Lake Ontario, and through central New York in about 650 CE into New England, New Jersey, and Delaware in about 700 CE, linking up with earlier Algonquian arrivals in New England and others already moving south into Virginia and North Carolina. Trade and cultural links between Algonquians around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and those on the Atlantic coast seem to have been interrupted in about 700-900 CE, likely by a more serious northward expansion of Iroquoians into northeastern New York up to the south shore of Lake Ontario, although the Proto-Huronians had probably already crossed into the Niagara Peninsula by 500 CE and the St. Lawrence Iroquoians may have already started moving toward Québec. Between 300 CE and 1000 CE Algonquians speaking Cree languages spread Laurel complex and Point Peninsula complex pottery across northern Ontario and Québec. Like the local Indigenous people that the Cree linguistically assimilated, they practiced hunting and gathering, but they may have had one or more prestigious cultural characteristics that persuaded the locals to gradually adopt the tongue of the new arrivals. Gourds may have been introduced, as well as exotic cherts from the Ohio Valley. The arrival of the bow and arrow from the northwest, and ultimately Central Asia, where 80 000-year-old arrowheads have been found in Uzbekistan, in about 250-500 CE made hunting much easier and very likely contributed to Algonquian expansion. Gill net fishing began in about 700 CE. However, cultural prestige may not have come from new plants or tools, but rather from new, charismatic religious ideas and customs from the Ohio Valley cultures, in particular mortuary ceremonialism, mound building, and a degree of social stratification. Freshwater shellfish gathering became common, as seen in the refuse of their middens, and fishing may have exceeded deer hunting in dietary importance. Bands had base camps on rivers and lakes surrounded by smaller campsites where kin groups or other small groups of people could exploit local seasonal resources. Pottery, used more consistently year round and in larger quantity, often had interior surfaces with oblique, vertical, or horizontal lines made by a dentate comb-like tool. Exterior surfaces were stippled. On the necks of vessels were ribbon-like bands of decoration. Lips were either rounded or flat, with colarless rims below them characterized by convex interior and concave exterior profiles. Influenced by Hopewellian culture in the Ohio Valley, the curving 160 m long and 1.8 m high earthen burial complex called the Serpent Mound was built on Rice Lake, Peterborough County, at Serpent Mounds Park, 221 Serpent Mounds Road, Keene, Ontario, between 50 BCE and 300 CE, likely by Prairie-Central Algonquians. The bodies in sub-mound burial pits were accompanied by prestigious goods such as copper, shell, and silver beads, mandibles of timber wolf, bird, and bear, beaks of loons, a limestone animal effigy, and a massive double-bitted adze 30 cm long. Another 13 people were buried in the upper projecting serpent part of the mound, accompanied by disc shell beads, a painted turtle carapace, a fishbone hook, skulls of mink, beaks of loons, and copper foil beads. Other mounds around the Serpent Mound contained 47 people with no grave goods. The people buried in the pits under the Serpent Mound may have represented a lineage of prestigious community leaders, with others being people of normal status brought here for burial or reburial on a seasonal or yearly basis.

Most of the smaller-sized mound complexes in Ontario were built around Rice Lake and the Trent River, but one secular-religious complex was in Prince Edward County. The 100 burnt stone mounds along the north shore of Ameliasburgh Ward of Prince Edward County from Rednersville east through Rossmore to Massassauga Point, across the Bay of Quinte from Belleville, are believed to be Middle Woodland sites. The mounds, built of small blocks of angular gneiss, had no bodies or grave goods and were about 1.5 m tall and up to 15 m in diameter, with an indentation in the top 2.5 m in diameter. It is believed that this is where stones were heated in fires to boil water in pits for cooking and food processing, such as making acorns edible for humans. However, there are also small burial mounds with marine shell necklaces, clay and copper tobacco pipes, and exotic cherts in the same area of Prince Edward County, possibly but not necessarily connected to the people who used the cooking facilities. In some places, Point Peninsula people buried their dead in mortuary mounds and interred with them exotic grave goods such as copper and even silver pan pipes, marine shell gorgets, and exotic cherts. In about 121 CE nine pan pipes and three silver and three copper pan pipe covers were buried with an older woman and some children among 61 individuals in the Le Vesconte Mound overlooking the Trent River 9 km northeast of Campbellford, Trent Hills, Northumberland County, Ontario, which is also north of Brighton and just northwest of Prince Edward County. However, pan pipes were only in fashion from 200 BCE to 400 CE, suddenly appearing and then disappearing. North of 1027 County Road 7, Prince Edward County, in a field accessed from the end of Treasure Cove Lane, 50 m from the north shore of North Marysburgh, is the Wagner Cabin Site, Borden number BaGg-31. It has 12 000 artifacts, many from the Middle Woodland period, when it was used as an occasional campsite, with other more modern artifacts from a former settler cabin dating to the period from the 1790s to 1837. Other Middle Woodland Algonquian sites have been found at South Bay in South Marysburgh Ward near 2100 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, the mouth of Black Creek near 913 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, the shoreline of Smith Bay near 355 Morrison Point Road, Milford, Ontario, and two sites in the village of Cherry Valley in Athol Ward close to East Lake on opposite banks of the creek at 1628 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Ontario. Another Algonquian site was on Lane Creek in Hallowell Ward north of West Lake near 1201 Gilead Road, Bloomfield, Ontario. Other seasonal communities were at Smokes Point on Wellers Bay in Ameliasburg Ward near 657 Smokes Point Road, Carrying Place, Prince Edward County, Ontario, the vicinity of 154 Twelve O’Clock Point Road, Carrying Place, Quinte West, Hastings County, Ontario, near the eastern end of the Murray Canal on the Bay of Quinte, and two sites near the mouth of Sawguin Creek on the Bay of Quinte east of 787 Marsh Road, Ameliasburg, Ontario. Nearby, two communities were clustered at the mouth of the Trent River in Trenton, Quinte West, Hastings County, Ontario, and four were clustered around the mouth of the Napanee River, three on the north or Deseronto, Hastings County, Ontario, side and one on the south or Bethany side in Greater Napanee, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario. These spots were all ideal for fishing, waterfowl, and other wildlife, and subsequent generations of Indigenous people, no matter what language they spoke, would keep reusing the same sites. The most impressive Indigenous structures in Canada are the 15 Genwaajiwanaang Mounds or Manitou Mounds up to 12 m tall by 30 village sites along the north shore of the Rainy River from Lake of the Woods to Rainy Lake, by Fort Frances, Ontario, built by the Algonquian Laurel culture between 300 BCE and 1100 CE and Blackduck culture between 800 CE and 1600 CE. The Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre, a museum for the Rainy River mounds, is at 340 Ross Road, Stratton, Rainy River District, Ontario. All of the mounds in Ontario are built on high ground overlooking rivers or lakes. Algonquians had been interacting with Ohio Valley cultures for centuries by now, so it is not surprising if they picked up mound-building and other Hopewell traditions.

The Anishinaabeg in the County during the Late Woodland Period

The Late Woodland period (600 CE to 1650 CE) was characterized by the end of the the Rice Lake phase of the Point Peninsula complex of eastern Ontario, 1 CE to 800 CE, and the slightly overlapping Sandbanks (or Pickering) phase, 700 CE to 1000 CE, the final phase of the Point Peninsula complex of eastern Ontario, based on the artifacts of the Lakeshore Lodge site in Prince Edward County. It also marks the end of the Laurel complex of northwestern Ontario 300 BCE to 1100 CE. Most importantly, it is characterized by the transition to agriculture in western, central, and eastern Ontario. During this period long-distance trade and a more stable leadership of chiefs and shamans appeared among bands of 50 people. By 1000 CE a wide array of Algonquian languages had appeared from the Prairies to the Atlantic Ocean, including Ojibwe-Potewatomi. By 1500 CE Anishinaabemowin, which is the language of Anishinaabe or Ojibwe individuals—known in the plural as the Anishinaabeg or Ojibweg people—the Bodéwadmi/Potewatomi language, and the Cree languages were distinct from one another, even if a considerable degree of mutual comprehension was possible. Several dialects of Anishinaabemowin appeared as well by about 1500, including Western Ojibwe or Saulteaux west of Lake Superior, Southwestern Ojibwe or Chippewa southwest of Lake Superior, Northwestern Ojibwe and Oji-Cree north of Lake Superior, Odaawaag/Ottawa around most of the shores of Lake Huron, Eastern Ojibwe between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River, Nibiinsing/Nipissing on Lake Nipissing, and Omàmiwininì/Algonquin in western Québec; Misizaagiing/Mississauga, once spoken on the north shore of Lake Huron and after 1700 on the north shore of Lake Ontario, is sometimes considered a dialect distinct from Eastern Ojibwe, although any differences are slight. In the Canadian Prairies the Algonquian Hinono’eino/Arapaho, Tsétsêhéstâhese/Cheyenne, and Aaninena/Gros Ventre languages had appeared by 1500, and these peoples began to move south on foot, following the bison into the American Prairies where later, between 1730 and 1770, they would acquire Spanish horses from Mexico. Algonquian Naskapi and Innu people expanded east from Québec into Labrador and made contact with the Beothuks of the island of Newfoundland, who had settled there from Labrador in about 1600 BCE. The Beothuks spoke an unrelated language, but adopted some Algonquian words. According to Anishinaabeg oral history, their people came from the Atlantic coast in the vicinity of the Gaspé peninsula of Québec and the Maritimes, where members of the Algonquian Wabenaki Confederacy, including the Mi'kmaq, live today. The story says that the ancestors of the Anishinaabeg, warned by prophets that they would be destroyed if they did not move, embarked on a 500-year journey with seven stopping points. The timing is very vague, but if the Council of Three Fires was truly formed by the Anishinaabeg on Mackinac Island, Michigan, in 796 CE, as suggested by midewiigwas or painted pictographic birch bark scrolls, some carbon dated to about 1560, this migration took place a very long time ago. Using canoes in summer and sleds in winter, they moved southwest from the Gaspé and Maritimes region to Mooniyaang or Montréal, Québec, then past Prince Edward County to Gichi-gakaabikaang or Niagara Falls, and then to Wawiiantanong or the Detroit River at Detroit, Michigan. Here the main group headed north to Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, Ontario, then Baawitigong or Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/Michigan, with some continuing west to Wiikwedong or Duluth, Minnesota, circling southeast around the western end of Lake Superior to Mooningwanekaaning or Madeleine Island at La Pointe, Wisconsin. The east to west movement of the Anishinaabeg oral history does not correspond particularly well with the views of linguists and archaeologists, but the northern movement does, and the story may describe the movement of a specific group of Algonquians that was remembered by their descendants.

People at least camped on Main Duck Island, South Marysburgh Ward, Prince Edward County, during these years, possibly travelling by canoe along the Galloo-Duck Ridge island chain to or from Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, or visiting the island to harvest migrating birds. At the Lakeshore Lodge site, Borden system number AlGh-32, on Lakeshore Lodge Road, Picton, in Sandbanks Provincial Park, Prince Edward County, excavated by Sheryl A. Smith in 1981, there was a fishing station occupied by a band of the early Late Woodland period, in about 790 CE. This site gave its name to the Sandbanks or Pickering phase of the Point Peninsula complex, 700 CE to 1000 CE, associated with Algonquians. Net sinkers have been found, indicating that they used nets to catch the fish found in their middens. Sandbanks ceramics show textured surfaces and cord-wrapped-stick impressed decoration, along with punctures and bosses. Some 55 shards from three vessels of Sandbanks phase pottery were found in 1988 by the Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation at at the Cummings site, Borden number A1Gh-64, a campsite near Outlet Beach, Sandbanks Provincial Park. The Late Woodland Fraser site, Borden number A1Gh-63, registered by Bill Fox in 1987, was a Sandbanks/Pickering phase Woodland period campsite of 700 to 1000 CE located in an eroded sand dune east of Outlet Beach, Sandbanks Provincial Park, and included Sandbanks/Pickering phase pottery, fire-cracked rock, and a possible hearth feature. The Reid cemetery at Borden number A1Gh-62, recorded by William Fox in 1987, was found in an old, preserved sand dune used for sand extraction; it belonged to the Pickering/Sandbanks phase of the Late Woodland period and included several disarticulated skeletons in a 1 m diameter burial pit. The Anishinaabeg seem to have particularly liked the Bay of Quinte and Rice Lake, probably because of the large beds of wild rice. Typically, the Anishinaabeg split into family groups in the winter, hunting and trapping in the interior, then bands of several hundred people gathered at prime spots on rivers in the spring to catch fish such as lake sturgeon, Atlantic salmon, muskellunge, northern pike, brook trout, American pickerel, largemouth bass, rainbow trout, lake trout, yellow perch, and American eel. They added their dead to cemeteries nearby and settled on the lakeshore to catch fish over the summer months. In the fall they harvested shagbark hickory nuts and walnuts and buried them along with dried, smoked fish in deep, bark-lined pits to be consumed from January to April, when other food resources were scarce. By late fall they dispersed to their winter camps to build their winter wigwams. Many red ochre and binding agent pictographs began to appear in Ontario, but the tradition may have begun thousands of years earlier, with the paint eroding from the rocks after about 300 years. Carved petroglyphs are harder to date, but some at Lake of the Woods in northwestern Ontario could be as old as the Lithic stage culture period. A set of specific symbols are used in pictographs, and these had meaning to the people who made them, even if that meaning is unclear today. Organic components of the paint can be dated, but it is unacceptable to remove samples from them for testing because they are so culturally significant and because they are still considered sacred by local Indigenous peoples.

The Wendat in the County during the Late Woodland Period

The Late Woodland period was marked in part by the arrival in southern Ontario of the Princess Point complex, 500 CE to 1000 CE, named for an archaeological site at Princess Point, 335 Longwood Road North, Hamilton, Ontario, on the inner south shore of Hamilton Harbour. These people in the Niagara Peninsula, who then expanded to the north shore of Lake Erie, built longhouses and planted corn, and were almost certainly Proto-Huronian Iroquoian farmers from the vicinity of the Finger Lakes, glacial fjord-like valleys carved into the Allegheny Plateau of northwestern New York. A Proto-Iroquoian language probably existed in the Allegeny Plateau of Pennsylvania and New York by about 4000 BCE, and the Iroquoians have strong genetic links with the Siouian peoples whose homeland was probably in the Ohio Valley and with whom they traded. Indigenous people’s lifestyles are stereotypically perceived as static or fixed in time, with any change in their material culture being correspondingly unnatural, but this is definitely not the case. There were 40 000 probably Siouian-speaking Mississippian culture inhabitants of P’ahe zide (Red Hill) or Cahokia, Illinois, a city that flourished from about 900 to about 1400 by the confluence of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River. This community had a central platform mound district and a 20 ha grand plaza surrounded by a 3.6 km long palisade punctuated by bastions as well as suburbs linked by elevated walkways, the whole occupying about 16 km2. The biggest of the 120 platform mounds was 30 m tall, 291 m long, and 236 m wide with a 6.1 ha base surmounted by a large wooden structure. Thousands of massive tree trunks were brought to the site and erected as marker posts near communal courtyards, on top of pyramid mounds, and in major buildings, perhaps to connect the earth and sky. For example, the 18 m long and 4 000 kg to 5 000 kg Mitchell Log was cut down in about 1124 and moved 180 km upstream, probably by water. Growing enough corn to feed the population and sewage pollution and resultant disease and mortality rates would have been administrative challenges. This was a spiritual rather than a commercial centre, marked by celestial observations, regular religious celebrations, dancing, games of chunkey, feasting, and the quaffing of caffeinated yaupon drinks. One celebration alone resulted in 2 000 deer carcasses being buried in a waste pit, and since one adult deer with 26 kg of meat can potentially feed 200 people depending on portion sizes, this suggests that the feasting lasted for days and involved tens of thousands of people. Farther south during this period, the Indigenous Mexihcah (pronounced Meshihkah) or Aztecs of Mexico had a capital city of about 210 000 inhabitants founded in 1325, and most of the Spanish soldiers who captured Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, with the assistance of a huge Indigenous army, had never seen a European urban centre anywhere near this size. Sevilla, the largest city in their country, had about 90 000 inhabitants. The 6 million subjects of the Mexihcah emperor Motekwsomaa II lived a lifestyle sharply different from their hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Linguistic evidence suggests that the Southern Iroquoian language of the Aniyvwiya/Cherokee of the southern Appalachian Mountains and the Northern Iroquoian language spoken by the other future groups of Iroquoians evolved from a split in the original Proto-Iroquoian language in about 2700 BCE. This was before the slow arrival of maize or corn from its native range in southern Mexico via the Mississippi Valley, corn having to undergo human-aided natural selection as it progressed north through new climate zones with differing amounts of daylight during each season. Aniyvwiya/Cherokee oral history says that their people, who are matrilineal like other Iroquoians, once lived close to the Great Lakes. The Proto-Huronian Iroquoians, whose dialect began to diverge from other Northern Iroquoian languages by 300 CE, before they even crossed into Ontario, had a particular interest in corn, pumpkin, squash, bean, tobacco, and Sunflower cultivation. Corn arrived in the Niagara Peninsula in about 500 CE and tobacco around the same time, with squash and beans reaching southwestern Ontario during the period 1000 to 1100, improving nutrition, since enzymes in beans aid in digesting corn. The Medieval warm period helped produce agricultural surpluses, and population growth, which meant that the farmers eventually outnumbered the hunter-gatherers in southern Ontario, although hunter-gatherer communities of Anishinaabeg Algonquians continued to remain on the Canadian Shield in the vicinity of the Iroquoian farmers and interacted peacefully with them. In about 775-905 CE a village of about 100 people in 10 two- or three-hearth longhouses cultivated corn on the shore of Lake Ontario in Hope Township about 15 km west of Port Hope, Ontario, and the Aude site is considered the first undisputed Wendat/Huron community, with these Proto-Huronians moving gradually from the Niagara Peninsula east along the north shore of Lake Ontario as far as Prince Edward County seeking fertile locations south of the Oak Ridges Moraine. The Wendat usually moved village sites about every 10 to 15 years, although stays could last between 7 and 40 years. These relocations were made due to the exhaustion of the soil and easily accessible wood. Numerous Wendat sites were identified in Prince Edward County by archaeologist James Kenneth “Ken” Swayze in the 1970s, although most were likely small campsites. As populations multiplied in Ontario, so do the number of artifacts found by archaeologists. According to Wendat/Huron oral tradition, their ancestors originated at a place with the bones of bison as tall as trees and a freshwater spring whose waters became salty, a location that could be Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, 3380 Beaver Road, Union, Kentucky, a place full of mastodon, giant bison, and musk ox bones from the last ice age just west of the Appalachian Mountains. They then moved north across a river with steep cliffs, perhaps the upper Ohio or its Allegheny and Monongahela tributaries near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, continuing north to the island of Montréal, Québec. From here they visited the Atlantic Ocean near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, but finally, according to the oral tradition, the ancestors of the Wendat decided to move southwest upriver to the north shore of Lake Ontario. If the geographic locations in the Wendat oral history have been correctly identified, and if humans are capable of accurately transmitting oral stories over so many generations, this migration route may reflect aspects of historical reality, at least for some of the Wendat. According to linguists, the Proto-Huronian language was fully separate from the other North Iroquoian languages spoken south of Lake Ontario by about 900 CE. Proto-Huronian Northern Iroquoians then divided into distinct ethno-linguistic entitites by about 1200 CE, including the Wendat between Georgian Bay and Prince Edward County, the Tionontatehronnnon or Petun south of Georgian Bay, and the Chonnonton- Aondironon- Wehrehronon- Ongniaahraronon Confederacy or Neutral Confederacy of western Ontario. The Tionontatehronnnon/Petun had about 10 000 people in seven to nine villages. The Neutral Confederacy, with about 40 000 people in as many as 30 villages, are believed to have fought Algonquian peoples of southwestern Ontario, driving them into Michigan in about 1550. The ancestors of the Wendat and other Iroquoians in Ontario began to consume corn as more than 20% of their diets, raising their community size from 50 to 150 people to 75 to 150 people and then, around 1250, much larger community populations of 600 or even 2 500 village inhabitants who consumed corn as 50% or more of their diets. In autumn hickory nuts and walnuts were collected and stored in deep, barked-lined pits under their longhouses. Modern Anishinaabeg see themselves as hosts of the Wendat, and their oral traditions say that they voluntarily shared the land with the Wendat arrivals. There is no reason to deny this tradition, since archaeologists believe that the Algonquians were in Ontario prior to the Iroquoians, burials of the centuries prior to about 950 in northeastern North America rarely show bodies disfigured by wounds due to warfare, and there were no villages on hilltops with palisades in Ontario until after 1400. Indeed, it is clear from archaeological evidence and post-contact accounts that the two groups quickly developed a symbiotic relationship, with the Wendat obtaining beaver, river otter, and marten pelts for blankets and winter robes, deer, moose, and woodland caribou leather for clothing and moccasins, copper for tools, nets for fishing, and dried fish and meat for food from the Anishinaabeg in exchange for baskets of corn, bundles of tobacco, and other trade goods from the south. Evolving Wendat settlement patterns indicate that the Wendat began to gravitate toward north-south rivers and strategic lakes to foster this trade, and that they were willing to paddle to distant northern destinations to cater to their Anishinaabeg trade partners on the Canadian Shield. Other partners were Algonquian peoples as far east as the Gulf of St. Lawrence and non-Haudenosaunee Iroquoians such as the Tionontatehronnnon/Petun, the Chonnonton Confederacy/Neutrals, Wenrohronon/Wenro, Erielhonan/Erie, and Andastoerrhonon/Susquehannock, although the ethonyms or ethnic self-designations of some of these nations are uncertain. They gave presents for free passage through the waterways of other nations, and if even a single chief of a weak, minor nation objected to their presence, the Wendat would take an alternate route rather than risk developing bad relations.

The Wendat clustered in the Toronto and Port Hope areas in the period 900 CE to 1300 CE, but in Prince Edward County there are two contemporary Wendat village sites, one by the north branch of Hubbs Creek in Hillier Ward near 103 Cold Creek Road, Wellington, Ontario, and the other on the upper reaches of Sawguin Creek in Ameliasburg Ward near 407 Gore Road, Carrying Place, Ontario. No Wendat settlements have been found in the county that date to the Uren phase of the Late Woodland Period between 1300 and 1330, although some may have existed. The first Wendat village that we know north of the Oak Ridge Moraine was established at Barrie, Ontario, the western end of Kempenfelt Bay on Lake Simcoe. During the Uren phase houses and villages doubled in size, with longhouses averaging 28 m in length and villages with 400 or 500 inhabitants covering an area of 1 ha or 10 000 m2. During the Middleport phase of the Late Woodland Period, 1330 to 1420, there was a Wendat community near Beaver Meadow Wildlife Management Area, 158 County Road 11, Picton, Ontario, in Hallowell Ward north of East Lake and southwest of Picton. There were also three communities in Ameliasburg Ward during these years, one on the north shore of Lake Consecon near 668 Lakeside Dr., Consecon, Ontario, the second on the upper reaches of Sawguin Creek near 211 Weese Road, Carrying Place, Ontario, and the third on Huffs Island, farmland surrounded by marsh, with the northern part of the marsh following Sawguin Creek, near 900 Huffs Island Road, Ameliasburg, Ontario. During the Middleport phase, longhouses averaged 35 m in length and village sites 1.2 ha in area, with many communities having 1 000 inhabitants. By 1420 about half of the known Wendat communities were situated in the quasi-peninsula between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay, with corn and tobacco grown in the Greater Toronto Area and near the western shore of Lake Simcoe being transported north along the Humber River, Don River, and Rouge River, Lake Simcoe, and the Severn River to Georgian Bay, or directly from villages along the southeast shore of Georgian Bay to the French River and Lake Nipissing, Manitoulin Island and the Spanish River, and the rapids of Sault Ste. Marie and Lake Superior. Other Wendat further east, in particular the Wendat on the north and south shore of the Bay of Quinte, used three rivers to access their Anishinaabeg trading partners: the Trent River at Trenton to access Rice Lake and the Kawartha Lakes, the Moira River at Belleville to access northern Hastings County, and the Napanee River at Napanee to reach northern Lennox and Addington County. The Wendat preferred the northern part of Prince Edward County by the Bay of Quinte because it was good farmland, had wide beds of wild rice, and was closer to their Anishinaabe trading partners. The south shore of Prince Edward County did not strongly attract the Wendat because the soil was poor and the sloping stone beach with big waves was dangerous for birchbark canoes. The Wendat believed that lake storms were caused by giant watersnakes, snakes that in early times had carved out the paths of rivers with their sinuous bodies. Doubtless, however, hunters from bases at East Lake and South Bay roamed the south shore looking for deer, turkeys, and ducks, and fishers probably cast their nets at Gull Pond by Charwell Point and at Little Bluff Conservation Area.

Wendat Economic Activity in Prince Edward County

The Anishinaabeg of the Canadian Shield visited and lived with the Wendat in considerable numbers, making the northern Wendake region by Georgian Bay in particular a bilingual community, and helping the Wendat language become a trading lingua franca over a wide area. Often the Anishinaabeg left their children with the Wendat and vice versa to cement ties, and numbers of the Anishinaabeg south of the Canadian Shield may have assimilated into more populous Wendat farming communities of southern and eastern Ontario. Just as often, however, the populous Wendat and other Iroquoian farmers of southern Ontario, continuously adding new village sites, tended to hunt out most the game in their territories, and this persuaded the hunter-gatherer Anishinaabeg to seek out non-agricultural areas just to the north where game was more abundant. Seasonally nomadic Anishinaabeg women tended to breastfeed their children for as many as five years, the hormone prolactin reducing the chance of pregnancy and allowing them to limit the number of babies they needed to carry with them on numerous treks to new camps. However, more sedentary, agricultural Wendat women could wean their babies earlier and feed them finely ground corn, nut, and dried meat porridge, or ground wild rice and maple syrup, and with the hormone prolactin dissipating they could become pregnant again and have more children in their lifetime. French missionaries testified to the almost endless size of the Wendat cornfields with the three sisters growing together, the nitrogen-fixing bean vines winding up the cornstalks and the prickly squash vines and big squash leaves keeping animals and weeds at bay. The Frenchmen said that it was easy to get lost among the maze of paths through the high cornstalks. Harvested corn cobs were hung on the inside walls of the longhouses, and then the dried kernels were scraped off and gathered in baskets. Acorns and eastern black walnuts were also harvested in the appropriate season. Fishing was an important occupation and supplied a lot of protein and fat. Everything animate and inanimate was believed to have a soul, including the fishing nets the men made, and the Wendat, who hung these nets on the interior walls of the longhouses to dry, were careful not to say anything disrespectful or unharmonious that the nets might overhear and tell the fish the next time they were cast in the water—resulting in the upset fish declining to be caught that day. Fish bones, where the souls of fish lived, were carefully saved and returned to the water to reincarnate, and the Wendat reprimanded French missionaries who thoughtlessly threw fish bones in the fire, endeavouring to retrieve every fragment of bone discarded by their foolish guests. On another occasion, when a missionary yelled at some misbehaving children in the longhouse, the nets apparently reported this outburst to the fish, with the result that the Wendat fishers caught almost nothing that day. Men loved the large fishing expeditions, considering them a sort of vacation from the more strenuous and monotonous duties in the village, and shared the best fish that they caught with their friends in evening celebrations. They collected fish oil in containers so that it could be used as a butter-like sauce. Certain men who were respected as spiritual communicators with fish would quiet the fishers after supper and give a speech to the fish, explaining that the different nations of fish should have no fear and would be honourably treated when they voluntarily swam into the nets and nourished their human friends. According to the French, a wide variety of recipes using corn, beans, squash, fish, venison, nuts, and small amounts of honey and maple syrup meant that meals were not monotonous, and cornbread and sagamité stew were available all day, with no set meal times. In winter people stayed around the fires whose smoke rose through holes in the roof, two families to a fire, with the children on the inside of the circle. In summer they slept on platforms along the walls to stay away from dog fleas, since they liked their dogs and let them roam inside and out, and in winter the Wendat slept by the fire in more or less the same spot they sat. A two-year supply of corn was stored in bark-lined pits under Wendat longhouses in case of crop failure, and a surplus was produced for trade so that their Anishinaabeg hunter-gatherer partners could have a reliable food reserve year round as well. Wild rice was harvested in the appropriate season. Hunting mainly had to be done at a distance from the populous cluster of villages in Wendake, but according to Samuel de Champlain, one big drive into a prepared wooden enclosure could result in the slaughter of 120 deer, providing a good meat and hide supply, although this was still nowhere enough to sustain tens of thousands of Wendat. Beavers were not overhunted because this non-human “tribe” cleared the forest edge and allowed other useful species to prosper.

The Role of Wendat Women in Prince Edward County

Hunting, fishing, preparing fields by cutting down groves of younger, thinner trees with stone axes and piling up branches to burn the stumps, and building longhouses and palisades was mostly a male responsibility. Gathering plants such as Jerusalem artichokes, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, and mushrooms, collecting dry firewood, growing crops, preparing clothing, and raising children was mainly a female responsibility. Since plants supplied most of the Iroquoian diet, this may partly explain the prestige of women in these societies, with the grandmother matriarchs who organized mass food production being individuals you needed to listen to and consult when important decisions were being made, including decisions of war and peace. Grandmothers controlled the storehouses of corn and tobacco that men needed for trade, and if a man wanted to marry he or his own mother or grandmother had to obtain the permission of the potential bride’s council of clan grandmothers before he could join the grandmother’s longhouse, so it was crucial to show the female elders respect and seek their goodwill. Iroquoian grandmothers also had de facto veto power over village, national, and confederation council decisions and even the choice of or deposition of male chiefs, which was not the case among more patriarchal Algonquian peoples. These women also gave permission for men to leave on trading or military expeditions, and male chiefs acted as spokespersons for the grandmothers when discussing domestic or international affairs, the latter being a topic where men, being travellers, tended to have slightly more expertise than women. Iroquoian warriors were as strong and tough as could be, but when their mother-in-law told them to replace sheets of bark on the longhouse roof, they meekly set to work. French missionaries were amazed by the economic, political, and social power of Wendat women, and they said that men did not even have authority over their own children, who were practically strangers. This last point may not be much of an exaggeration, for men spent a lot of time with their own mother’s clan and were absent for months at a time because of trading expeditions and long campaigns against the Haudenosaunee in New York State. It was also an unchallenged fact that children belonged to the mother’s clan and would not be taken by the father even if the mother died. The French said that Wendat men and women were good looking, healthy, robust, and taller than the French, and unlike French peasants were never short of food. There were eight Wendat clans: the Turtle, Wolf, Bear, Deer, Beaver, Falcon, Loon (probably including the Sturgeon), and Fox, clans crossing the boundaries of the five nations in the confederacy and even boundaries with other clan-based Iroquoian peoples who had the same animal totems. Men and women from the same clan could not marry, but cross-clan marriages created wide family relationships and discouraged conflict. If you visited another village or nation, you immediately sought out people of your own clan, who would treat you like family even if they had never seen you before. Romantic kissing and hugging in public, even between married couples, was not a social norm, and sex usually took place in nature away from the villages to secure privacy, which was not abundant in longhouses. Premarital sexuality was considered normal, and young men and women faced no social penalties for having as many partners as they felt like. Girls often initiated these liaisons, and might have several boyfriends at a time, with the boys accepting this and repressing any jealousy they might have felt. Showing jealousy in public was considered extremely bad manners because people were supposed to have complete individual autonomy. If a girl or boy terminated a relationship, or repulsed an advance, that was it; there were no grounds for protesting or getting angry. While in the Plains certain Indigenous peoples such as the Uto-Aztecan Numunuu or Comanche engaged in the sexual assault of female captives, in eastern North America it was considered pathetic, extremely deviant, and eternally shameful if a man forced himself on a woman. White women taken captive by Indigenous people might be threatened, beaten, and insulted when they initially arrived as enemies in the home village or tried to escape from the families who adopted them, and they could be pressured to choose a husband and have children, but they were almost invariably safe from sexual assault. Often young, unmarried people established more long-term relationships recognized in the community, but this did not stop them from simultaneously having liaisons with others or breaking off the relationship. French Roman Catholic missionaries were, of course, aghast at all this behaviour. However, after pregnancy ensued, couples formed monogamous relationships and sexual fidelity was the norm for both sexes. In addition, since women were economically secure in a matriarchal society where women controlled virtually all of the food supply, including the distribution of meat and fish, they had less need of a male provider, and a balance of power existed within marriages. Couples rarely divorced, but the right of divorce existed, and men could return to their own clan longhouse while women and the children would stay with their own clan longhouse. Despite the death of many women during childbirth, due to the higher death rate of men in war and in water accidents on fishing and trading expeditions, there was a small surplus of young women in most Iroquoian and Algonquian communities. This was not a critical problem for Wendat women, but among the patriarchal Algonquian peoples where women were more in need of male providers, polygyny, where one man might have several wives, was relatively common. If an Algonquian husband was abusive, a wife was more likely to endure it rather than seek a divorce and endanger her livelihood and that of her children, but if a husband was not a good provider she was likely to initiate a divorce and find a new husband. Among the Wendat, if a spouse died, the other mourned and did not remarry for a full year; if the surviving spouse married any faster than this, it would become the source of gossip and social disapproval. Due to Wendat respect for the individual, children were not physically punished or humiliated and enjoyed considerable freedom to do whatever they wanted, but continual expressions of love, praise, and disapproval made children want to copy their elders and conform to positive social norms.

Wendat Law, Social Justice, and Government in the County

The Wendat, like other Indigenous peoples, would never physically harm their own tribal members, except for individuals believed to murder others through sorcery, who by general agreement were tomahawked in the head by surprise, with no consequence for the person who dispatched the male or female witch. Wendat were taken aback by the European custom of flogging or hanging thieves and murderers. In their egalitarian, communal societies thievery was essentially unnecessary, and murderers paid compensation, supported, or were even adopted as replacements by the families of their victims. The murderer might have to lie under the platform of the decaying, dripping, dissolving body of their victim for as long as the family wanted. If someone took something important from you without asking or being offered it, you had the right to take it back and in addition publicly strip the thief of all his or her possessions, leaving the guilty party literally naked. This was an effective lesson intended to persuade criminals to return to social virtues. Wendat people were horrified when they learned that in France wealthy people did not share their food and possessions with the poor and argued that it would be easy for the French to instantly eliminate poverty. In the 19th century the Siouian leader Thathanka Iyotake or Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapha band of the Lakhota constantly gave horses, tents, clothing, and everything else he had to widows and unlucky people in his own community, and when he worked for William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, he often gave all the money he earned to poor White children and beggars he saw.

Politically, the Wendat, like surrounding cultures, were extremely democratic, operating by consensus determined by long discussions at councils. Karl Marx, the German founder of modern communism, read books about the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois, and in his Ethnological Notebooks (written in 1880-1881) expressed his admiration for Iroquoian customs, believing that if these people could practice communism successfully, humans around the world should be able to adopt the political egalitarianism of direct democracy, communal sharing of food, goods, and work, personal freedom, and feminism. When Wendat communities grew too large for everyone to know each other well and come to agreement, groups peacefully seceded and formed their own villages while maintaining harmonious relations with their home village. Individual perspectives and dissent was balanced by strong, unspoken social pressures to adhere to communal norms. French missionaries observed few arguments among the Wendat, individuals suppressing their reaction to any perceived slights and instead promoting social bonds through sharing everything with others and socializing on a constant basis. Selfish, lazy, and discordant people would lose social prestige and be shamed into suppressing their anti-social behaviour. Councils of men and women were in almost permanent session, and every adult was expected to be well-informed on every subject so that they could contribute to the discussions. Rhetoric was a valued skill, and eloquent metaphors were used to describe problems and solutions in council and in normal interactions, and French missionaries who knew the Wendat language well and had been trained in rhetoric in French universities were impressed that average people spoke with the same beautiful oratorical flourishes as the best-educated people in France. The Garihoua or chiefs among the Wendat had no constitutional authority over anyone, and could only provide their opinion and see if people would agree with and follow their advice. If they behaved arrogantly or insulted anyone, they risked alienating even their own clan, and worst of all the grandmothers. There were four levels of government: the lineage or segment of a clan composed of about ten matrilineal families or 250 to 300 individuals in a village, then the village, the nation, and the confederation. The council of clan grandmothers would choose the two most respected men of their clan, often on a hereditary basis through the son of the previous chief’s sister, to be a civil chief or a war chief and sit on the village council. When a new chief was invested, he would be imbued with something akin to the resuscitated soul of the previous chief and bestowed with the same name so that the respected old chief would never die and be forgotten. There would be a feast and a distribution of presents to everyone in the community, affirming the continuity of tradition and collective unity. Big clans and small clans were equally represented, although the chiefs of larger clans might have more prestige and be hosts of councils and in charge of handing out tobacco to the delegations. The wisest and most respected civil chief of a village or nation would be the leading spokesperson, with their personal names being treated as synonyms for the community, and be trusted to carry out diplomatic missions at the Wendat Confederacy council and with foreign nations. There was no actual voting at councils, but deeper exhalations of haau implied strong and hopefully unanimous approval of what had been said. Civil chiefs of a village clan lineage that had pioneered a trade route, say to the copper miners of the south shore of Lake Superior or to the Gaspé Peninsula, would be in charge of that trade route in future generations, and other clans of the confederacy would have to follow their directions during trading expeditions, preventing arguments about what should be done. Chiefs did not win wealth or leisure from their privileges because any presents they received would be redistributed to maintain their reputation for generosity, they would have to travel far in all weather to councils or diplomatic negotiations, and they and the women in their families would be in charge of entertaining and providing gifts for a never-ending flow of visiting guests as well as organizing feasts, dances, lacrosse games, and funerals. One of the village chiefs maintained a communal store of beaver pelts, beautiful clothing, pipes, and wampum belts made of seashell beads as presents, and if the store was running low, he would ask the village to replenish it, and people exhibiting their civic pride would try to outdo each other in their contributions. Women spent a lot of the winter sewing wampum and preparing and decorating clothing and moccasins with dyed porcupine quills. They knew that much of their production would be given away, but their fine work attracted the praise of the community. War chiefs did little unless a special crisis arose, for example if someone or several people were killed by another nation and the killers declined to provide gifts, abject apologies, and offers of adoption to stem the tears and anger of the aggrieved families. If all attempts at negotiation and compensation were exhausted, the council would inform the grandmothers, who would then approve a military action to bring back sufficient captives to replace the victim or victims by adoption or death by torture. Typically, they knew exactly who was responsible, and the guilty village would be targetted. If the killers had behaved like renegades, their own nation might believe that the guilty village that refused to offer compensation had suffered just consequences. If both nations accepted this result, the war would end. If not, however, prolonged feud-like wars could continue to rack up deaths and misery.

The Wendat Religion in Prince Edward County

The Wendat population more than doubled from 10 000 to 24 000 between 1350 and 1420. By about 1450 their population stabilized at approximately 30 000. The Wendat began to establish ossuaries or burial pits for the bones of their ancestors, although dates for the beginning of this custom go back to 1000 CE or 1250 CE, with the first ossuaries being rather small, less than 30 individuals compared to several hundred in later ones. In the Wendat religion it was believed that people had two souls. At the time of death, the ethereal soul that left the body during sleep and visions would depart for the Village of Souls in the west, while the earthly soul resided in the bones, with the flesh being of little religious importance. Food, clothing, furs, pipes, pottery, and other objects meant to sustain the earthly soul in the afterlife would be presented to a dying person at a feast, and the dying person might sing, showing no fear of their fate. When they finally died, their bodies would be placed in the fetal position. On the third day of mourning, people from several communities would gather and give presents to the family of the deceased and the community funeral managers. The body, wrapped in beaver robes, was taken in procession to the cemetery and placed on a platform with four poles about three metres high, too high for wolves to reach, surrounded by the presents needed to sustain the earthly soul in the afterlife. The ethereal souls of dead babies could not travel to the Village of Souls, so their bodies were buried by the spot where women gave birth in hopes that their souls would be reincarnated. The souls of dogs also travelled to the Village of Souls in the west to live with their human companions. Individuals who died violent deaths in war or by suicide or desired to die by suicide were buried in the ground, and individuals who died from drowning or freezing were also buried after their bones were stripped of their flesh by young men. Every 10 or 12 years there would be a 10-day-long Great Feast of the Souls or Feast of the Dead when the communities of a nation removed their family members who had died of natural causes from the platforms in their cemetery and brought their bones or their decaying bodies into their longhouses, ignoring the stench. The reunion of loved ones would be accompanied by days of feasting, dancing, funeral games, and mourning. Then, after the semi-decayed dead had their bones scraped clean and the flesh burned, the bones and some relatively fresh bodies, wrapped in beaver pelts, were carried on people’s backs in a procession to the prepared burial location. On the appointed day they were buried together in a large communal pit, with the fresh bodies on the bottom and the bones on top, accompanied by valuable offerings to sustain the earthly souls. It was believed that the souls of the ancestors were being united together in harmony in the same way that the living were. These ossuaries were sometimes dug up and transferred when communities moved, which was usually about every 10 to 15 years, so that the souls of the dead would remain close to their loved ones.

The Wendat, like their neighbours, had a strong religious belief in the importance of dreams and visions, and the entire community would strive as a religious duty to satisfy the desires of the ethereal soul expressed during sleep or in visions that appeared during fasting, meditation, and prayer. Even sexual desires that were strictly taboo, such as wanting to watch young people dance naked or engage in sex, or an elderly man wanting to have sex with a teen, would be accommodated. In some cases, people dreamed of giving everything they owned away, and the contents of their section of the longhouse were distributed. Physical illnesses and mental disorders such as depression could be caused by natural causes, an unsatisfied soul, or sorcery. If traditional medicines could not treat the illness, and sorcery was ruled out, specially-trained Arendiwane or “great spiritual powers”, better known as medicine men or shamans, would be summoned. These individuals used various means to communicate with the spirit world, diagnose what the problem was, and then solve it. In other cases, the village chiefs would deliberate on the illness and send a representative to the sick person to see what their ethereal soul desired. Upon learning what the soul required, whether it be multiple bead necklaces, a red dress, new moccasins, or a bow, the list of items would be procured and given to the patient. Dances would be held in view of the patient and a feast hosted by the relatives until the ill person declared that he or she was cured. Indeed, psychologist Sigmund Freud’s concept of neurosis caused in part by the suppression of the id or instinctual drives found in the unconscious has some parallels here, with the community playing the role of therapists who listen to the patient, diagnose the problem, and treat it, restoring psychological and overall health. It was not always easy following Wendat social norms such as always suppressing selfish desires and jealousy and displaying generosity and goodwill toward people who might not deserve it, and this religious process of dealing with dreams and desires could be an outlet for various emotional frustrations. Even if the “cured” person died a few days later, this did not discourage Wendat religious convictions regarding the proper methods of treating illness. Dances with singing and 24-hour long feasts with gigantic quantities of fish and deer and bear meat—many feasts could not end until up to 40 cauldrons were completely emptied—were thought to be a spiritual good that brought benefits to the community. Religion was even associated with the two favourite sports of the Wendat. Tehatihwenhnda’es or lacrosse was a summer game involving net sticks and balls that resulted in many injuries, played by teams of up to 1 000 warriors on a field that could be up to several kilometres long, but women could also play each other. A winter game called the race of the snow snakes involved wooden poles about 2 m long thrown down a prepared course at speeds sometimes exceeding 100 km/h, with the pole going the farthest winning. The author’s cousin Jesuit missionary Saint Jean de Brébeuf saw the game played by the Wendat in 1637 and called the game “the [shepherd’s] crook” or “la crosse” after the curved net sticks of the players. Men and women were also obsessed with various games of chance and might even gamble away their clothes—at a time when making clothes was an extremely time-consuming process. Religious charms were sought at great expense to increase one’s fortune in such games.

New Wendat Settlements in Prince Edward County

Between 1420 and 1450 there were at least two Wendat villages exceeding 2 ha or 20 000 m2 on the margins of Hillier Ward of Prince Edward County, one on the southwest shore of Lake Consecon near 5894 County Road 1, Consecon, Ontario, and the other east of Lake Consecon on Melville Creek north of 2838 County Road 1, Prince Edward, Ontario. In the woods south of 565 Wesley Acres Road, Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, Ontario, very close to the northeastern shore of West Lake in Hallowell Ward, was a temporary Wendat camp, Borden number AIGh-83, excavated by Senior Archaeologist Andrea Carnevale in 2023, dating to 1400 to 1650, with 268 ceramic fragments, two chert biface fragments, and a painted turtle carapace. Indigenous people often searched for turtles in early spring when the animals were hibernating in shallow mud or wet plant debris because this was a time of year when other sources of food were scarce. The county's creeks had more water at the time and were filled with fish, which the Wendat ate fresh or dried for storage. Eels, extremely abundant at the time, were a favourite food, but the Wendat would have also harvested whitefish, lake trout, and burbot. In the next few years, the period 1450 to 1500, there were two known Wendat villages over 2 ha in the county, probably with populations over 1 000 people each. One was on Lane Creek north of West Lake, Hallowell Ward, near 164 Wild Oak Lane, Bloomfield, Ontario. A presumably smaller Wendat site was nearby on the south shore of Pleasant Bay in Hiller, Borden number AIGi-1, excavated by Peter George Ramsden in 1977, dating to the late 1400s. Yet another small community dating to the late 1400s was the Payne site a few kilometres northwest of Wellington, possibly on Lane Creek near 1201 Gilead Road, Bloomfield, Ontario, given Borden number AIGh-2 and excavated by John Norman Emerson in 1960-1967 and James F. Pendergast in 1963-1964. The other major site was in North Marysburgh Ward on a creek flowing north to the Bay of Quinte, situated near 419 County Road 25, Prince Edward, Ontario. There was also a Wendat village on the mainland northeast of Waupoos, North Marysburgh Ward, presumably on Waupoos Creek by 2385 County Road 8 that drains into Smith Bay, Borden number BaGg-1 excavated by James F. Pendergast in 1963-1968. A village of longhouses was built at an unclear date on the south shore of South Bay at the Hudgin Site, by Carmans Lane, 2695 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, not far west of the first junction with Babylon Road. The fields of gourds, squash and pumpkins (all members of the genus Cucurbita), corn or maize, variants of the common bean or Phaseolus vulgaris, sunflowers, and tobacco they planted may not have extended far at this site, especially since they wanted to stay close to the better clay soil around South Bay. However, the Wendat doubtless fished along the shore of Prince Edward Bay and hunted and gathered shagbark hickory nuts, acorns, and plants. By this period about two-thirds of the Wendat villages were in the region between Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe, with another cluster in the Greater Toronto Area and a few scattered places east toward Rice Lake, Cobourg, and Prince Edward County.

The Outbreak of the Wendat-Haudenosaunee Wars

Around the margins of the North Atlantic Ocean there was a transition from the Medieval Warm Period of 950 to 1250 to the Little Ice Age of 1430 to 1850—with the years around 1500 and 1700 being particularly freezing—and this may have created some problems with Indigenous farmers’ harvests, as it did for Norwegian Viking settlers in Iceland and especially Greenland, which the Vikings abandoned in about 1450. In about 1050 wars between Northern Iroquoians in New York State erupted, with people building massive wooden fortifications later dubbed “castles” by European visitors, and the inhabitants of scattered villages gathering into these walled towns. One village palisade might require 45 000 pine or cedar poles, with a wall-walk or chemin de ronde gallery behind the parapet reached by ladders. The warring Iroquoians consolidated into five separate nations, and according to oral history, around the time of the total solar eclipse of 28 June 1451 the combattants agreed to a democratic federal union with a constitution called the Kayanerenkó:wa or Great Law of Peace. The unified Haudenosaunee (pronounced “houdinou’shouni”), meaning the “People of the Longhouse,” became a powerful force in northeastern North America, known to Europeans as the Iroquois Confederacy. Perhaps it was the warrior ethos they developed over generations of inter-nation warfare and their quest to build up their populations for greater strength in this contest that led to raids that antagonized surrounding peoples and initiated a long war or series of wars that would last 250 years from about 1451 to 1701. It is important to emphasize that while European colonists accused the Indigenous peoples of bloodthirsty “savagery”, with an irrational, unstoppable lust to scalp or torture men, women, and children, this does not reflect reality. Warfare was usually a secondary activity for males, and only undertaken after long deliberation in council. War aims were often limited to avenging a few dead or captured individuals, and as we shall see, apparently inveterate enemies could quickly switch from war to friendly relations and mutually beneficial trade. Conquest of enemy peoples and territory was not generally a war aim, although after contact there were huge displacements of people as a result of conflict. It can be argued that the Haudenosaunee were more militaristic than most peoples in northeastern North America, but their historical campaigns were in part a result of the need to acquire prisoners to replace losses from European diseases and obtain access to fur trade routes to exchange furs for firearms, ammunition, and gunpowder and thereby maintain their ability to defend themselves from surrounding Indigenous and European nations. There is no sign that the Wendat and different Anishinaabeg nations ever fought each other, and if there were no Haudenosaunee attacks, decades or generations might go by with no military activity. Denser agricultural populations may have sparked conflict, and food surpluses freed up time for young men to engage in warfare and gain social prestige by feats of valour, expressed by bringing home captives and heads or more sanitary and easily transported scalps. Children, the easiest to assimilate, were highly valued captives, well treated and carried on the backs of the raiders if they could not walk quickly, although nursing babies were usually put to death on the spot because they would either slow down the rapidly moving war parties or starve to death on the long trip. If a captive woman was adopted into a longhouse without agile women, she could instantly become an authority figure of higher status than in her home village. In some nations, unfortunate women captives who were not adopted could become slaves, working alongside the free women and obeying their instructions. Enemy warriors who were taken and handed over to the grandmothers were routinely adopted as sons to replace those lost, and interestingly they shared the belief system of adoption and rarely tried to escape their fate, even taking up the role of a chief if they replaced a dead chief and were given his name. However, if the grief and anger from a loss was too great, the family the prisoners were offered to for adoption could reject them, or others could request their death, and they would be “put to the fire” and slowly tortured to death as part of a cleansing of emotions and restoration of balance. This purging of grief and anger would usually be carried out quietly with little outward emotion, watched by an audience seated on mats and puffing on their pipes, and the prisoner, sharing the widespread value system, accepted his fate, even having individuals such as his prospective adoptive family who provided him with water and food and encouraged him to show bravery during the stages of his torture. The prisoner, who was politely addressed as uncle or nephew depending on the age of the torturer, sang his death song and danced, then showed stoic indifference to the pain as he was tenderly “caressed” with fire by a rotation of all the warriors in attendance for hours or even days. He made jokes about being cold and needing more firebrands, pointed out places on his body that had not been burned yet, or reminded his captors not to forget fingers that needed to be cut off. The heart, pieces of flesh, and blood of a prisoner who died bravely could be ritually consumed by the warriors, assimilating his spirit into their own. French Jesuits taken by the Haudenosaunee were never candidates for adoption and were addressed harshly and rudely before and during their torture and singled out for worse treatment than Wendat captives also destined for death. The French missionaries who witnessed torture sessions carried out by the Wendat protested that this was barbarous, for in France prisoners of war were chained to the oars of naval galleys in the Mediterranean or held in prison for ransom. In their country, only criminals were tortured to obtain confessions, adherents of Satan were burned at the stake, and traitors had their limbs crushed, their body burned with red-hot pincers, sulphur, and boiling oil, their male reproductive organ sliced off, their four limbs pulled from the torso by horses walking in opposite directions, and their remains burned at the stake. In New France thieves could be interrogated with the aid of tightened thumbscrews and then hanged if their confessions seemed valid to a panel of judges. Violence is violence, and this does not excuse Indigenous warfare and torture—when people are raised to hate and kill designated enemies, they can be staggeringly cruel—but humans today are still dealing with these issues, and crimes against humanity, war crimes, and “enhanced interrogation techniques” are unfortunately not rare. Wendat palisaded villages on high ground that start to appear after 1400, and especially after 1450, are a sign that conflict with the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois to the south of Lake Ontario had begun. After about 1450 there were palisaded Wendat villages or towns of up to 2 500 people, some with longhouses stretching over 100 m, although they were usually about 30 m. Fields around such a settlement might spread over 2 000 ha or 20 km2, and massive amounts of timber and firewood were needed. Longhouses would catch fire periodically and have to be rebuilt. Wendat communities coalesced into four tribes mostly living in close proximity between Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe, and the tribes formed a formal Wendat Confederacy. Living in such large communities was awkward in terms of resources, sanitation, health, and maintaining social and political consensus, and it is likely that only safety in numbers prompted bands to consolidate and live together year round in palisaded villages, often on high ground at a somewhat inconvenient distance from rivers and lakes, with large deserted neutral zones between themselves and their enemies.

The Wendat Confederacy Abandons Prince Edward County

According to Kanien’kehá:ka Haudenosaunee/Mohawk Iroquois oral history, a long war in the period 1450 to 1500 was caused by Kanien’kehá:ka attacks on the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, also called Laurentians, of Osheaga or Hochelaga, now known as Montréal, a war that the Haudenosaunee insist they finally won. If the oral history is true, this would suggest that the Hochelagans that Jacques Cartier met at Mont Royal were Kanien’kehá:ka, not St. Lawrence Iroquoians, which sounds odd. It seems more likely that the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, while periodically attacked, were still there at the time. According to the same oral history, in about the 1540s a second, generation-long war began as the Algonquians counterattacked and drove the Kanien’kehá:ka Haudenosaunee/Mohawk Iroquois out of the Montréal area, back to the Mohawk Valley of New York. Other Haudenosaunee nations attacked the Wendat in Ontario. These wars are probably the reason why the Wendat of Prince Edward County withdrew northwest to the Trent River valley or even to the Greater Toronto Area by about 1550, leaving the county as a no man’s land. Meanwhile, Onoñda'gegá or Onondaga and Onyota’a:ka or Oneida Haudenosaunee attacked the 2 500 St. Lawrence Iroquoians who were living around Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, and as a result these people fortified their villages with palisades. The St. Lawrence Iroquoians as a whole may have begun to settle between Jefferson County and the Gulf of St. Lawrence by 1000 CE, being well entrenched corn growers by 1250 CE, with their Laurentian language or collection of dialects becoming distinct from other Northern Iroquoian languages. The endonym (the name they called themselves) of the 25 St. Lawrence Iroquoian communities along the great waterway, if they had one, is unknown. European copper and iron objects begin to appear at Wendat sites after 1500 and glass beads after 1550, doubtless acquired via trade with the St. Lawrence Iroqouians who had contact with Spanish and French Euskaldunak/Basque and Breizhiz/Breton French fishers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River estuary. Around 1575 the Jefferson County St. Lawrence Iroquoians, pressured by the Onoñda'gegá and Onyota’a:ka Haudenosaunee or Onondaga and Oneida Iroquois to the south, retreated north to join other St. Lawrence Iroquoians near Prescott, Ontario, and judging by pottery style finds, some war widows may have fled to the Wendat of the Trent River valley. There is an argument that these women were taken captive by Wendat fighting the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, and this is possible, but there is a lack of conclusive evidence. European diseases spread by fishers on the Gulf of St. Lawrence or Jacques Cartier’s men between 1534 and 1542 or Jean-François de La Roque de Roberval’s men in 1542-1543, both French expeditions going as far as Oshega/Hochelaga/Montréal, may have played a role in the collapse of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, but this is not proven. About 1 000 St. Lawrence Iroquoians appear to have joined the Wendat between 1450 and 1580, and many of these may have been from the Jefferson County group. Other St. Lawrence Iroquoians submitted to their enemies the Haudenosaunee and merged with them. The St. Lawrence Iroquoians of Osheaga/Hochelaga/Montréal appear to have merged with the Wàwàckeciriniwak Omàmiwininiwak Anishinaabeg (the Algonquins proper as opposed to the Algonquian language family) who lived on rivers in eastern Québec that drained into the Ottawa River. European records indicate that the Stadacona/Québec City St. Lawrence Iroquoians joined and ultimately assimilated into the Mi'kmaq of the Gaspé.

The modern Wendat at Wendake in Québec City believe that their traditional lands extend from Georgian Bay east to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, and this may reflect the merger of some of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians with the Wendat, buttressed by the migration foundation story of Wendat oral history that includes a period in Montréal and a period at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Indeed, it is true that the original Iroquoians who migrated from New York State into Ontario and Québec probably spoke the same language and were culturally indistinguishable from each other. But the St. Lawrence Iroquoian language, split into several dialects, was as different from the Wendat language as it was from the Haudenosaunee languages, and the ethnic ties between the Neutral Confederacy around the Niagara Peninsula and the Wendat Confederacy were remembered in historical times, so its is challenging to support the assertion that the Wendat and St. Lawrence Iroquoians were once one people.

The Wendat Confederacy and France Form an Alliance

By 1550 the Wendat had withdrawn west from Prince Edward County, and were now living east and west of Lake Simcoe and in the Greater Toronto Area, with the exception of two villages east and west of Rice Lake, one on the Trent River south of Campbellford and one on the Otonabee River south of Peterborough. In the period 1550 to 1609 the communities near Rice Lake and the Trent River were also abandoned. When Samuel de Champlain passed by Prince Edward County in September-October 1615, he made no note of villages anywhere in the vicinity. There was a big Wendat village in Pickering, just east of Toronto, from about 1525 to 1555, and another village in Whitchurch-Stouffville, just northeast of Toronto, from about 1535 to 1623, and the Prince Edward County Wendat may have joined these communities. By the late 1500s Wendat settlement outside of the Georgian Bay-Lake Simcoe region appears to have consolidated on the banks of the Credit River, Humber River-Black Creek, Don River, Rouge River, and Holland River in the Greater Toronto Area. They left the Greater Toronto Area by 1630 for the region between Christian Island on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, and Innisfil Heights on Lake Simcoe, leaving the north shore of Lake Ontario uninhabited. By 1600 there were four confederated tribes of Wendat concentrated south of Georgian Bay, an area first settled by the Wendat in about 1300. This gradual movement of new village sites to the northwest was initially for reasons of trade with the Anishinaabeg of the Canadian Shield, but the final withdrawal from the Greater Toronto Area was likely the result of increased warfare with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. There would have been no good reason besides safety to abandon the fertile lands along the streams flowing into Lake Ontario where their ancestors had been living for about 700 years, that is about 28 generations, and their bones and therefore souls were buried. When the French founded the city of Québec in 1608, the Wendat and later the Odaawaag/Ottawa Anishinaabeg canoed along the French River to Lake Nipissing and descended the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers to trade beaver furs and other pelts for iron axes, brass kettles, woollen blankets, glass beads, brandy, and other items. The Haudenosaunee attempted to intercept these convoys and take the furs to the Dutch of Nieuw-Nederland, the future New York State, to trade for muskets and other goods. Most European trade items allowed Indigenous communities to engage in their traditional lifestyles more efficiently, but muskets were more of a cultural disruptor and made warfare even more intense and destructive than prior to contact, with devastating consequences for many peoples. Samuel de Champlain established good commercial relations with the Algonquians and Wendat, and this reciprocal economic and personal relationship drew him into conflict with the traditional enemies of his new allies. He knew that profit and prosperity would be difficult if the fur trade was constantly under threat. However, he was also eager to prove himself a valuable partner by demonstrating the power of European firearms, as primitive and inaccurate as they were compared to our modern weapons. In 1609 200 Kanien’kehá:ka Haudenosaunee/Mohawk Iroquois were confronted by Samuel de Champlain and two arquebusiers with firearms and 60 Algonquian-speaking Omàmiwininì/Algonquin Anishinaabeg and Innu/Montagnais and Iroquoian-speaking Wendat allies; in the Battle of Lake Champlain, Champlain shot the three enemy chiefs and helped to cause the enemy to flee the field.

In September-October 1615 Champlain, visiting the Wendat in their homeland Wendake, accompanied 10 to 12 French arquebusiers (musketeers) and over 500 Wendat and Anishinaabeg on a campaign starting from Cahiagué, a strongly palisaded town with over 3 000 inhabitants near Bass Lake just west of Orillia, Simcoe County, Ontario. They paddled southeast across Lake Simcoe to Gamebridge, Durham Region, Ontario, then east up the Talbot River to Kirkfield, Kawartha Lakes, Ontario. Here they portaged from the Georgian Bay watershed to the Lake Ontario watershed, descending through the Kawartha Lakes to Fenelon Falls, Bobcaygeon, and Lakefield, and then from Peterborough, Peterborough County, Ontario, down the Otonabee River to Rice Lake and east and south down the rapid-filled Trent River from Campbellford, Northumberland County, Ontario, to Trenton, Quinte West, Hastings County, Ontario. Unfortunately, while Champlain is usually a very descriptive author, he provides no detail whatsoever as on about 1 October 1615 the war party paddled east through the Bay of Quinte past Picton Bay to the end of the North Marysburgh peninsula, Prince Edward County. Champlain merely says “We went, by short days’ journeys, as far as the shore of the lake of the Entouhonorons [Lake of the Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca or Lake Ontario], hunting all along, as I have said. When we arrived there we went across at the eastern end, which is at the entrance to the great River St. Lawrence, at latitude 43°, where there are some beautiful and very large islands in this passage. We went about fourteen leagues [55 km] to get to the other side of the lake, in a southerly direction, toward the territory of the enemy.” Champlain’s own maps of 1612 and 1632 help to show his sense of the local geography. Strangely, his map of 1612, probably based on information collected from Etienne Brulé and sketch maps produced by visiting Indigenous people, shows Prince Edward County in astonishing detail, and one can see Carrying Place, the bulge of Big Island, the jut of Sophiasburgh pointing toward the Napanee River, Hay Bay, the Hayward Long Reach of the Bay of Quinte, Picton Bay, Glen Island opposite Glenora, the North Marysburgh peninsula with Indian Point, a small knob that looks a lot like Smith Bay and Morrison Point, as well as Prince Edward Bay and the South Marysburgh peninsula with Prince Edward Point. On the southern shore he has small indentations that may represent Weller’s Bay and West Lake. Champlain’s map of 1632 shows Carrying Place and a cruder Bay of Quinte with four tiny islands along its length, the strait at Glenora, and a single peninsula with an island at the end, probably representing North Marysburgh and Amherst Island. There is another island off the featureless south shore that might represent Nicholson Island. He does not show any other islands in eastern Lake Ontario, and while this is not proof, it suggests that he did not cross the lake via the False Ducks Islands and Main Duck Island of the Duck Galloo Ridge, a tricky prospect in windy autumn in any case. The force probably travelled east along the north shore of Lake Ontario, passing Amherst Island, and at Wolfe Island near Kingston, Ontario, turned south to Black Pond Wildlife Management Area in Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. Here they carefully hid their canoes and travelled south on foot through Brewerton, New York, by Oneida Lake, to attack an Onoñda’gegá Haudenosaunee/Onondaga Iroquois village or castle on the south shore of Onondaga Lake in the vicinity of 1 Destiny USA Dr., Syracuse, New York. It had a thick, 9 m tall palisade and a parapet, parts with roofs to provide shelter from arrows. Although Champlain wanted to mount a surprise attack, this plan was ruined when impetuous warrior allies eager to capture prisoners came out of concealment. He persuaded his allies to build a mobile siege tower taller than the walls that his arquebusiers used to fire down on the parapet and gallery, clearing it of defenders. Then roofed mantelets of his design were driven up to the walls so that the attackers could set them on fire, but the Onoñda’gegá doused the flames and the attack fell into confusion. Champlain was wounded by two arrows during this failed attack. He tried to persuade his allies to attack again, but after a few days the Indigenous people decided to return to Wendake along a slightly different route, with Champlain strapped in a pannier on a man’s back until they reached the canoes. Champlain, thinking in European terms of territorial conquest, viewed this attack as an abysmal failure, but his allies viewed it as a victory, for they had killed or captured many of their enemies for few losses on their own side. In addition, the Haudenosaunee, who had lost many warriors to arquebus fire in this and previous engagements, decided to avoid fighting the French for twenty years, a major advantage for the tiny French population of Canada.

The Defeat of the Wendat by the Haudenosaunee

There was a religious and secular French presence in Wendake, the Wendat homeland, but this did little to add to the power of the Wendat Confederacy. Brothers Jean Godefroy de Lintot (born 1607 or 1608 in Lintot, Seine-Maritime, Normandie; died 1681 in Trois-Rivières, Maurice, Québec) and Thomas Godefroy de Normanville (born in about 1610 in Lintot, Seine-Maritime, Normandie; died 1652 in Haudenosaunee Territory, New York State), fur traders and translators for Samuel de Champlain after their arrival in Canada in about 1626, spent from 1629 to 1632 living with the Wendat in one of their 18 to 25 palisaded villages somewhere within 50 km of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, 16164 Ontario 12, Midland, Simcoe County, Ontario. They were fluent in Algonquian and Iroquoian languages, including Wendat. Thomas was captured by the Haudenosaunee three times, being exchanged once, escaping another time, and then being tortured to death or “put to the fire” the third time. When the Dutch began selling muskets to the Haudenosaunee, while the French declined to sell firearms to the Wendat unless they were baptized into the Roman Catholic faith, the balance of power between these two confederations of 20 000 to 30 000 people each began to shift, made worse by devastating epidemics that killed as many as 60% of the Wendat between 1634 and 1640 due to their contact with the French. In the period 1623 to 1645 the Haudenosaunee attempted several times to establish peace with the Wendat and Algonquians, perhaps to acquire more furs or avoid a war on two fronts at the same time, but French missionaries and officials discouraged their allies from accepting these overtures since this threatened French interests and the spread of the Catholic faith. A huge Indigenous military alliance could easily be turned against France and wipe out or expel the mere 700 or so French colonists in the St. Lawrence Valley, and if the flow of furs went to the Dutch at Fort Oranje, Nieuw-Nederland, later renamed Albany, New York, this threatened the destruction of New France's fragile economy. Haudenosaunee ambitions changed from traditional raids for glory, revenge, and prisoners to a systematic attempt to eliminate their enemies by forcing mass surrenders and assimilating the captives to compensate for losses from warfare and disease. They also wanted to eliminate economic rivals and take the fur trade into their own hands to buy more guns, now key to maintaining their power and independence. Campaigns by both sides now frequently included over a thousand warriors. Haudenosaunee would often camp in the woods around Wendat communities during all seasons of the year and ambush women cultivating the fields or men going out to hunt or fish, making food acquisition almost impossible and using up stored corn reserves. In 1634 a force of 500 Wendat warriors set off to attack the Haudenosaunee, but perhaps near the Passage de Taronto between Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario they were themselves ambushed, losing 200 dead and 100 prisoners. More disasters would follow. In 1648-1651 Wendat villages began to fall one by one, with anyone who could not escape carried off as prisoners. In the end, the surviving Wendat had to surrender to the Haudenosaunee and be assimilated, or burn their villages and travel to a new community called Wendake by the city of Québec, or flee with the Odaawaag/Ottawa to Michigan and Ohio, later to be deported by the United States government to Oklahoma.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Settles in Prince Edward County

In 1651 the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy achieved final victory over the Wendat/Huron Confederacy. The Haudenosaunee army also campaigned east up to the Massachusetts border, south into Pennsylvania and Ohio, and west as far as Wisconsin and Illinois, bringing home dozens or hundreds of captives at a time. Visitors to the Haudenosaunee claimed that there were more foreigners among them than actual ethnic Haudenosaunee. The victorious Haudenosaunee made peace with the French and their Anishinaabeg allies in 1666-1667, in part to free up warriors for attacks to the south and west. Haudenosaunee colonists began to establish villages of longhouses with or without palisades along the south shore of Lake Ontario from Hamilton to Napanee in about 1666. Their chief interest was in the fur trade, in part to trade with the Dutch and English in Albany, New York, in exchange for guns, metal utensils, and other goods, but they also planted corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers and went on hunting expeditions for sometimes well over 100 km. A village of mixed Haudenosaunee, probably including Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca Haudenosaunee and many members of the Chonnonton- Aondironon- Wehrehronon- Ongniaahraronon Confederacy or Neutral Confederacy of Western Ontario who had surrendered to the Haudenosaunee, was located at Tinawatawa or Outinaouatoua, thought to be on Spring Creek, perhaps in the general vicinity of 1182 Concession Road 6 West, Millgrove, Flamborough, Hamilton, Ontario, situated east of African Lion Safari and the Beverly Swamp. Villages with primarily Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca Haudenosaunee inhabitants were at Teiaiagon, on a bluff on the east bank of the Humber River centred on 10 L’Estrange Place, York, Toronto, Ontario, and Ganatsekwyagon, on Bead Hill on the west bank of the Rouge River above the Glen Rouge Campground, 7450 Kingston Road, Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. Four villages with primarily Gayogohó:nǫ’/Cayuga Haudenosaunee inhabitants were at Ganaraské, probably on a low bluff about 100 m beyond the end of a lane on the northeast bank of the Ganaraska River at 5915 4th Line, Port Hope, Northumberland County, Ontario; Kentio, probably on a bluff above 4877 Rice Lake Dr. North, Bewdley, Northumberland County, Ontario, which is at the end of a field at 4895 Main St., Bewdley, Northumberland County, Ontario, on the southwestern end of Rice Lake; Kenhtè:ke or Quinté, around 37 Hiscock Shores Road, Carrying Place, Prince Edward County, Ontario; and Tannaouate, possibly near Centennial Park, 14 Couch Crescent, Trenton, Quinte West, Hastings County, Ontario. A village that was primarily Onyota’a:ka/Oneida Haudenosaunee was at Geneious, probably on the north shore of Hay Bay near 124 Cuthill Lane, Greater Napanee, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario.

The Gayogohó:nǫ’ Haudenosaunee Settlement of Kenhtè:ke or Quinté

Our interest is mainly in the Gayogohó:nǫ’/Cayuga Haudenosaunee settlement of Kenhtè:ke or Quinté (like the Kentucky River and the state of Kentucky meaning “on the meadow” or “on the plain”) near the Carrying Place portage between Weller’s Bay and the Bay of Quinte in Prince Edward County. Indigenous people found the short portage to the calm waters of the Bay of Quinte much more appealing than going around the dangerous south shore of Prince Edward County, so any canoe going along the north shore of Lake Ontario with a load of furs for the French at Fort Frontenac, 388 Ontario St., Kingston, Ontario, or Montréal, Québec, or the English at Oswego and Albany, New York, would have used this portage and given presents to the locals for the privilege of using it. While Old Portage Road, 1.5 km south of the Murray Canal in Carrying Place, is marked as the border of Prince Edward County and the oldest road in Ontario, the Indigenous people preferred landing just south of the Old Portage Road on the western end of the Bay of Quite near 3776 County Road 3, Carrying Place, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and carrying their canoes and freight southwest along a path in the vicinity of Michael’s Way, Carrying Place, and along the driveway of 21514 County Road 33, Carrying Place, 2.6 km south of the Murray Canal, to the opposite side of County Road 33 where they could put their canoes back in the water and paddle 1 km southwest down Gardenville Creek past 106 Gardenville Road, Carrying Place, and under the Millenium Trail, following the north side of Smokes Point Road until they reached Weller’s Bay at 15 Quigg Lane, Carrying Place. This was the location of Kenhtè:ke or Kenté or Quinté, an unpalisaded community that based on artifact finds probably stretched from Smoke Point in the north to Sugar Point in the south, with an outpost west of Smoke Point on Bald Island in Weller’s Bay. In terms of modern roads this would include the vicinity of Quigg Lane and Wellers Lane, the western end of Smokes Point Road, and all of Hiscock Shores Road. Graves have been found near 37 Hiscock Shores Road and on Bald Island. The people at Kenhtè:ke had fishing and hunting camps on Indian Island in the Bay of Quinte and in Wellington, Bloomfield, Picton, and somewhere near 1402 County Road 18, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario, in the Outlet River area of Sandbanks Provincial Park. According to White settlers, there was an Indigenous portage or trail following the modern Loyalist Parkway or County Road 33 from Wellington along the north shore of West Lake east to Bloomfield, then to the modern roundabout at Warings Corner, then along Sandy Hook Road to the Marsh Creek watershed in the vicinity of 223 County Road 10, Picton, Ontario. This trail was employed by the later Misizaagiing/Mississaugas, but was probably already in use in previous centuries. If they had canoes, they could drop them in Marsh Creek and paddle along the southern edge of Glenwood Cemetery, 47 Ferguson St., Picton, along Lalor St., and under Bridge St. to Picton Harbour. Birch bark canoes were light, but also vulnerable to damage, so if the creek was too shallow or had too many rocks, they preferred to carry their canoes farther rather than risk damaging them. Another portage or trail went from East Lake near 75 County Road 11, Woodrous, Prince Edward County, Ontario, northeast along County Road 10 to the Marsh Creek watershed in the vicinity of 223 County Road 10, Picton, Ontario, and from there on the same route as the Wellington-Bloomfield-Marsh Creek trail to Picton Harbour.

The French Sulpician Missionaries of Quinté

Almost all of the Haudenosaunee peoples north and south of Lake Ontario asked the French for missionaries, seeing them as ambassadors who would smooth trade relations and help to prevent attacks by France’s Algonquian allies. The French were happy to provide missionaries because they hoped to entice Indigenous peoples into becoming loyal Roman Catholic and French-speaking farmers and workers more devoted to Louis XIV than their traditional national interests. Of course, this never really worked, and the nature of the fur trade economy and need for military assistance meant that the French could not use the Spaniards’ terroristic methods to ensure submission, religious conversion, and forced labour. Instead, regular Canadians, often spending several seasons as entrepreneurial coureurs de bois fur traders or as voyageur canoeists working for fur merchants, or simply eager to waylay and trade with Indigenous trappers bringing furs to Canadian settlements, tended to become functionally or fluently bilingual in Indigenous languages and even adopt elements of Indigenous culture, in particular canoes, leather clothing, military tactics, and an ardent love of military glory. French officers in the 1750s and 1760s were amazed to see Canadian girls wearing short, revealing Indigenous leather skirts on the farm and then fashionable French dresses on Sundays, noting that they loved to flirt with the officers but virtuously refused to consider sex before marriage. Canadians became adept at Indigenous methods of warfare and accompanied Indigenous raiders to ravage American communities in Maine, Massachusetts, and New York, carrying off loot and captives for ransom and burning everything else. On 28 October 1668 the Sulpician missionaries Claude Trouvé (born about 1644 in Touraine, now Indre-et-Loire, Pays de La Loire; died 1704 at Chedabouctou/Guysborough, Nova Scotia), François de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon (born 1641 at the Château de Fénelon, Sainte-Mondane, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine; died 31 August 1679 at Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, Charente, Nouvelle-Aquitaine) arrived at Kenhtè:ke. In the spring of 1669 they were joined by La Mothe Fénelon’s cousin François-Saturnin Lascaris d'Urfé (born 1641 at Baugé-en-Anjou, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de La Loire; died 30 June 1701 at the Château de Baugé, Baugé-en-Anjou, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de La Loire), and they stayed until 1683. These two cousins are incidentally cousins of the author. They had been invited by a delegation of Gayogohó:nǫ’/Cayuga Haudenosaunee from Kenhtè:ke led by their chief Rohario. François de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon spent the winter of 1669-1670 at Ganatsekwyagon, an Onödowá’ga:’ Haudenosaunee or Seneca Iroquois village near the mouth of the Rouge River at 7450 Kingston Road, Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, and as such was the first European to live in the Greater Toronto Area. The Odaawaag/Ottawa Anishinaabeg Algonquians of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island in Georgian Bay used the Severn River, Lake Ouentironk (Wendat)/Lake Taronto (Haudenosaunee)/Lake Simcoe, and the Rouge River to trade furs for corn. The Ojibweg, Odaawaag/Ottawa, and Bodéwadmik/Potawatomi belonged to an alliance called the Niswimishkodewinan or Council of Three Fires, according to tradition formed at Michilimackinac, Michigan, in 796 CE. They were friendly with the Wendat, but formerly on unfriendly terms with the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois. Although these Haudenosaunee were farmers, they also hunted deer and beaver for clothing and trade and fished along the coast of Prince Edward County, which the French now referred to as the Presqu'île de Quinté or Quinte Peninsula. The French called Picton Bay the Baie d’Urfé after one of the Sulpician missionaries, and a French map shows the Baie d’Urfé with canoes drawn up on the shore. The pond or inlet at Little Bluff Conservation Area and the Black River, both on Prince Edward Bay, would have been likely stopping points for beaver hunters, but the bay does not seem to have been of much interest to the French because maps compiled by cartographers in the city of Québec portray the North Marysburgh peninsula and Amherst Island relatively correctly while shrinking the South Marysburgh peninsula into a small, south-pointing knob not even differentiated from Point Petre. Early French maps may have relied on Indigenous sketch maps that emphasized the Bay of Quinte, the Carrying Place, and the 14 km Trent River portage, but showed scant interest in or knowledge of the south shore or Prince Edward Bay, which they avoided on trading expeditions. In addition, the French tended to sail out into the lake to avoid the dangerous south shore and nearby False Duck Islands, including Timber Island, which is not named but falls under the general label of Isles dans le Lac (Islands in the Lake) or Isles des Galots (Pebble Islands), Swetland Island/False Duck Island, called Isle aux Goélands (Seagull Island), Main Duck Island, called Isle du Large (Wide Island), and, on the western shore of the county, Nicholson Island or Gahenront (possibly from the Kanien’kehá:ka word or another Haudenosaunee variant of it: kennó:ron or rain, with the k pronounced like our g). French maps of the mid-eighteenth century begin to show Prince Edward Bay, the south shore, and the islands and shoals of the Duck-Galloo Ridge with a certain amount of accuracy, but detail for the Bay of Quinte and the Carrying Place deteriorates, indicating that they now rarely used the portage. For the French, Prince Edward County was an obstacle rather than a destination. The French used bateaux, flat-bottomed wooden skiffs about 12 m long and 2 m wide with oars and a single mast with a lugsail to travel from Fort Frontenac to pick up 2 500 kg to 4 500 kg loads of furs, and did not like to use the Carrying Place portage because this would have meant dragging their heavy wooden boats across the neck of the peninsula, and even then their boats would not have fit into the upper part of Gardenville Creek. They preferred to sail from the passage between Indian Point on the end of the North Marysburgh peninsula and Amherst Island south toward Timber Island, around Point Traverse and Prince Edward Point at the end of Long Point in South Marysburgh, along the south shore of Prince Edward County at a safe distance, around Point Petre, then northwest past Sandbanks Provincial Park toward Presqu’ile Provincial Park by Brighton, Northumberland County, Ontario. The French also did not like the location of the Haudenosaunee villages on the Ganaraska River near Port Hope or the Rouge River near the Toronto Zoo, places that were fine for canoes but awkward for bateaux. Their favourite location was the Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca Haudenosaunee village at Teiaiagon, on a bluff on the east bank of the Humber River centred on 10 L’Estrange Place, York, Toronto, Ontario, where they could dock their bateaux. So soon Anishinaabeg furs were funnelled from various locations such as Port Severn, Simcoe County, Ontario, on Georgian Bay, southeast up the Severn River to Washago, Simcoe County, Ontario, and Lake Couchiching, south past the tkaronto “where there are trees standing in the water” wooden stake fishing weirs near 682 Atherley Road, Orillia, Ontario, south across Lake Simcoe, and then southwest up the Holland River West Branch to the vicinity of 3890 Ontario Highway 9, Schomberg, King, York Region, Ontario. From there they portaged south roughly along Weston Road to Hackett Lake near 14200 Weston Road, King City, York Region, Ontario, then through the Humber Trail area of King City, Ontario, the headwaters of the Humber River. Here the canoes could theoretically be put in the river, but since birch bark canoes were light and susceptible to damage on rocks, they were habitually carried on a trail south past the Kortright Centre, 9550 Pine Valley Dr., Woodbridge, Vaughan, York Region, Ontario, and roughly along Islington Avenue and Weston Avenue through Weston, York, Toronto, Ontario, to the riverside landing place at Teiaiagon near Baby Point Crescent in York, Toronto, Ontario. The commercial importance of the area for the Canadian economy later led to the French construction of Fort Rouillé in 1751 near 25 British Columbia Road, Toronto, and played at least a small role in the British building Fort York in 1793 at 250 Fort York Boulevard, Toronto, the forts being to the west and east of Exhibition Place respectively. The city of Toronto would grow near Fort York. Thanks to a map published by a Venetian cartographer in 1696, the spelling Taronto began to change to Toronto. In the 1790s Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, who considered Indigenous names barbarous and did not like French names either, would rename Lac Toronto Lake Simcoe, the Rivière Toronto the Humber River, the Passage de Toronto the Humber Passage, and the Lake Ontario site called Toronto York. To help block the flow of furs going from Ontario to Albany, New York, and divert them to Montréal, the Gouverneur-Général de la Nouvelle-France Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, and Capitaine Pierre de Saint-Ours of the Régiment de Carignan-Salières and the Compagnies franches de la Marine established Fort Frontenac in 1673. The Sulpician missionary François-Saturnin Lascaris d'Urfé arrived by canoe with the local northern Lake Ontario Haudenosaunee to attend the major meeting between the Comte de Frontenac and delegations of all the Haudenosaunee. Originally the Comte de Frontenac wanted to have the meeting at Kehntè:ke, but the New York State Haudenosaunee complained that this was too far away, so he switched the location to Fort Frontenac at modern-day Kingston, Ontario. With a peace treaty, life got better for almost everyone as people could farm, hunt, and trade without fear. There were French reports that Ojibweg Anishinaabeg and the northern Lake Ontario Haudenosaunee, formerly deadly enemies, were hunting together. The French also encouraged the Haudenosaunee to trade and settle by the fort and mission at Fort Frontenac in Kingston. The result was the depopulation of Kehntè:ke as the Gayogohó:nǫ’/Cayuga Haudenosaunee moved to Fort Frontenac or elsewhere. By 1679 there were only eight inhabitants left at Weller’s Bay, Carrying Place.

Relations Between the French and the Haudenosaunee Deteriorate

By the 1680s relations between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the French began to deteriorate as Haudenosaunee efforts to monopolize the fur trade threatened Canada’s commerce and their attacks on French Algonquian allies in the western Great Lakes had to be answered. It was also obvious that the English were arming and encouraging the Haudenosaunee in order to bring down their French rivals in North America. This was not acceptable to Louis XVI or his officials in Canada. Of course, the French were not innocent because they discouraged peaceful relations and trade between the Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee since this resulted in the valuable furs of the Great Lakes region ending up in Albany, New York City, and London instead of Montréal, Québec, and Paris. In 1684 the French, Canadians, and Anishinaabeg Algonquians aided the Irenwewa Confederacy or Illinois Confederacy Algonquians to repel a Haudenosaunee attack, but another French move against the Haudenosaunee the same year was a failure. In the spring of 1687, however, a force of Anishinaabeg, Irenwewa, and Wendat warriors moved on Niagara. Then they successfully captured four Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca villages in the area south of Rochester, New York, and burned them, their cornfields, and food stores. Simultaneously, in June 1687 832 French regular soldiers of the Compagnies franches de la Marine, over 900 Canadian militia, and 400 Indigenous allies under Gouverneur-Général de la Nouvelle-France Jacques René de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville, ascended the St. Lawrence River in bateaux and canoes to Fort Frontenac at Cataraqui or Kingston, Ontario. The Haudenosaunee colonists on the north shore of Lake Ontario began to retreat to their homeland in New York out of fear of the now overtly hostile Anishinaabeg of northern Ontario and because of appeals from their home communities to return, but some remained on the north shore. Denonville had already ordered the Onyota’a:ka/Oneida of Cataraqui (Kingston) and Geneious (Napanee) who provided food for the garrison of Fort Frontenac and the remaining Gayogohó:nǫ’/Cayuga at Kehntè:ke to be rounded up so that they could not warn the New York Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca of the approach of the French, and 51 men and 150 women and children were seized and confined at Fort Frontenac. This event in June 1687 was the end of the Haudenosaunee presence in Prince Edward County. On 4 July 1687 Denonville’s force left Fort Frontenac for the south shore of Lake Ontario near Rochester, New York, and went inland to attack the largest Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca town, Ganondagan. After a battle, the Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca retreated and the French, Canadians, and Indigenous allies burned the town and three other communities and an estimated 36 000 000 kg of corn before withdrawing to Lake Ontario. They travelled west to what is now Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York, and built Fort Denonville at the mouth of the Niagara River. Leaving 100 men as a garrison, Denonville returned to Fort Frontenac. Obeying direct orders from King Louis XIV, Denonville reluctantly sent 36 male prisoners, mostly from the roundup of peaceful Onyota’a:ka/Oneida and Gayogohó:nǫ’/Cayuga at Cataraqui, Geneious, and Kehntè:ke, across the Atlantic Ocean. They were held in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, and later the Atlantic port of Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Denonville made peace with the Haudenosaunee in 1688, and in 1689 the 13 surviving Haudenosaunee prisoners in France were repatriated to Canada.

The Anishinaabeg and French Drive Out the Haudenosaunee

Peace did not last long, however, for the Nine Years’ War of 1688 to 1697, also known as King William’s War, would soon break out between England and France, and the Haudenosaunee burned the Montréal suburb of Lachine in 1689, killing 24 Canadians and carrying off over 70 prisoners. The overextended Haudenosaunee then decided to shift to the defensive, and they did nothing when the French, Canadians, and their Indigenous allies raided and destroyed nearby Schenectady, New York, killing 60 Americans and capturing 27. According to the author’s cousin English-French-Wendat-Ojibweg historian, interpreter, and Minnesota legislator William Whipple Warren (born 27 April 1825 in La Pointe, Michigan; died 1 June 1853 in Saint Paul, Minnesota), who recorded the oral history of the Lake Superior Anishinaabe, in about 1687-1700 the Niswimishkodewinan or Council of Three Fires triple alliance of Ojibwe, Odaawaag/Ottawa, and Bodéwadmik/Potawatomi, plus vengeful Wendat and Algonquian Othaakiiwaki/Sauk, Meshkwahkihaki/Fox, and Šaawanwaki/Shawnee, inflicted bloody defeats on the Haudenosaunee and conquered southern Ontario. Ojibweg from Lake Superior travelled east and, after being joined by Odaawaag from Manitoulin Island, paddled south through Georgian Bay. The eastern force of the offensive won a victory at the French River leading to Lake Nipissing and continued on east to the Ottawa River. The central force won at Blue Mountain near Collingwood, Grey County, Ontario. Meanwhile, a western force of Ojibweg travelled down the eastern shore of the Bruce Peninsula and rendezvoused at the Saugeen River with some Ojibweg and Wendat coming north from Lake Erie. At Malden, Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario, on the Detroit River, these Ojibweg and Wendat in birch bark canoes had pretended to flee from a large group of Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca in dugout canoes and then turned and annihilated them, sparing one man to return home and relate the tale of the massacre to their enemies. At the same time, two distant battles took place on Lake Michigan that resulted in a Haudenosaunee defeat, perhaps at the hands of the Algonquian Othaakiiwaki/Sauk, Meshkwahkihaki/Fox, and Šaawanwaki/Shawnee. Now the united western force on the eastern shore of Lake Huron won a battle at the Saugeen River south of the Bruce Peninsula and Owen Sound, Bruce County, Ontario, that reportedly resulted in mounds of dead. The victorious western force now joined the central force at Collingwood, Grey County, Ontario, on Georgian Bay and ascended the Severn River, winning a three-day battle against a large force of Haudenosaunee at the Narrows at Orillia, Ontario, between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe; only a few of their foes survived. Here the central force divided and a new western group went south to Teiaiagon on the Humber River in York, Toronto, Ontario, and prevailed there, then the western force divided, with one group going to Niagara Falls to win a battle and the other group going east along the south shore of Lake Ontario to rendezvous at Trenton, Quinte West, Hastings County, Ontario, with the central force. The central force went east from Lake Simcoe to the Kawartha Lakes, storming a Haudenosaunee fort at Pigeon Lake and only sparing a few prisoners, crushing more Haudenosaunee north of and then in Peterborough, Peterborough County, Ontario. At the Otonabee River where it joins Rice Lake there was another terrific battle, after which the Ojibweg created a pile of enemy dead and another pile of their own dead. The surviving Haudenosaunee who retreated down the Trent River were terrified by the slaughter of their comrades, but determined to fight again. At what is probably Indian Island in the Bay of Quinte south of Trenton, the reunited central and western force fought for two days and nights and hardly any Haudenosaunee survived to flee. The central force then crossed Lake Ontario to take the war to the Haudenosaunee heartland and laid siege to a Kanien’kehá:ka Haudenosaunee or Mohawk Iroquois town or castle on the Mohawk River. The two tired forces eventually agreed to a peace that left the northern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in the hands of the Ojibweg, although the Ojibweg agreed under the Dish With One Spoon principle of Indigenous law to allow the Haudenosaunee to share in hunting and fishing there, an agreement they honoured. At some later treaty negotiations in the presence of the English, the Onöndowa’ga:’/Seneca claimed that they had “given” southern Ontario to the Anishinaabeg as a present, but the Anishinaabeg strongly objected to this questionable statement and produced a wampum belt that related a very different story. Dates may be hazy, but the various accounts of the war mesh together quite well and they are likely largely true. The Haudenosaunee warriors involved were probably not predominantly north shore Haudenosaunee, but rather Haudenosaunee warriors from the Mohawk Valley heartland.

The Misizaagiing Ojibweg Anishinaabeg Settle in the County

In about 1700, after the Nine Years’ War of 1688 to 1697, the Misizaagiing/Mississauga Ojibweg Anishinaabeg occupied Prince Edward County and all the other settlements along the north shore of Lake Ontario abandoned a few years before by their defeated Haudenosaunee enemies. In 1701, after four years of periodic negotiations that the English tried their best to prevent, the Haudenosaunee signed a peace treaty with the French and their Algonquian allies, officially ceding Ontario to the Ojibweg Anishinaabeg. This treaty is known in English as the Great Peace of Montreal, but for Indigenous people it was the Dish or Bowl with One Spoon Treaty, agreeing to share the resources of their lands despite territorial changes. It is a strange phenomenon of human nature, but bitter enemies can turn into good friends very quickly if the benefits of peace and prosperity are obvious to both sides, and the treaty is still honoured today. For the Haudenosaunee the end of the war was not devastating, for they had rebuilt their population to some extent from assimilated captives and still had economic access to and trade ties with the territories they had forfeited, leading to decades of peace and prosperity instead of constant bloody warfare. Once peace was a de facto and then official reality, Ojibweg Anishinaabeg families began to move south to occupy the vacated lands. By 1700 the Misizaagiing, as many of the southern Ojibweg came to be known, were in Toronto, by 1702 they were in Kingston, and around 1707 they were in the Niagara Peninsula. The Misizaagiing were a subgroup of Ojibweg who used to live on the north shore of Lake Huron near Manitoulin Island, and many of them moved south, but there were plenty of other Ojibwe as well. The British later began to call all Ojibwe near the north shore of Lake Ontario Misizaagiing or Mississaugas for convenience, and the name has stuck. In about 1700 a band of Misizaagiing Ojibwe Anishinaabeg established a village on Waabooz/Waupoos or “Rabbit” Island in Prince Edward Bay, although they preferred the fishing at Cape Vesey, 4065 County Road 8, Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario, about 6 km to the east, and came to live there and rent out Waupoos Island to the Shannons, Whattams, and other families. They seem to have called the Bay of Quinte Wiikwed or bay, mangled in French as “Couïd”, since the French Canadian mapmakers only caught the stem -kwed part of the word, meaning end.

Prince Edward County during the Seven Years’ War

The Misizaagiing of Prince Edward County joined their French allies in the Seven Years’ War, a dramatic contest between France and its colony Canada on the one hand and Britain and its American colonies on the other. On 30-31 July 1756 Maréchal de camp Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Montcalm’s aide-de-camp Capitaine Louis-Antoine de Bougainville mentioned sending a reconnaissance force under Capitaine de Aubesprie of the Régiment de Béarn from Fort Frontenac at what is now Kingston, Ontario, to the Baie de Coui or Bay of Quinte to look for other troops of the Régiment de Béarn expected from Fort Niagara. He noted how rough and dangerous Lake Ontario could get and its lack of harbours and sheltered places. In August 1756 Montcalm’s 3 000 French regulars and Canadian militia set off from Fort Frontenac and headed south across Lake Ontario to Oswego, New York, with their 250 Indigneous allies: the Omaeqnomenewak/Menominee of Wisconsin-Michigan, the Nibiinsing/Nipissing of Ontario, the Omàmìwininìwak Anishinaabeg/Algonquin of Ontario and Québec, and the Roman Catholic Kahnawake and Kanesatake Kanien’kéha:ka Haudenosaunee of Montréal, and it is likely that some of the Misizaagiing, including a few from Prince Edward County, were with the Anishinaabeg contingent. Colonel James Mercer’s 1 700 British and Americans in the defence complex of Fort Oswego, Fort Ontario, and Fort George were besieged and forced to surrender.

The Baie de Couïd or Bay of Quinte was recorded on a 1757 map by Capitaine René-Hippolyte Laforce, a Canadian naval officer who grew up at Fort Niagara, Youngstown, New York, and commanded a frigate on Lake Ontario in 1756-1758, taking part in Montcalm’s capture of Oswego, New York. Laforce’s map referred to the Baye des Couïd, literally the Bay of the Bay, which is the Bay of Quinte, Les Isles des Couïd or the Islands of the Bay, which is the False Duck Islands (Timber Island and Swetman Island), and L’isle du large des Couïd or the Island Offshore of the Bay, which is Main Duck Island. This map also shows the Pointe à la Barque or Boat Point, which is Point Petre, the Pointe au Gravois or Rubble/Gravel Point, which is Salmon Point, and the Point du Détour or Detour/Deviation Point, which is Huycks Point, with drawings of shoals at the first two points and an implication that you should change course at the third point, probably to turn northwest toward Presqu'ile, Northumberland County, Ontario, and avoid the shoals of Scotch Bonnet Island and Nicholson Island. Further north one can see Bald Head Island and Bald Island, called the Isles de Quinté or Quinte Islands, and Wellers Bay, called the Baye de Quinté or Bay of Quinte; the long Baldhead or Wellers Bay Beach that protects Wellers Bay from Lake Ontario and attaches Bald Head Island to the mainland did not exist yet. To the west is the Presqu’isle de Quinté or Quinte Peninsula, now Presqu’ile Provincial Park near Brighton, Northumberland County, Ontario. It is interesting how the French geographical names migrated or were replaced after the British conquest of Canada. Our modern Bay of Quinte is misaligned with Wellers Bay, suggesting that the French with their sailing ships never used the Carrying Place portage. While Prince Edward Bay and the Black River are shown, Picton Bay is not, being away from the main sailing route and rarely visited. No Indigenous communities are marked on the map, just coastline, rivers, and islands of interest to navigators. On a British map of about 1789 they label Waupoos Island with its French name Isle au Chêne or Oak Island.

On 11 September 1756 Capitaine Louis-Antoine de Bougainville mentioned Ojibweg, Odaawaag/Ottawa, and Kanien’kéha:ka Haudenosaunee of the Montréal area joining the Wendat, Wabenaki/Abenaki, Wolastoqiyik/Maliseet of New Brunswick, and French and Canadian troops at Fort Carillon or Fort Ticonderoga, Ticonderoga, New York, on Lake Champlain by the portage to Lake George. Again, it is possible that some Misizaagiing from Prince Edward County were with the Ojibweg. During the period 22-29 September 1756 Bougainville makes note of the arrival of Haudenosaunee, Nibiinsing/Nipissing, and Bodéwadmi/Potawatomi of Détroit as reinforcements; the latter would have probably portaged at Carrying Place on their way to the St. Lawrence River, the Rivière Richelieu, and Lake Champlain. On 18 December 1756, while in winter quarters at the city of Québec, Bougainville noted that a party of 400 Misizaagiing, Roman Catholic Haudenosaunee, and Canadians were going on a raid and reconnaissance mission against Fort William Henry on Lake George, New York, even though he recorded that it was -21 ℃ that day. The French had to be very diplomatic with Indigneous leaders, providing presents, meeting with them in council, and following their schedule in operations because of their importance to the defence of Canada. The intelligence they gathered and the raids they organized against enemy troops and supply lines was invaluable, and the British and Americans were justifiably terrified of them. If they tortured, killed, or ritually consumed parts of their prisoners or left for home with scalps, captives, and plunder at awkward times, there was little the French could do about it. The Indigenous allies tended to come and go during the campaigning season, with a certain number being present at any one time.

On 22 May 1757 Capitaine Louis-Antoine de Bougainville noted in his journal the arrival in Montréal of Chief Minabonjou with 30 Misizaagiing. A few weeks later, on 12-15 June and 28 July 1757, Bougainville recorded the presence of the Báxoje/Iowa, Hoočąk/Winnebago, Omaeqnomenewak/Menominee, Thâkîwaki/Sauk, Meskwaki/Fox, Bodéwadmi/Potawatomi, Myaamiaki/Miami, Lenni Lenape/Delaware, Odaawaag/Ottawa, Nibiinsing/Nipissing, Ojibweg, Misizaagiing/Mississauga, Montréal Kanien’kéha:ka Haudenosaunee/Mohawk Iroquois, Wendat, Atikamekw, Wabenaki/Abenaki, Wolastoqiyik/Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq/Micmac. The Misizaagiing complained that they had been raided by the Onyota’a:ka Haudenosaunee/Oneida Iroquois allied to the British. The Misizaagiing, led by Canadian noblemen Capitaine Louis Lériger, Sieur de La Plante, and Capitaine Claude-Nicolas de Lorimier de la Rivière, included 45 warriors from Toronto, 43 from La Carpe/The Carp and 63 from La Loutre/The Otter, a total of 141 men. It is difficult to identify “The Carp”, a reference to the white sucker or waabishkaa namebin in Anishinaabemowin, and “The Otter”, a reference to the North American river otter, nigig in Anishinaabemowin. Perhaps these were the names of the war chiefs who led these contingents. There were Misizaagiing in Burlington, Oakville, Port Credit, Etobicoke, Toronto, Scarborough, the Trent River, and Prince Edward County at the time. According to Bougainville, about 200 Misizaagiing and Odaawaag left for home on 29 July 1757 because they had scored a victory and lacked supplies. However, some may have taken part in the Siege of Fort William Henry at Lake George, New York, on 3-9 August 1757, when the Marquis de Montcalm with 3 000 French regular troops, 3 000 Canadian militia, and 2 000 Indigenous allies surrounded Lieutenant Colonel George Munro’s 2 500 British and American troops and bombarded the fort with artillery. After the British and American garrison surrendered, agreeing to evacuate the fort and not fight again for 18 months, the unhappy Indigenous allies of the French, watching their enemies depart unmolested with their personal possessions, fell on them and killed and scalped between 69 and 184 soldiers, also carrying off many soldiers and soldiers’ wives and children as captives.

The Marquis de Montcalm’s army of 3 600 French regulars, Canadian militia, and Indigenous warriors repulsed a frontal attack on their entrenchments by Major General James Abercromby’s army of 6 000 British regulars and 12 000 American militia, rangers, and Haudenosaunee in the Battle of Carillon at Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain on 8 July 1758, with the French and Canadians losing 104 killed and 279 wounded and the British and Americans 1 000 killed and 1 500 wounded. This victory kept Canada safe from attack from the south, but the British capture of the Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, threatened the possibility of an attack from the east. It is unclear if any Misizaagiing were present at the battle because three weeks later, on 1 August 1758, Bougainville mentions the arrival of 30 or 40 Misizaagiing at Fort Carillon, and that the Marquis de Montcalm had a council with them on 4 August. On 10-12 August 1758, a month after the battle, most of the Indigenous contingent left Fort Carillon for home, with only 75 remaining, the largest group being 42 Misizaagiing. On 21 August 30 1758 Canadian nobleman Lieutenant Joseph Marin de la Malgue led a raiding party of 30 French and Canadians, about 10 Misizaagiing, and about 10 Roman Catholic Haudenosaunee and Wendat, heading south across Lake George in canoes. Three of Marin’s Frenchmen and 10 Misizaagiing spent three days hiding around the enemy’s camp near Fort William Henry, waiting to ambush some victims, but no one ventured near them, and they headed back to Fort Carillon by 31 August. The Misizaagiing requested permission to go home, and the French agreed because they had been there a long time. One motive that they may have had for returning to their families was that they were aware of British and American troops and sailors preparing to renew their presence on Lake Ontario after a two-year absence. The British established a small fleet of seven one-masted sloops and two-masted brigs at Oswego, New York, armed with up to 18 guns, as well as launching many small bateaux. The French had three two-masted brigantines with up to 14 guns and one one-masted sloop, and these vessels travelled between Fort Frontenac and Fort Niagara, passing Main Duck Island and going along the south shore of Prince Edward County to cross the open lake; when the British were absent they might also follow the south shore of Lake Ontario. On 26-28 August 1758 the author’s cousin British-Acadian officer Lieutenant Colonel John [Jean-Baptiste] Bradstreet’s force of 300 British and American regulars, 2 500 American militia, and 43 Haudenosaunee from Oswego, New York, besieged and captured Canadian nobleman Capitaine Pierre-Jacques Payen de Noyan et de Chavoy’s garrison of 53 Canadian officers and French soldiers and 108 Wendat warriors at Fort Frontenac in what is now Kingston, Ontario. Bradstreet withdrew after destroying the fort and its large store of supplies and furs and paroling the prisoners. The French returned to the site after Bradstreet’s departure and tried to resupply Fort Niagara at Youngstown, New York, Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit at Detroit, Michigan, and Fort Duquesne at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, many Indigenous nations, learning of the French defeat at Fort Frontenac, began to distance themselves from the French and open negotiations with the British in order to protect their national interests.

There is a Prince Edward County legend of buried gold that is set in the years 1758 to 1760. The treasure story has three versions, all so different from each other that they can be considered three separate stories linked only by the common theme of the French navy and French gold. In one, a French gunboat laden with military documents and a barrel of gold was heading for Fort Frontenac at what is now Kingston, Frontenac County, Ontario, and as it was approaching the Upper Gap between Indian Point in North Marysburgh and Amherst Island the vessel was spotted by a British fleet commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Bradstreet, who was heading north from Oswego, New York, to attack Fort Frontenac. Bradstreet ordered two of his ships to give chase. To avoid capture, the French vessel turned south and sailed past the False Duck Islands and Prince Edward Point on South Marysburgh and then west along the south shore of Prince Edward County, rounding Point Petre in Athol and heading north past Salmon Point. Realizing that evading capture was impossible, the French entered the mouth of the Outlet River where they beached the gunboat, unloaded the documents and gold, and set fire to the vessel. The sailors buried the heavy barrel of gold under a large eastern cottonwood tree on the north or west bank halfway between the original bridge and the bay and made their way by land to Fort Frontenac, only to learn that Bradstreet had captured the fort and the whole region was in British hands. However, the story has a continuation. In the 1830s or 1840s a descendant of the French naval officer came to the Outlet River. This Monsieur de Pontleroy, in another variant of the tale Monsieur Levi, descendent of Capitaine Levi, about 30 years old and finely dressed, was in search of his ancestor’s cargo of gold. He aroused the interest of local fishers, a gentleman named Captain C. [Conger or Cole?], Captain C.’s beautiful daughter Nellie, and Nellie’s fiancé, a farmer’s son named George Randall. Pontleroy soon located the spot where the gold was, and waited for machinery to extract it. In the meantime, Nellie had become strongly attracted to the handsome, friendly, and dashing young Frenchman, and Pontleroy was smitten by the beautiful Canadian girl, but she would not break her promise to marry George. George, however, was greedy to get a share of the gold, and Pontleroy remarked as the two men walked on Outlet Beach that he was more interested in Nellie than in the gold. They soon came to an agreement that Pontleroy would transfer his right to the gold to George and George would release Nellie from her engagement. Pontleroy and his new bride left for France about 10 days later and George set to digging. He found nothing, and only gained the scorn of his neighbours for trading his lovely fiancée for money. According to the story, the barrel of gold still lies south of the modern bridge and 35 Outlet Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario, not far east of Parking Lot 8 in Sandbanks Provincial Park.

A second version of the story is that in 1760 two French warships struck Charity Shoal northeast of Main Duck Island. One of the ships, badly damaged, floated free, and took on the crew of the one that could not be recovered. It drifted to Main Duck Island, where the sailors tried to drive it across the bar into the little boat harbour on the northeastern shore, but failed, and the ship drifted east and had its bottom gradually smashed to pieces on the rocks near where the lighthouse is today on the eastern tip of the island. Many of the sailors drowned in the disaster, but the ones still alive put together rafts to salvage provisions, military supplies, and the pay chest full of gold coins before the vessel broke up. Reaching the shore of Main Duck Island, they buried the bodies that washed on shore and prepared to winter there. In case they were rescued by the British, they buried the pay chest. However, the cold and the dwindling rations of spoiled provisions caused the sailors to die one by one. Their comrades buried them until only one man was left. He too died, and his skeleton was discovered years later. The treasure, however, was never found.

A third version of the story is that a French admiral, watching a final naval battle between the French and British on Lake Ontario in about 1759, and fearing defeat, hid his treasure in a room-sized cave 15 m below the top of the cliff face overlooking Glenora, North Marysburgh, and sealed the small entrance. This treasure too lies waiting to be discovered.

Of course, all three stories arouse major suspicion. First of all, there is no record of the lost ship or ships or treasure mentioned in the stories, and there are plenty of letters, reports, and diaries from this period. Also, why would the first ship be west of Fort Frontenac if it was bringing money upriver from Montréal? It would not be bringing money from Fort Niagara. Also, a French soldier of the Compagnies franches de la Marine posted in various places in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley mentions being paid in paper money, copper sols, and copper deniers. Soldiers probably got some silver écu coins on occasion, but gold Louis d’or worth half a year’s wages each? The French gave Indigenous peoples a variety of goods, but not metal currency. On top of that, the French returned to the ruins of Fort Frontenac in late 1758 and resumed communications with Fort Niagara; they would definitely have been interested in recovering a hidden barrel of gold. There was a Lieutenant Colonel Nicolas Sarrebourse de Pontleroy, Engineer in Chief of Canada, and he did inspect the ruins of Fort Frontenac, but only after Bradstreet had left. There was no naval officer named Levi, although there was a Maréchal de camp François-Gaston de Lévis, Chevalier de Lévis, later 1er Duc de Lévis and Maréchal de France, but this member of the high aristocracy was Montcalm’s second-in-command and was active elsewhere. It is likely that these names were plucked from a history book and added to the first story. In the second story, if everyone died on Main Duck Island, how would anyone know that they had buried a pay chest full of gold? Finally, with regard to the third story, there was no French admiral on Lake Ontario, no French naval officer reported to be hanging around a cave in Glenora with loads of treasure, and no naval battle on Lake Ontario at this time.

In July 1759 Brigadier General John Prideaux with 2 200 British regulars, 3 300 Amercan militia, and 600 pro-British Haudenosaunee in bateaux and whaleboats travelled west from Oswego, New York, along the south shore of Lake Ontario. Capitaine Pierre Pouchot of the Régiment de Béarn, commander of Fort Niagara, had sent a group of Misizaagiing on board Capitaine René-Hippolyte Laforce’s Iroquoise, just launched on the upper St. Lawrence River at Pointe au Baril or Maitland, United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, Ontario, with 10 12 pound guns, to carry out a reconnaissance of the Oswego River in June 1759. However, a violent squall had broken the mast and bowsprit, and La Force missed the preparation and departure of the fleet of enemy bateaux and whaleboats, which he could have ravaged at will with his 12 pounders. After a siege lasting from 6 to 26 July 1759, the British captured Fort Niagara, defended by 220 French regulars of line regiments, 300 French regulars of the Compagnies franches de la Marine and Canadian militia, and some pro-French Haudenosaunee. The Haudenosaunee of both sides met together at the beginning of the siege and decided to remain temporarily neutral in order to avoid killing any of their fellow clan members and compatriots. On hearing the news of the surrender of Fort Niagara, the French garrison at Fort Rouillé in Toronto, Ontario, burned their fortifications and left for Montréal, leaving Lake Ontario in British hands. The city of Québec surrendered on 18 September 1759 after Montcalm’s defeat and mortal wound in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. In 1760 Major General Jeffrey Amherst prepared a three-pronged advance on Montréal, and he personally led the contingent that left Oswego, New York, on 10 August 1760, sailing north across Lake Ontario and descending the St. Lawrence River. Montréal capitulated to Amherst on 8 September 1760, essentially ending the Seven Years’ War and French power in North America. Prince Edward County became part of the British Empire, although its Misizaagiing inhabitants may not have been aware that they were now under British sovereignty. In 1792 Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe would replace the French names of the islands east of Prince Edward County with suitably British ones. He would rename Isle Tonti Amherst Island in honour of General Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, Isle de Forêt Gage Island (later Simcoe Island) in honour of General Thomas Gage, Grande Isle Wolfe Island in honour of Major General James Wolfe, Isle aux Chevreuils or Isle à la Biche Carleton Island in honour of Lieutenant General Guy Carleton, 1st Lord Dorchester, and Isle Cauchois Howe Island in honour of Lieutenant General William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe.

The Misizaagiing during the American Revolutionary War

The Misizaagiing decided to become allies of the British during the American Revolutionary War, and warriors from Prince Edward County were probably among those who provided military assistance during the conflict. In July 1777 Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s 8 000 British, German, and Loyalist troops were joined by about 500 Indigenous warriors led by Luc de La Corne Saint-Luc and the French-Odaawaag Charles Michel de Langlade. The warriors were mainly Odaawaag, but also Meshkwahkihaki/Fox, Ojibweg, Misizaagiing, and pro-British Haudenosaunee, the latter mostly Kanien’kehá:ka/Mohawks. During the advance from Canada south toward a planned rendezvous in Albany with another British army from New York City, a group of Indigenous warriors led by a Wendat attacked Patriot Fort Edward, New York, and carried off a woman named Jane McCrea on a horse, but she appears to have been killed by stray American bullets, whereupon she was scalped by her captors. The irony was that she was a Loyalist attempting to join her husband, an officer in one of Burgoyne’s Loyalist regiments. Burgoyne, who had ordered his Indigenous allies not to harm civilians, was furious and wanted to hang the warrior who possessed her scalp, and while he was dissuaded by Canadian La Corne de Saint-Luc from doing so, his Indigenous allies were unhappy at being insulted by the British commander. When 80 Haudenosaunee warriors were killed in the Battle of Bennington at Waloomsac, New York, Burgoyne did not display the customary sympathy for his allies and attempt to stem their grief with presents and calls for revenge, and over 400 of the 500 warriors left for home, the Misizaagiing returning to southern Ontario. Burgoyne had few remaining warriors to scout, skirmish in the woods, and cover his flanks, and this contributed in part to him ending up surrounded by the Patriots in the Battle of Saratoga near Saratoga, New York. With the British army in New York City having left to attack Philadelphia instead of marching on Albany, he was forced to surrender to Major General Horatio Gates’ 12 000 Patriots, a disastrous defeat that persuaded France to openly join the Patriot rebels. While the Haudenosaunee continued to fight hard on the British side, the Misizaagiing and other Anishinaabeg were less committed to their British allies, accepting presents but not taking the field in large numbers.

Commodore René-Hippolyte Laforce, a Canadian naval officer who commanded a French frigate on Lake Ontario in 1756-1758, taking part in Montcalm’s capture of Oswego, New York, was now doing the same job for the British, his former enemies. At least he was still defending Canada from the Americans. In 1776-1783 Laforce was commander of the British fleet on Lake Ontario and then commodore of the British fleet in the waters of the Province of Québec (including Ontario) during the American Revolutionary War to protect the region from the American Patriots. During the American Revolutionary War he operated from the Royal Navy dockyard on Carleton Island, Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, New York, opposite Wolfe Island and Kingston, Ontario, and presumably made many trips to the British garrisons at Fort Niagara and Fort Oswego. The American Patriots, blocked by the British and Haudenosaunee, were unable to establish a presence on Lake Ontario during this conflict. About 500 Patriots tried to take Fort Oswego from the British in 1783, but had to turn back short of its walls.

The Misizaagiing Negotiate an Agreement with King George III

In August 1784 the Crawford Purchase was negotiated between the Misizaagiing/Mississauga Ojibwe Anishinaabeg of Kingston and the Bay of Quinte and Captain William Crawford representing the Ogimaa or Chief or King George III, in other words the British Crown. The land from the Gananoque River at Gananoque to the Trent River at Trenton was purchased, including by implication both sides of the Bay of Quinte and therefore Prince Edward County, although British correspondence only refers to the distance north of the lakeshore. No actual treaty document or deed was signed, for it was an oral agreement that was considered binding by both parties. Confirmation of the Crawford Purchase took place during the Johnson-Butler Purchase or “Toronto Treaty” or “Gunshot Treaty” at Carrying Place in September 1787 that conceded Misizaagiing lands from the Trent River at Trenton to the Scarborough Bluffs in Toronto. In both agreements the Misizaagiing believed that they had donated the use of farmland north of the lakeshore as far as a gunshot could be heard, that is about 3 km, while the British believed that the distance conceded was about 38.6 km, with a longer stretch from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe. The Indigenous people knew that military resistance to the British military was not a good idea, and they tried to maintain peace with their powerful ally. Misizaagiing were hunter-gatherers and believed that they were free to hunt and fish over the entirety of their territory as they always had, and were happy to receive gifts of blankets, clothing, guns, ammunition, and red cloth as a grateful George III thanked the Misizaagiing for sharing the use of some of their land with the farmers of an allied nation. Their particular concern was to point out their favourite seasonal campsites so that their new guests would not occupy them. The Misizaagiing followed the Indigenous legal principle of the dish with one spoon, which meant sharing the resources of their territory with friendly nations. Those friendly nations might give gifts to the nation that had a special relationship with or “owned” the territory. For example, a passing hunter who killed an animal for food might leave the pelt hanging on a branch as thanks to the local people. Or traders might provide gifts to local residents for the privilege of using the portage at Carrying Place. The Misizaagiing were hoping to establish a trade relationship with the British similar to that between the Anishinaabeg hunter-gatherers and the Wendat farmers. To them, British presents meant that they recognized Misizaagiing connection with the land, in European terms sovereignty, and would continue a symbiotic partnership by trading flour, muskets, ammunition, knives, kettles, and clothing for Misizaagiing furs. British settlers would farm like the Wendat and Haudenosaunee, and the Misizaagiing would hunt, fish, and collect wild rice as they always had. Of course, Indigenous law did not mesh well with the British common law concept of absolute property ownership and absolute national sovereignty over territory, and the relationship would turn out to be anything but symbiotic. The British believed that Misizaagiing territory, surrendered by Louis XV in 1763 and included in George III’s Proclamation of 1763, was already under British sovereignty, but that the nations who lived there were under the protection of the king and were allowed to use their territories as their hunting grounds unless they assented to its purchase by specially authorized agents of the Crown. Now, however, since the Misizaagiing had sold all their land east and by implication south of Trenton to the Crown, the British might graciously grant them places to live. British correspondence makes no mention of reserves, but in 1847 the Misizaagiing claimed that in the Crawford Agreement they had listed places they would not give to farmers, including many small islands in the Bay of Quinte, Wellers Bay, and West Lake, as well as two in East Lake, Nicholson Island and Scotch Bonnet Island off the western shore, Waupoos Island in Prince Edward Bay, and Main Duck Island. In addition, the Misizaagiing claimed that they retained three small pieces of land on the mainland of the county peninsula, 180 ha at Cape Vesey on Prince Edward Bay east of Waupoos Island, 240 ha at Grassy Point on the northeastern tip of Prince Edward County, and 480 ha at Massassauga Point east of Rossmore and south of Belleville. It is quite possible that Captain Crawford made an oral agreement to give the local Indigenous people ownership of various islands that he knew surveyors could not easily turn into lots and would be of little interest to farmers. A few tiny fragments of the mainland of the peninsula might also be overlooked if it meant that the Misizaagiing did not create problems for rapid settler occupation of 99% of the conceded territory. Certainly this would be a pattern in other parts of Ontario, such as Lake Simcoe, where the fishing-oriented Ojibweg Anishinaabeg insisted on holding onto Fox Island, Snake Island, Georgina Island, and Thorah Island and a few traditional campsites on the mainland shoreline such as the Atherley Narrows at 693 Atherley Road, Orillia, Ontario, where the Ouentaronk (Wendat) or Tkaronto (Haudenosaunee) or Mnjikaning (Ojibweg) fishing weirs had stood since about 2500 BCE. Whether or not Crawford heard the proper translation of their demands, or whether he made the concessions they asked for, his letters show no interest in what they said. Nevertheless, the Misizaagiing Anishinaabeg were able to remain residents of the county for decades. They later complained that the British told them that it would be a long while before a lot of settlers arrived, when in fact within a generation practically all of their traditional lands on or near Lake Ontario were crowded with settler cabins, axes were making short work of the forests, game had been virtually exterminated, English-speaking fishers were casting nets at the best fishing spots, and entrepreneurs were damming the rivers for sawmills and gristmills, blocking the migration of salmon and eels. Extreme poverty, malnutrition, disease, and alcoholism caused their population in southern Ontario to decline.

In 1784, officially confirmed in 1793, the British gave part of the Crawford Purchase, on the mainland north of Prince Edward County, to the Kanien’kehá:ka Haudenosaunee/Mohawk Iroquois, who had fought as their allies in the American Revolutionary War. This land is now the Kenhtè:ke Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Deseronto, Hastings County, Ontario. The Kenhtè:ke Mohawks claim Prince Edward County as their traditional hunting territory, and this is actually true because in about 1701 the victorious Misizaagiing did generously give permission for the defeated Haudenosaunee, now driven back south of Lake Ontario, to hunt in Misizaagiing territory. In addition, in 1749 the French invited Haudenosaunee people to settle at Fort de La Présentation at Ogdensburg, New York, on the upper St. Lawrence River, and Onoñda'gegá/Onondaga, Onyota’a:ka/Oneida, and Gayogohó:nǫ’/Cayuga did so and came to be known as the Oswegatchie. At about the same time Kanien’kehá:ka/Mohawks from Kahnawake, Québec, founded Ahkwesáhsne, now the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, on a section of the St. Lawrence River straddling the borders of Ontario, Québec, and New York. However, it would be inaccurate to say that Prince Edward County was exclusively their hunting territory or that it was their sovereign territory; even their reserve had been purchased by the British from the Misizaagiing.

When Loyalist settlers began to arrive in the 1780s, the Misizaagiing considered the farmers their guests and the shoreline and creeks of the county, including the south shore, more exclusively their own. The dish with one spoon Indigenous legal perspective led them to share the resources of the land and waters with friendly nations in order to promote economic and political harmony, although the systematic stripping of all resources by these arrivals made them increasingly frustrated and resentful. The settlers were not behaving like grateful guests, but masters with exclusive rights to everything, and it was obvious that they considered the Misizaagiing annoying trespassers. As Euro-Canadian population and technological power increased, the arrivals’ careful cultivation of the goodwill of vital Indigenous military allies and economic partners was gradually replaced by indifference, incomprehension, pity, and disgust. Once Euro-Canadians had sought to learn Indigenous languages and understand their customs; now it was taken for granted that the Indigenous people would learn English, replace superstition with proper religion, and eventually abandon their backward, primitive ways, if any of their race survived a slide toward extinction. The Misizaagiing knew the settlers’ individual personalities and attitudes, and as in other places might camp on the land of a friendly farmer, presenting the farmer with fish and a pelt or two in exchange for flour or other items they wanted. Despite the Misizaagiings’ peaceful ways, many Prince Edward County settlers from the Hudson Valley of New York, remembering old stories about Indigenous warfare on the frontier, were deeply afraid of them. The Misizaagiing speared or netted fish in the waters of Lake Ontario and hunted. They traded their furs at an old limestone and timber trading post built by a man of French Huguenot ancestry from Warrenbush, New York, named Joseph Monteney, at 1 Waupoos Island Lane, Prince Edward, Ontario, on the west shore of Waupoos Island. It is called Shannon House because the Irish Roman Catholic Shannon family lived there from 1819, but according to local legend it could be the oldest building in Prince Edward County, older than the Daniel Reynolds House of about 1792 at 239 Main St., Wellington, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Reynolds, a native of Connecticut, is said to have arrived in Prince Edward County at age 18 in 1768, prior to the American Revolution, and traded with the Misizaagiing Anishinaabeg. Kanien’kehá:ka Haudenosaunee or Mohawk Iroquois from Tyendinaga are believed to have helped Reynolds build the stone house in Wellington and kept an eye on it while he was away on trading ventures. Incidentally, the Kanien’kehá:ka of Tyendinaga became skilled barn builders, and settlers hired them to erect many of the structures in the county. Joseph Monteney may have been trading at Waupoos as early as the 1780s and selling the furs in Oswego, New York, but as with Reynolds it is difficult to verify the exact date of his arrival in the county. In 1855 the Misizaagiing sold Waupoos Island, having moved to join other members of their nation on islands in the northern stretch of the Bay of Quinte. A Methodist mission was founded on Grape Island, Sawguin Island, and Indian Island in 1826, and the Christian Misizaagiing turned to farming. Finding it difficult to support their population on these tiny islands, they transferred them to the Crown in the Grape Island Treaty of 1856 and moved to Alderville First Nation Reserve on Rice Lake in Northumberland County, 11696 Line Road 2, Roseneath, Ontario. Prince Edward County is most clearly the traditional territory of the Misizaagiing Ojibweg Anishinaabeg of Alderville First Nation, for these people were the last Indigenous nation to collectively live on its soil after making it their home for over 150 years.

The Loyalists Settle in Prince Edward County

Loyalists began arriving in Prince Edward County in 1784 as government surveyors worked hard to measure and stake out lots. Fifth Town, renamed Marysburgh Township in 1786, occupied a lot of the eastern third of Prince Edward County, but in 1797 parts of Sixth Town or Sophiasburgh and parts of Marysburgh were carved off to create Hallowell Township, which in 1848 had Athol separated from it. Marysburgh itself was divided in 1871 into North Marysburgh and South Marysburgh. Surveyors with their crews of axemen and chainmen measured and staked out the first row or concession of 200 acre or 81 ha lots on the waterfront, each lot being 402 m wide and 2 011 m deep, then 2 km inland they would stake out the lots of the second concession, and so on. A grid of roads was also planned. The work of the survey crews was tough, since the straight lines could not deviate from impenetrable thickets, swamps, or rocky terrain, and the axemen continued to clear the survey lines in almost all weather. The survey plan was relatively straightforward in places like Hastings County, but the irregular perimeter of Prince Edward County made a coherent land plan very tricky, and at least 12 triangular gores had to be created where concessions collided at strange angles. Roads in the county were also often at odds with the ideal grid pattern due to the winding shoreline, wide lakes, and bluffs. Although the pattern could vary, especially in the county, typically a block of eight concessions, 16 km by 16 km, was designated a township, and several townships became a county. Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe created Prince Edward County in 1792.

German and Loyalist Settlers in Marysburgh

Many of the first White settlers in Marysburgh were not Loyalists, but German soldiers who had served in German regiments rented to the British during the American Revolutionary War by Protestant German sovereign dukes or princes of the Holy Roman Empire. These princes were almost all relatives of George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and King of Ireland, but also Kurfȕrst (Imperial Elector) von Hannover/Braunschweig-Lüneburg. The princes had standing armies larger than their tiny states could easily finance in order to stave off annexation by Prussia or France. While the “Hessians” who were sometimes from the central German region of Hessen are often labelled mercenaries, they were in fact volunteers and conscripts of national armies and not soldiers for hire. Being mostly single men with little prospect of getting farmland back home, they were sorely tempted by the vast tracts of virtually free farmland in North America, and the American Patriots tried, sometimes successfully, to entice deserters and prisoners of war to settle in German-speaking parts of Pennsylvania. After the war German units stationed in Canada prepared to be shipped home, but those whose enlistments had expired were offered the choice to stay, and a number followed Leutnant Freiherr (Baron) Gottlieb Christian von Reitzenstein of the Braunschweig Musketieren of the Infanterie-Regiment “Prinz Friederich” from Lachine, Québec, to Cataraqui, now Kingston, Ontario, and finally in October 1784, once their land was surveyed, to the part of Fifth Town later called North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County. They were joined by a few British soldiers and American Loyalist soldiers led by Lieutenant Archibald MacDonnell, a Scottish New York Loyalist of the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants), a man who would become Lieutenant of Prince Edward County, justice of the peace, senior officer of the county’s militia until 1829, and a prominent landowner with 8.09 km2 or 809 ha or 2 000 acres by MacDonnells’s Cove, later renamed Prinyers Cove, on the northeast shore of North Marysburgh. The European soldiers had a rough first winter in lean-tos and huts they built, with few supplies reaching them in bateaux all the way from Montréal. They were not used to life in the North American wilderness and were short on the tools to do so. Life got better when more Loyalists arrived and took up land, for most of these people had grown up in the Province of New York, in particular the Hudson Valley, and were at least theoretically familiar with the process of putting up shelters and log cabins, hunting, fishing, and gathering plants, clearing the land, planting corn and wheat, and getting around in boats and canoes. However, the bulk of the arrivals came from New York counties that had been settled for a century, that is about four generations, so frontier skills were not always honed, and they were in an area far from the church steeples, stores, imposing frame and stone houses, huge barns, and wide green fields of their home communities. Even with some supplies and equipment provided by the British government, as they pitched their tents or put together a shelter of poles and birch bark among the massive pines, maples, oaks, and cedars of the county, the task that lay before them was intimidating and often demoralizing. Lacking horses and oxen, most labour had to be done by hand, and bringing down one hardwood tree over 30 cm diameter with an axe might take a man over 24 hours, that is two or three days including rest breaks. Some eastern white cedars were 1.2 m in diameter, and the Wishing Tree, a sugar maple near the south shore of West Lake in Hallowell, once in the middle of the road at 1722 County Road 12, Prince Edward, Ontario, was 55 m tall, 2.1 m in diameter, and 5.5 m in girth or circumference, with a branch spread of 36.6 m. Tree rings indicated that it was 731 years old when it died in 1941, having been growing since about 1210 CE. The height was an estimate from the 19th century, so it may be inaccurate. It was older and apparently taller than the present sugar maple world record holder, the Comfort Tree at 636 Metler Road, Fenwick, Niagara Region, Ontario, south of St. Catharines, which has been growing since about 1479 CE.

The log cabin, typically a one-storey, one-room log building first erected in about 1640 by Finnish settlers in Nya Sverige or New Sweden on the lower Delaware River and copied by English settlers, was the standard early dwelling in the county. Settlers helped each other lift round logs or logs squared with an adze or broadaxe into place to create log cabins, with the chinks filled with a combination of various materials such as clay, wood ash, lime, cow hair, rags, and moss. Wooden dowels were fashioned to fit into carved holes to anchor wood when nails were not available. The cabin was illuminated by light from a window cut immediately beside the front door, equipped with two wooden shutters, as well as by the fire below the smoke hole or stone chimney. Later, small glass window panes imported from England or after 1839 from the Mallorytown Glass Works on the upper St. Lawrence River would allow somewhat more weather-proof and insect-proof windows to be installed in buildings. Due to the darkness in the cabin, the family did much of their work outdoors, sometimes on a roofed porch. Log or bark roofs were later replaced by wooden eastern white cedar shingles cut by hand or sawn. Sawmills were built as soon as possible so that warmer and more convenient frame buildings could be erected, and the old log cabins were often covered by frame panels and turned into the rear wing of the new house or else became a shed or barn. A restored log cabin of about 1830, now a holiday rental, is located at 146 Outlet Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario, and except for the new roof, looks much like the earliest unsquared log cabins. The Moses Hudgin log house at 191 Ostrander Point Road, Milford, Ontario, while built much later, in 1860, is another example of the early architecture of the county. The Loyalist Peter Rose’s Rose House, built in about 1830, apparently using recycled timbers from the 1789-1790 Methodist chapel next door for its rafters, and now called the Rose House Museum, 3333 County Road 8, Waupoos, Ontario, in North Marysburgh, is a good example of early frame buildings in the county.

When the Loyalists were established and expressed their contentment with Prince Edward County, their relatives and neighbours in the Hudson Valley came to join them. Couples typically had six or eight children, so there was rarely enough land for the next generation in a settled township, and Whites in North America were always looking west. Putting food on the table for your growing family was a higher priority than politics, and in any case attachment to the new United States was not always a powerful emotion, especially in the Hudson Valley where so many people had stayed loyal to the king. Many Americans tended to be as loyal to their state as to the United States federation until after the American Civil War, although American nationalism did grow over time. The British Crown had guaranteed the property rights and freedom of worship of the Dutch in Nieuw-Nederland in 1664 and later welcomed Protestants from France and the German Rhineland and gave them land, in addition providing security by reaffirming with the Covenant Chain Treaty of 1677 the Gaswéñdah or Two Row Wampum Treaty of about 1613 between the Dutch and the Haudenosaunee. The Dutch and Germans of New York State were more reluctant than their British neighbours to rise up against George III, especially knowing that if the rebellion failed they might be more harshly treated than ethnic Britons. As a result, a high proportion of the early settlers of Marysburgh, Loyalist or “late Loyalist”, had Dutch or German surnames. The chief means of later arrivals reaching their destination was on a large river boat north up the Hudson River, a smaller boat west along the Mohawk River, a wagon from Rome to Oneida Lake, a boat again, then a wagon to Oswego, New York, and finally a boat across Lake Ontario to Adolphustown, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario, where they waited for land grants in Prince Edward County. Other post-Loyalist arrivals were members of the Society of Friends or Quakers from Beekman, Dutchess County, New York, who had arrived in Beekman from Rhode Island and western Massachusetts. They formed a community at Bloomfield in 1789-1793, with confirmed land grants in 1797. These pacifists, who had refused to support either side during the American Revolutionary War, built their homes along an Indigenous trail from Wellington through Bloomfield to Picton that was turned into the Danforth Road, now the Loyalist Parkway, by Asa Danforth in 1798-1800, on orders from the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe. Like many settlers, the Quakers were obliged to be squatters at first because the original Loyalist petitioners did not have title to the land yet. Once these grants were made, often much larger than one person could cultivate, the original grantees were happy to sell to the squatters, who began to replace log cabins with sawn frame houses as early as 1801. The Quaker Bowerman and Bull families averaged 7.8 children. So many Loyalist and post-Loyalist settlers came from the Hudson Valley that there was a distinct “Yorker” or “Yankee” accent in the Bay of Quinte region until the mid-19th century.

Prince Edward County’s South Shore during the Early 19th Century

Ontario culture of the nineteenth century was a blend of American provincial influence brought by American Loyalists and post-Loyalists, British elite influence brought by the British governor, British officers, the Anglican clergy, and the wealthy members of the executive council who led lifestyles similar to the British gentry, and the Anglo-Celtic popular culture influence of immigrants arriving directly from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. People like Anglican minister Reverend William Macaulay of Picton, the son of a Loyalist, might represent the influence of the elite British gentry, lawyer John A. Macdonald of Glenora and Picton might represent the wave of immigrants from the British Isles, and the bulk of the Loyalist and so-called “late Loyalists” who settled in the county in early days might represent the American provincial influence. Soon Picton, Bloomfield, Wellington, and the shores of East and West Lakes were filled, and in about 1806 the Crown began issuing lots surveyed along the south shore of Prince Edward County. The Clapp lumber and grist mills were erected immediately south of the bridge in Milford, South Marysburgh, in 1808, with the Clapp Upper Mill at 3 Scotts Mill Road, Milford, Ontario, added in 1845. Asa Werden built a sawmill and grist mill at 207 County Road 11, Prince Edward County, Ontario, near Woodrous in Athol on the northeastern shore of East Lake in 1811. For decades the sawmills had no shortage of wood being brought in from the forests covering the southern half of the county as farms were cleared, acre by acre. Black stumps and burned trees reportedly gave the county a rather melancholy appearance, according to an Irish visitor, with a lot of wood burned as potash for fertilizer, some logs turned into rails for the zigzag snake fences that crawled everywhere, and the largest logs turned into lumber. Lumber was used to build houses, barns, and dozens of fishing and cargo vessels launched in Milford, Port Milford, by the bridge in Black River, in South Bay, Waupoos, and Point Traverse.

The Black Creek or River was cleared of fallen trees and dredged to a depth of 2.4 m so that vessels could get upstream as far as Cole’s Landing, the spot below Chapmans Crescent and the steep hill at the southern end of the village of Milford where the south-flowing Black Creek bends east. Dredging was accomplished by horses and oxen on the banks towing scows with scoop shovels and ploughs chained to them. The bridge at Black River was rebuilt on rollers so that it could be swung to the side by horses, allowing vessels to access Black Creek. Milford is a very quiet village today, but was very busy in the 19th century, about as big as Picton was at the time. It had hotels and taverns catering to the workers who laboured in the mills and stores and built vessels in the shipyard at Cole’s Landing, the sailors who went up and down Black Creek with cargoes of logs, lumber, and barley, and farmers from a wide area who waited overnight for their grain to be ground into flour and sold. Blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, wagon and carriage-makers, and general store owners did a brisk business, despite farmers being jacks-of-all-trades who tried to make or repair everything they could themselves and farm women being equally resourceful in making cloth, clothing, candles, food, and many other items. In 1850 Port Milford was almost as large as the village of Milford, and that year it exported 16 tonnes of oak, 150 spars and masts, and 10 000 m of sawn lumber. Huge white pines that grew on the glacial esker that followed Ridge Road between West Lake and Picton Bay were felled by two-man crosscut saws and the 20 m logs dragged by teams of oxen along the “mast road” or County Road 10 through Woodrous and Cherry Valley to Milford, where they were processed at the sawmill and either dragged along County Road 10, Murphy Road, County Road 13, and Colliers Road to Port Milford or floated down Black Creek, around McMahon Bluff, and along the shore of South Bay to the dock at Port Milford. Fires were a frequent occurrence in communities where every home and workplace had an open fire, candles, and lamps.

Early roads in the province were narrow and filled with stumps, rocks, and mud, making the passage of wagons slow and bone-jarringly difficult. The roads tended to be better in winter when the frozen, hard-packed surface allowed sleighs to glide with comparative speed and comfort from Carrying Place to Wellington to the twin villages of Hallowell and Picton and Captain Thomas Dorland’s ferry at Glenora. Incidentally, the Loyalist Thomas Dorland, who settled in Adolphustown, Greater Napanee, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario, is believed to have brought 18 Black slaves with him from New York, and it is quite possible that some of them operated the ferry. The Danforth Road or Loyalist Parkway, built in 1798 along this route, was for a time the main artery across the province, and played a role as a relatively safe land-based communication route during the War of 1812, but eventually a shorter, straighter route between Kingston and Toronto, the future Highway 2, was built through Belleville and Trenton during the War of 1812, bypassing the county.

In Britain dry stone walls, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, and yew hedgerows, or a hedgerow planted on a double stone wall with an earth core, were the norm. However, in North America, wood became the preferred fencing material, unless stones of the right size were abundant. Early fences included zigzag or snake fences and stump fences, made without nails or wire, with the snake fences sometimes reinforced with crossed posts to prevent them from being toppled by cattle. Later, in parts of Prince Edward County where the soil was deep enough for digging, post and rail fences were built: at intervals, two posts were placed side by side about 10 cm apart in post holes, with long-lasting cedar rails made from logs split twice with wedges and sledgehammers stacked between the posts. American president Abraham Lincoln, known for his immense strength, could split 150 rails in a day when he was a young man in Kentucky and Illinois. On the south shore, where the rocky soil and shallow bedrock made digging deep holes a challenge, snake fences began to be replaced after the invention of the drawn wire machine in 1824 by the patent fence; it involved a tripod of posts or an x-cross crutch of two posts, between which split cedar rails, in particular the lowest one, were secured in place by wire. In the South Bay and Morrisons Point areas of South Marysburgh there were also drystone walls made of flat limestone slabs. Although subject to collapse in only a decade if not maintained, above-ground eastern red cedar or eastern white cedar rail fences can last 50 years and frequently over a century, so these fences on the south shore, built in the 19th century, can be considered historical features in their own right. Wire fences started to appear in about 1850, barbed wire fences appeared after 1874, and by 1900 box wire fences with metal or wooden posts in holes dug by augers were becoming common, often following the old split rail fences.

Prince Edward County during the War of 1812

Colonel Archibald MacDonell (born about 1745 in Scotland; died 7 June 1830 in North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), a Loyalist lieutenant in Lieutenant Colonel Allan Maclean’s 1st Battalion of Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton and Major General Sir Guy Carleton’s 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) during the American Revolutionary War, commanded the 1st Regiment of Prince Edward County Militia during the War of 1812. This unit is perpetuated by the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, 4th Canadian Division. Captain John Stinson (born 12 March 1764; died 7 January 1842), MacDonell’s aide-de-camp, commanded a Troop of Prince Edward Dragoons, although he also represented the county in the Parliament of Upper Canada. Most companies of the regiment were sedentary militia and would only fight if the enemy appeared in the immediate vicinity. Captain James Cotter’s Company, however, was on duty with Colonel Richard Cartwright’s Battalion of Embodied Militia in Kingston, Frontenac County, Ontario, from 25 September to 24 October 1813, guarding the town and its naval dockyard from American attack. Some died of disease while in barracks there. Kingston was the largest town in Ontario until 1825. In addition, Captain Henry Macdonnell’s Company of Embodied Militia was on active service from 25 September to 24 October 1813. Some Prince Edward County Militia crewed bateaux with supplies from Carrying Place to Kingston from 25 to 30 June 1813, 31 July to 5 August 1813, 24 to 29 September 1813, 26 September to 4 October 1813, 7 to 17 October 1813, and 10 September to 20 October 1814; others crewed bateaux from Carrying Place to York/Toronto from 27 August to 24 September 1813, and yet others formed the crews of bateaux from Kingston to York/Toronto from 5 to 6 October 1813, although if they were only in service for two days, it is highly unlikely that they covered the full distance. A Flank Company of younger and better-trained Embodied troops of the 1st Regiment of Prince Edward County Militia went on active service and was part of Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond’s 3 500 British and Canadian troops in the Battle of Lundy’s Lane along Lundy’s Lane in Niagara Falls, Niagara Region, Ontario, on 25 July 1814, defeating 2 500 Americans under Major General Jacob Brown. In the only action on Prince Edward County soil, a small number of American soldiers landed at Indian Point on the northeastern tip of North Marysburgh peninsula, intending to capture some Canadian militiamen to exchange for American prisoners of war. Local members of the 1st Regiment of Prince Edward County Militia, led by Jean B. [-Baptiste?] Prunier (1781-1869), better known as John Prinyer, gave war whoops like Indigenous warriors and the terrified Americans were persuaded that if they gave up they would be saved from slaughter and scalping at the hands of the “savages”. Incidentally, Prinyer claimed to be a nephew of the aristocratic Général de division Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, but it is much more likely that he was an average person from Québec, his probable hometown being Yamaska, Pierre-De Saurel, Montérégie, Québec. There was also an American raid on Presqu’ile Bay near Brighton, Northumberland County, Ontario, where a storehouse and a 14-gun schooner under construction were burned.

Royal Navy Provincial Marine warships and sometimes American warships passed back and forth along the south shore of Prince Edward County. Bateaux from Montréal ascended the St. Lawrence to Kingston with food and supplies meant for the British, Canadian, and Indigenous forces in the Niagara Peninsula. Sometimes schooners took these supplies past the south shore of Prince Edward County, but to keep supplies safe from interception by American warships, convoys of bateaux were also sent via the Bay of Quinte and Carrying Place, hugging the north shore of Lake Ontario all the way to the Niagara Peninsula. Settler Asa Weller lived in a red brick house built in 1808 at 2272 County Road 64, Carrying Place, Quinte West, Hastings County, Ontario, on the Wellers Bay end of the Carrying Place portage that divides Hastings County and Prince Edward County. He upscaled his pre-war occupation of charging a fee to haul bateaux across the isthmus on trailers with low wheels pulled by teams of oxen along a set of hardwood rails, a business he started in 1793. In a sense this was the first railway in Canada. Soldiers pitched their tents and officers stayed at Weller’s tavern or Tap House, a brick building erected in about 1810 near 2417 County Road 64, Carrying Place, Ameliasburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario, about half way across until local men hired by Weller got all the bateaux of a convoy along Old Portage Road and Fort Kente Road. Weller’s store and trading post by his house near the western end of the portage also did a brisk business. Food from Prince Edward County was purchased at fixed rates by the war commissary at the eastern end of Carrying Place, or shipped directly to the garrison and naval shipyard workers in Kingston. British and Canadian troops passed through the Bay of Quinte and Carrying Place toward the Niagara Peninsula and the wounded and American prisoners of war travelled in the opposite direction. Although soldiers burned many of Asa Weller’s fence rails as firewood, his fruit trees were frequently damaged, and an ox was crushed by a rolling bateau, Weller did well during the war. In 1813 a wooden blockhouse later dubbed “Fort Kente” was built by provincial dragoons, almost certainly Captain John Stinson’s Troop of Prince Edward Dragoons, on the Wellers Bay end of the portage to protect this strategic location from raids and act as a weapons storage depot, and about 2 000 soldiers, mostly militia, were stationed in the area. In 1990, history enthusiasts would build a replica of this blockhouse, but due to a property dispute it was moved in 2000 to the Mariners Park Museum in South Bay, 2065 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. While the naval construction race swayed back and forth in the “Battle of the Carpenters”, and small engagements took place all over Lake Ontario between the ships of Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo of the Royal Navy and Commodore Isaac Chauncey of the United States Navy, in the end the British dominated the lake with the massive HMS St. Lawrence, a 112-gun first-rate ship of the line with a crew of 700, the largest Royal Navy vessel ever to sail on fresh water. It was built in Navy Bay between what is now the Royal Military College and Old Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, the principal British-Canadian Provincial Marine naval base on Lake Ontario. Many of the workers there were French Canadians, but crews were often drawn from English Canadians who had some knowledge of sailing.

The Ojibweg and Misizaagiing, allies of the British, provided 550 warriors during the War of 1812, and a few probably came from Prince Edward County. The Haudenosaunee, who had more grievances against the Americans, having lost all of their traditonal lands in the Mohawk Valley of New York, furnished 1 040 warriors. When the American fleet with 1 500 regular troops sailed from Sackets Harbor, New York, on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, and headed west past Prince Edward County, some 40 to 50 Ojibweg and Misizaagiing helped the 300 British regulars and 300 Canadian militia defend Fort York in Toronto, Ontario, against an American landing force. However, while 55 Americans were killed and 265 wounded in the Battle of York on 27 April 1813, the British, who lost 82 killed, 112 wounded, and 274 captured, failed to prevent the invasion force from capturing the city and looting and burning the government buildings, including the Parliament of Upper Canada at the southwest corner of Front St. and Parliament St. A few months later, retreating Americans burned Niagara-on-the-Lake to the ground on 10 December 1813, forcing the civilian residents out into the snowbanks. In a tit-for-tat response, the British and Canadians burned Buffalo, New York, and its navy yard to the ground on 30 December 1813 and set fire to the Presidential Mansion—already called the White House before the war—the United States Capitol building, and Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. on 24 August 1814. The British general wanted to burn the entire U.S. capital city, but was dissuaded from doing so by his subordinates. Ahyonweaghs or John Brant and Dominique Ducharme’s 380 Haudenosaunee and 70 Ojibweg and Misizaagiing defeated Lieutenant Colonel Charles Boerstler’s 600 Americans in the Battle of Beaver Dams in Thorold, Niagara Region, Ontario, on 24 June 1813, forcing the entire force to surrender. The Kanien’kehá:ka Haudenosaunee of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the Bay of Quinte took part in the Battle of Ogdensburg in Ogdensburg, New York, on 22 February 1813, the Second Battle of Sacket’s Harbor in Sackets Harbor, New York, on 29 May 1813, and the Battle of Chrysler’s Farm in Morrisburg, Ontario, on 11 November 1813, all instrumental in helping Canada to stave off conquest by the United States.

Changing Placenames of the South Shore of Prince Edward County

An 1817 chart based on the first scientific mapping survey of Lake Ontario by Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen of the Royal Navy and corrected in 1851 names Wellers Bay Weller Bay at Quinte Carrying Place, with the only exit to the open lake on the immediate north side of Bald Head, so a full beach had appeared by this time. Nicholson Island is called Nicholas Island, Scotch Bonnet Island is Egg Island, and Huycks Point is Nicholas Point. In the Bay of Quinte Indian Island is Fighting Island, Huffs Island is Sir Robert Island, Big Island is Hall Island with Hall Bay to the north, Green Point is at the northeastern tip of the county, with Foresters Island off the point called Mohawk Island. Picton is marked, but Picton Bay is called Hallowell Bay. Lake “of” the Mountain and Adophus Reach also appear, with Indian Point at the end of the North Marysburgh peninsula. The map refers to West Point between West Lake and East Lake as Split Lake Point, Salmon Point as Wicked Point, labels the marsh by Soup Harbour Frog Pond, refers to Point Petre as Peter Point, Gull Pond at Charwell Point as Rush Pool, the marsh at Gravelly Bay Tad Pole Marsh, Long Point/Point Traverse/Prince Edward Point as South Bay Point, Timber Island as Inner Drake, Swetman Island, formerly False Ducks Island, as Outer Drake, Main Duck Island as Ducks Island, Prince Edward Bay as the dual Prince Edward Bay or South Bay, Waupoos Island as Wapoos Island. Green Island and Cape Vesey are shown on the north shore of Prince Edward Bay.

An 1836 map of Upper Canada refers to Soup Harbour as St. Peter’s Bay and Prince Edward Point as Point Traverse. The references to Point Petre as Peter Point on St. Peter Bay is interesting because English Anglicans and Scottish Presbyterians of this period sometimes named Anglican or Presbyterian churches after saints, but rarely anything else, while French Canadians tended to name every church, village, and geographic locality after saints. As a result, it is likely that Point Petre was once named Pointe Saint-Pierre. French Canadian voyageurs employed by the North West Company of Montréal between 1779 and 1821 used the Ottawa River and French River to access Lake Huron and the West, but there were a number of French Canadians who visited Lake Ontario during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In particular, Jean-Bonaventure Rousseau and his son Jean-Baptiste Rousseau traded with the Misizaagiing from their fur trading post and store near the mouth of the Humber River in the vicinity of 8 South Kingsway, Toronto, Ontario, between 1770 and 1795. They also acted as interpreters for the Britain’s Indian Department, now the Federal government’s ministry of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, and were fluent in French, English, and Anishinaabemowin. In the 1780s Jean-Baptiste Rousseau was travelling back and forth along the north shore of Lake Ontario between the future cities of Toronto and Kingston visiting his Indigenous customers and selling them various goods and copious amounts of rum and wine. He was known to frequent the Bay of Quinte during this time, and some of his supplies from Montréal would probably have come by bateaux around the south shore of Prince Edward County. Rousseau, a governament official, is known to have greeted the first British surveyors in the region, and he would have talked to them about the local geography, which he had known since his childhood.

A detailed 1836 chart of Lake Ontario refers to West Point as both Gull Point and Flat Rocks, Athol Bay as Shoal Bay, East Lake as Little Lake, shows a Pigeon Hill, which is a barely perceptible rise in the ground north of 247 Brummell Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario, and south of East Lake, refers to the creek in the village of Cherry Valley as Dyers Creek, calls Salmon Point by its modern name, refers to Point Petre as Long Point, Charwell Point as 16 Mile Point, the point of land at the mouth of Black Creek in Black River as McDonald’s Point, Smith Bay as Comudation Bay (probably a phonetic rendition of Accommodation Bay), Waupoos Island as Wampoos Island, South Bay as South Bay, Prince Edward Bay as Great South Bay, Long Point/Point Traverse/Prince Edward Point as South Bay Point, Timber Island as Timber Island, Gull Bar west of Swetman Island as Gull Island, Swetman Island, formerly False Duck Island, as Little Duck Isle, and Main Duck Island as Real Ducks.

By 1863 place names had often adjusted again. Gull Point or Flat Rocks was now West Point, Shoal Bay was now Little Sandy Bay and soon to be Athol Bay, Little Lake is East Lake, Wicked Point or Salmon Point is Salmon Point, St. Peter’s Bay is Pleasant Harbour and soon to be Soup Harbour, Peter Point or Long Point is now Point Petre, 16 Mile Point is Gull Point, soon to be renamed Charwell Point, Rush Pool is Gull Pond, Black River Bluff appears, soon to be renamed McMahon’s Bluff, Comudation or Accommodation Bay is Smith’s Bay, soon to be Smith Bay, and the three points around Morrison Point Road are called, from north to south, Pickerel Point (with a tiny Goose Isle later merged with the mainland), Morrisons Point, soon to be Morrison Point, and Granads Point, soon called Grenade Point. Wampoos Island is Waupoos Island, Cape Vesey or The Rock appears, South Bay and Great South Bay are Prince Edward or South Bay, and South Bay Point is Point Traverse at the northeastern end of Long Point, with no label for what would become Prince Edward Point. Along the south shore of Prince Edward Bay are Flatt’s Point, soon to be Flatt Point (possibly named for the Platt family), Little Bluff, and Half Moon Point or Big Bluff, soon to be standardized as Halfmoon Point. Along the south shore of South Marysburgh are Petticoat Point, Gravely Bay (sic.), Gravelly Point, Big Sandy Bay, Little Poplar Point, Big Poplar Point, and Rocky Point. Timber Island is still Timber Island, and False Ducks Island is not yet officially Swetman Island. Gull Island is not shown, but it became known as Gull Bar, and likely to avoid confusion, Gull Point, also often called Gull Bar, was renamed Charwell Point. A few spelling adjustments may have simply been corrections of spelling mistakes by mapmakers recording the best they could what they heard from locals, but Point Petre, replacing Peter Point, was likely a spelling error that became permanent. You can see that in the past there were competing names for various geographical features, and even today these names are not always settled. Main Duck Island seems to have been Ducks Island at one time, named for a flock of ducks. Mariners sometimes mistook False Ducks Island/Swetman Island for Ducks Island, and once False Ducks Island was named, Ducks Island was renamed Main Ducks Island. Then there was a switch from plural Ducks to singular Duck in both spots to make them False Duck Island and Main Duck Island. To make matters more complicated, Timber Island, Swetman Island, Gull Bar, and other rocks labelled the Ducklings were collectively described as the False Ducks Islands, later switching to False Duck Islands. Main Ducks Island and Yorkshire Island were collectively described as the Main Ducks Islands, later switching to Main Duck Islands. The terminology has still not fully straightened out, in particular because lighthouses retain the older names while the islands themselves have new names. All these islands are now uninhabited, and their official association with Prince Edward County has become ambiguous. For example, although Main Duck Island is part of the Quinte Electoral District, it has been detached from the Corporation of the County of Prince Edward and is administered by the federal Thousand Islands National Park. Timber Island Provincial Park is shown as part of South Marysburgh Ward, but the province looks after it, not the municipality.

Christianity in Athol and South Marysburgh during the 19th Century

Itinerant ministers or saddlebag preachers based sometimes as far away as Kingston toured the county in the early days, holding services at stops on their circuits and carrying out marriages and baptisms. For example, in the 1850s a Methodist minister’s circuit included West Lake, Salmon Point, East Lake Road, Cherry Valley, Milford, Black Creek, South Bay, Point Traverse, Bongard, and Cressy. As soon as survival was ensured, settlers turned to building churches, with the first one being the White Chapel, a Methodist church built in 1809-1811 at 19 White Chapel Road, Picton, Ontario. Many early clapboard churches were rebuilt in brick or stone. After 1878 there was a Point Petre Methodist/United Church, now gone. Salmon Point Methodist/United Church was built at 1336 County Road 18, Cherry Valley, Ontario, in 1877, but it was demolished, and in 1967 its congregation joined Cherry Valley United Church. Cherry Valley Wesleyan Methodist/United Church was built in 1862 at 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, and its Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, opened in 1826, provided the last resting place for most of the inhabitants of the two southern townships of the county. In 1878 Walmsley Chapel, a Methodist church, was located at 128 Walmsley Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario, but it is now gone. St. Philip’s Anglican Church was built prior to 1839 and rebuilt in 1920 at 44 St. Philip St. in Milford, Ontario. Another church in the village of Milford was Mount Tabor Methodist/United Church at 2179 County Road 17, Milford, Ontario, built in 1865-1867. Black River Memorial Chapel, in the past referred to as “Black River Bridge United Church, Black Creek” was founded in the 1830s and rebuilt in 1870-1872 at 822 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, and it has its own cemetery. South Bay Wesleyan Methodist/United Church at 2029 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, was built in 1871, but the nearby South Bay Cemetery at 2109 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, was founded in 1820. In 1878 another church, probably Methodist and now demolished, was at 2436 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, immediately west of Helmer Road. Yet another, also demolished, was Carmen Methodist Church, founded in 1878 at 946 Babylon Road, Milford, Ontario, on the northeast corner with Whattams Road; only a stone marker remains of this building, described as being in “Point Traverse, South Bay”, South Bay being the old name for all of Prince Edward Bay. And the Union Methodist Church, now a private home, was at 4572 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, just west of Gravelly Bay Road. Its name reflected the unification of several smaller Methodist denominations such as the Wesleyan and Episcopal Methodists into the Methodist Church of Canada between 1874 and 1884, making it the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada. A merger of the Methodists, Congregationalists, and 70% of the Presbyterians in 1925 created the United Church of Canada. The arrival of paved roads and cars and a fall in the rural population doomed many of the small churches, and a further blow was a decline in church attendance. While in 1946 67% of adult Canadians attended church weekly, by 2001 only 20% did so. Private family cemeteries were used by the earliest pioneers, such as the Clapp Cemetery at 3007 County Road 10, Milford, Ontario, Dingman Pioneer Cemetery at 2135 County Road 17, Milford, Ontario, and the Mack or Mouck Farm Cemetery at 2457 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. South Bay Cemetery was used from 1820, but soon the preferred cemetery for Athol and South Marysburgh was the large one in Cherry Valley, still used for burials today. The largest and most prestigious cemetery in the county was Glenwood Cemetery at 47 Ferguson St., Picton, Ontario, and here more well-to-do people in the county, including those from the southernmost townships, often erected expensive granite columns and obelisks close to the wide paths.

Education in Athol and Marysburgh Townships of Prince Edward County

Wooden and sometimes brick or stone one-room schoolhouses were erected at crossroads every kilometre or so across the county so that even small children could walk to them. Almost all of the wooden ones have disappeared, but some stone or brick ones have survived. A good example of a brick schoolhouse is at 4699 Long Point Road, Milford, Ontario, east of Gravelly Point Road, with what appears to be the original and still functional school hand-cranked water pump. A surviving stone schoolhouse is on the north side of South Bay United Church, 2029 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. Early schoolteachers consisted of almost anyone who was literate, even Grade 9 girls, but by the end of the 19th century professionally trained teachers were appearing. Teacher Victoria Pierce (born 29 November 1865; died 19 December 1902 in Prince Edward County, Ontario) married John Stanley Palen on 3 January 1894 at Waupoos, Prince Edward County, Ontario. She was the daughter of John Pierce (born 5 June 1831; died June 1923) and Lydia Ann Minaker (born 15 August 1835; died 24 September 1908) and granddaughter of William Pierce (born 1787; died “31” February 1860 in Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Ann Winch (born 1884; died 9 October 1849 in Prince Edward County, Ontario). The Pierce family lived on lot 3 of the Concession Lake Side, North Marysburgh, about 250 m north of 46 County Road 13, Prince Edward County, Ontario, with a property fronting the north shore of Smith Bay. Victoria attended Picton High School at 35 Barker St., Picton, which opened in 1878 and was replaced on the same site by the Queen Elizabeth Public School, which operated from 1954 to 2018. She then attended the Toronto Normal School (once at the centre of what is now the TMU Quad on the Toronto Metropolitan University campus) at 50 Gould St., Toronto, Ontario, and the Ottawa Normal School (now The Heritage Building, Ottawa City Hall), 195 Elgin St., Ottawa, Ontario, in order to become a teacher. She made $200 a year at the Waupoos Schoolhouse once at 2529 Prince Edward County Road 8, Prince Edward County, Ontario, a short distance from her home at 2370 Prince Edward County Road 8, Prince Edward County, Ontario. According to her obituary, “Her devotion to the cause of education placed her to the front as a public school teacher. In her profession, it may be said, she had few, if any superiors. From the days of her lovely childhood she had been a constant inspiration to others. Her influence for good upon the young people in her neighbourhood was very marked. She taught, not simply by word, but by act. Who knew and loved her, can recall that gentle womanly presence, the loving voice, with sweet compelling power. She met death as she had met life, with dignity and courage.” She died suddenly at the age of 37, and her funeral was held at St. John’s Anglican Church, 3207 County Road 8, Prince Edward County, Ontario, with the Reverend Kennedy and Canon Loucks officiating. Her husband John Stanley Palen (born 26 April 1863 in Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 1947), a son of Lewis Palen and Sarah Pierce (but conveniently not a genetic relative of his wife) and a resident of North Marysburgh, was a sailor, and in the 1901 census was a fisherman earning $300 a year. After Victoria died in 1902, he married a second time to his cousin Jessie May VanVlack (born 18 July 1877 in North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), daughter of Henry VanVlack (born 4 July 1836; died 1 October 1910) and Sarah Hurlburt (born 17 June 1845 in Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, New York; died 10 March 1932 in North Marysburgh Township, Prince Edward County, Ontario).

Local Government in South Marysburgh during the 19th Century

The wooden frame South Marysburgh Town Hall was built in 1862 at 3076 County Road 10, Milford, Ontario, for meetings of the reeve and councillors of Marysburgh Township, but was too far away for people in North Marysburgh, who opted to break away and form their own township in 1871, building a new hall in Waupoos. South Marysburgh Town Hall is still used for community events. An example of a South Marysburgh deputy reeve or deputy township mayor was Palen Clark and Gertrude Minaker’s son Andrew Minaker Clark (born 31 August 1848 in Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 1930 in South Bay, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County), who had three wives. In 1870 he married Sarah Ann Richards (born 8 October 1849 in Ontario; died 13 June 1873 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), who died only three years later, then Sophia White Sweetman (born 30 September 1855; died 30 May 1905), and then in July 1906 in Perry, Michigan, Almeda Lillian “Meda” Hazard (born 1860 in Howell, Livingston County, Michigan; died 12 February 1946). Andrew spent his first few years at lot 32 of the 1st Concession South of Black River, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, now 477 Walmsley Road, Milford, Ontario, but in about 1863 Andrew moved with his parents to the 97 ha or 240 acre farm that he inherited on South Bay, lot 18 of the Concession Round Prince Edward Bay, South Marysburgh, now 2183 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. “Here he resided until his death, even in his declining years refusing to retire, saying he preferred wearing out to rusting out.” At age 13 he had a religious experience in the Walmsley Chapel, a Methodist church that once stood at 127 Walmsley Road, Milford, Ontario, and remained close to his Methodist faith the rest of his life and a strong supporter of South Bay Methodist/United Church, 2029 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. He was the recording steward of the local Methodist circuit until advanced age prevented him from continuing, and was Superintendent of the South Bay Methodist/United Church Sunday School and its Bible Class teacher, with the result that almost all adults in the South Bay area had been his pupils. In addition, he was a municipal councillor and deputy reeve (mayor) of South Marysburgh at the Milford Town Hall, 3076 County Road 10, Milford, Ontario. He was conservative on moral matters, but was non-partisan when it came to deciding what was right. His obituary says “No more will his friends feel the hearty grip of his hand; no more will his familiar figure, with his cheerful and jocular manner, be seen about his fields and farmstead.” Reverend F. Horton performed Andrew’s funeral service at South Bay United Church, 2029 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, and the pallbearers were Peter Collier, David Duetta, Thomas Rose, John Thompson, Walter Ostrander, and Albert Ostrander. He was buried in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Andrew’s first wife Sarah and second wife Sophia were buried in South Bay Cemetery, 2141 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. Although there is a stone prepared with Meda’s name in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, the date is not filled in, so it is possible that she is buried with her first husband Wells A. Avery (born 18 November 1855, in Steuben County, New York; died 29 May 1902, in Oceola Township, Livingston County, Michigan) in Parshallville Cemetery, 8453 Parshallville Road, Fenton, Michigan.

The Barley Days and Prosperity on the South Shore

While most of Athol and Marysburgh did not have great soil, Hallowell Township in the centre of the county had a lot of good, well-drained, rock-free sandy loam soil, the shores of Black Creek between Black River and Milford had some stony Athol sandy loam over the bedrock, and Waupoos and South Bay had clay and clay loam suitable for fruit trees, grain, and vegetables. Corn, wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, turnips, peas, and flax were common crops in the county, and orchards of apple, peach, cherry, and plum trees were planted. Apples were packed in barrels dried or fresh or turned into sweet cider or cider vinegar, also poured into barrels. In addition, pork and flour were packed in barrels for sale. Sheep produced wool, and a lot of the wool cloth was cleaned and felted at John Bull’s fuller mill on the Bloomfield Mill Pond at 15 Mill St., Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, Ontario. In 1861, during the American Civil War, a heavy tax was placed on American whiskey, and many Americans turned from whiskey to beer as their beverage of choice. New York and Pennsylvania had 80% of the breweries in the United States, and Albany, New York, not far from Prince Edward County via the Oswego Canal and the Erie Canal, was the largest commercial hub for barley. The six-rowed barley of Prince Edward County, a strain that was also drought-resistant, was believed to produce a lighter-flavoured, more amber-coloured beer than the two-row barley of New York State, so county barley was much desired by American beer breweries, as was county hops, the latter introduced by an immigrant from Kent, England, who settled in Bloomfield in 1843. Hops, essential to the flavour, aroma, and shelf life of beer, was grown on poles 3 m to 4 m high, and the harvesting, drying, and packing of the flower of the hop bine involved a lot of labour, employing hundreds of women and children in the central and northern parts of the county. Reciprocity or free trade with the United States, signed in 1854, made trade across Lake Ontario an easy prospect, and that year the Province of Canada (Ontario and Québec, administratively divided into Canada West or Ontario and Canada East or Québec) switched from pounds, shillings, and pence to Canadian dollars and cents to make transactions easier. Anywhere in Athol and South Marysburgh where a plough could churn up a few centimetres of rocky soil, barley was planted, harvested, and loaded on schooners. The ruins of a stone barley storage building on the sheltered south shore of Prince Edward Bay can be seen on the north shore of Little Bluff Conservation Area, 3625 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, and farmers from the surrounding countryside brought their barley here. There was probably a dock by the storehouse at the time. When enough grain was accumulated, it could be loaded onto a vessel, since the water is 2 m and then 5 m deep only a few metres away from the beach. While in 1851 hay was 20% of all acreage, oats were 10%, and barley 5%, by 1881 about 162 km2 or 40 000 acres of the county were planted with barley, 30% of all farmland, with hay on 15% and oats on 10%. In 1881 28 800 000 L of barley was shipped from Prince Edward County to the United States. When storms gathered on the open lake, ships took shelter in the lee of Prince Edward Point, and as many as 64 vessels at a time could be anchored on the north shore of Timber Island and in Prince Edward Bay. As the American population centre shifted west, St. Louis, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became major brewing centres and Wisconsin barley became more competitive. In 1890 the McKinley Tariff abruptly made Prince Edward County barley twice as expensive, killing exports. By 1911 hay was 35% of acreage in the county, oats about 18%, and barley only 5%. At least the prosperity of the Barley Days had allowed farmers in Prince Edward County to pay off their mortgages and other debts, build elegant two-storey red brick homes, churches, and public buildings, the houses often with fancy wood trim and porches and wooden or iron grille fences, and accumulate capital for canning factories, cheese factories, stores, and hotels.

Bricks of various shades and sizes were made at local clay pits in the Bloomfield and Picton area, the clay being found in locations where fine-grained mud was deposited by meltwater at the end of the ice age. The clay would be shaped in moulds and then fired in beehive kilns with wood and straw in a process about as old as civilization. Bricks could be used in local construction, sometimes hiding the walls of log cabins, or employed as ballast in ships and sold along with the cargo at the destination. Colour could range from cherry red to brown, and batches of bricks that did not turn out well could be used as infill between interior and exterior walls. Later factory-made bricks brought in by railway were a more standard red colour and size. Impressive brick homes can be seen everywhere in Athol and South Marysburgh, as well as elsewhere in the county. The Asa Werden house, built in 1813 from imported pinkish Lancashire brick at 207 County Road 11, Prince Edward County, Ontario, on the northeastern shore of East Lake near Woodrous in Athol, could be the oldest brick house in Prince Edward County. There are not as many stone buildings in the county, but they certainly exist, since local limestone is abundant and could be turned into split fieldstones of roughly similar size laid in rows and squared rubblestone of random size that could be fit together as a patchwork. The original Point Petre and False Duck lighthouses were built of local stone, and Peter Van Alstine’s four-storey stone mill that he built in about 1806 at Glenora, powered by water coming down shutes from Lake on the Mountain, is a prime example of local limestone construction. High-quality, fine-grained pale grey Kingston limestone, cut into perfect, smooth-faced blocks, was used for the District Courthouse and Goal of 1832, now the Ontario Court of Justice Picton Courthouse at 44 Union St., Picton, Ontario. In the 19th century workers in Prince Edward County would smash limestone into small lumps and burn them in limestone kilns, transforming calcium carbonate into calcium oxide or quicklime for mortar and plaster. Many houses and barns of this period were built with stone foundations, but concrete foundations and concrete block walls, also made from county limestone, became standard after 1900.

Ships, Shipwrecks, and Lighthouses on the South Shore

The Prince Edward County peninsula and surrounding islands constitute the worst geographic hazard for shipping in Lake Ontario, and 750 vessels met their end within 50 km of the county, at least 125 sailors drowning, about 100 of these being natives of Prince Edward County. Two-thirds of the wrecks were along the south shore and the Duck-Galloo Ridge island chain between Point Petre and Main Duck Island, an area that became known as the ”Marysburgh Vortex”. The gradual, gentle sloping of rocks under the surface off the south shore angled the force of waves upward instead of dispersing them. In addition, the prevailing west winds can gather strength and double their speed as the lake narrows here and the air is funneled into a smaller space, the force of the wind piling up water as high as a metre in the east end of the lake; when the wind abates, the excess water sloshes back west like a tidal bore. Fog, common in spring, was another delight for ship’s captains in the age prior to Global Positioning System navigation and radar. There were no harbours on the south shore of the county or among the Duck-Galloo Ridge islands if the weather deteriorated or winds shifted in a dangerous direction. The Main Duck Island area was particularly hazardous because of the high volume of shipping heading for the St. Lawrence River or the Rideau Canal connecting Kingston and Ottawa, and the presence of iron from a huge meteorite that created Charity Shoal to its northeast, a metal deposit that made ships’ compasses go wild.

The 22 m stone False Ducks Lighthouse was built on False Duck Island, now called Swetman Island, in 1828-1829, with a house for the first lighthouse keeper John Swetman; John was replaced by his son Frederick Swetman in 1863. The Argand lamp with a cylindrical glass chimney was invented in 1780 by the Genevan Swiss François-Pierre-Amédée Argand, typically fuelled by sperm whale oil, and the lightkeeper had to make sure that the flame was lit and the whale oil reservoir topped up. The parabolic reflector behind the lamp improved visibility. In 1822 French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel developed a combination of prisms and glass panels to magnify the light and focus it in a single, powerful beam with far greater range than the old lights, up to 45 km. And in 1846 Nova Scotian physician and geologist Dr. Abraham Pineo Gesner developed kerosene, also called paraffin or coal oil, using coal and then, after 1851, cheaper petroleum or crude oil first extracted by Charles Nelson Tripp near Sarnia, Ontario. A new pattern of lamp was used to burn kerosene’s whiter flame. In 1904 a fog alarm was added to the False Ducks Lighthouse that worked with compressed air, and these alarms could be heard up to 13 km away. In 1905 lighting struck the lighthouse and keeper’s house, which caught fire and then exploded due to seven barrels of kerosene or coal oil and coal being stored in a shed. The bolt created a furrow in the lawn about 30 cm deep. Luckily, no one in lightkeeper Dorland Dulmage’s family was hurt. In 1907 the Swedish inventor Gustaf Dalén produced the Dalén light, fuelled by acetylene gas and with a flashing light and a solar valve that turned it on only at night, meaning that lighthouses were now virtually automatic and consumed far less fuel. Dalén received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1912 for his contribution to worldwide maritime safety. Electricity began to be used as early as 1871 at lighthouses that could be connected to a power station, and powerful, narrow-beam, rotating aerobeacons were introduced in about 1950. In 1965 a new 18 m hexagonal concrete lighthouse was built on Swetman Island and the old lighthouse was toppled by a cable attached to a Canadian Coast Guard vessel, but the mechanisms were saved and placed in a new 9 m stone lighthouse at the Mariners Park Museum, 2065 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, in 1967. This lighthouse, less than half the height of the original, is a memorial to over 100 Prince Edward County sailors drowned in shipwrecks on Lake Ontario.

The 18.3 m stone lighthouse at 324 Point Petre Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario, was built in 1832 using limestone quarried in Picton and delivered by oxcart. It was activated in 1833, and in 1843 was given a white flash every 30 seconds instead of a constant white light to distinguish it from the lights on Swetman Island/False Duck Island and Presqu’ile Point near Brighton. The lightkeeper’s dwelling was about 100 m away, near the present gate of the lighthouse area, 324 Point Petre Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario. Colonel Owen Richards of the 2nd Battalion of Prince Edward Militia, who had served in the Loyalist Butler’s Rangers in the American Revolutionary War and been a captain in the 1st Regiment of Prince Edward County Militia during the War of 1812, was the first lightkeeper of the Point Petre Lighthouse in 1833. The salary he earned was modest, £62 a year, and he complained that his garden and house were flooded by storms; at that time all the trees on Point Petre had been cut down, and there was little to stop the waves except for the wall at the lighthouse itself. In 1843 Richards was replaced by the second lightkeeper of Point Petre Lighthouse William Anson Palen (born 28 May 1807 in Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 14 June 1878 in Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario), son of Stephen Palen and Sarah Striker. Palen married Almira Werden (born 22 April 1810 in Stonington, New London County, Connecticut; died 5 May 1882 in Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario), daughter of Elias Werden (born October 1777 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut; died 25 January 1858, in Hallowell Township, Prince Edward County, Ontario) and his second wife Sally Duell (born 7 April 1785 in Hudson, Columbia County, New York; died 12 June 1851 in Hallowell Township, Prince Edward County, Ontario). She was a niece of sawmill owner Asa Werden of Woodrous, Athol. Palen was a member of the Christian Church or Disciples of Christ according to the 1871 census. This was a non-denominational group founded in 1804 in Cane Ridge, Kentucky, by ministers who seceded from the Presbyterian Church. Point Petre had a wooden Methodist chapel, a store, and a schoolhouse, the schoolhouse and perhaps the church at 1340 County Road 24, Cherry Valley, Ontario, in Point Petre to serve the local farmers and their children. A wall of uncarved limestone slabs covered by metal plates was built in 1860 to protect the lighthouse from the often violent waters of Lake Ontario. William Anson Palen was still the lightkeeper on 24 June 1875 when he sighted Washington Harrison Donaldson, a balloonist with the Phineas Taylor Barnum Circus, who had taken off the previous afternoon in Toronto with three newspaper reporters. Winds took them out over the lake and down into the water, where the basket was being pulled through the water at an alarming speed for four hours before Captain Minaker of the schooner Flying Squid managed to rescue the men and bring them ashore at the lighthouse. The “crazy balloonatic” drowned in Lake Michigan with a reporter the following year when he again went down in the water. A fog building was added by the base of the lighthouse in 1890 to sound a blast every 30 seconds when fog was present, and at some point after 1905 a concrete wall replaced the metal sheets and limestone slabs. The stone Point Petre Lighthouse was replaced by the thinner, unmanned 19 m concrete Point Petre Lighthouse in 1967 and the old lighthouse was unceremoniously dynamited by workers while the Prince Edward Historical Society was negotiating with the government to have it preserved. A few scattered fragments lie in the bushes at the point and a few more pieces are at the Mariners Park Museum, 2065 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, at South Bay. William Anson Palen retired as lightkeeper in 1876 and was living at 18 County Road 18, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario, in 1878, the year he wrote his will. He also served as a Justice of the Peace, which allowed him to make minor legal decisions. William Anson and Almira are buried in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Ontario, near the east wall of the church.

The 11 m wooden South Bay or Point Traverse or Prince Edward Point Lighthouse, 6147 Traverse Lane, Milford, Ontario, was built in 1881 at a notoriously dangerous spot for ships, along with the lightkeeper’s house and a nearby shed. It had a red light, and as a result was nicknamed “the red onion”. Fishers from Point Traverse harbour in its lee could find their way home after dark using the light. It was automated in 1941 with a green light and continued to operate until 1959, when it had a steel tower light built beside it. Unlike the original False Ducks and Point Petre lighthouses, however, it has not been torn down.

The wooden Salmon Point Lighthouse, built in 1871 near the end of Salmon Point Road, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario, has also survived. Lewis Hudgins was the first keeper, and he was provided with a lifeboat for rescues. Peter Huff, whose farm was on the point, replaced him in 1876 when Hudgins was dismissed without cause, but Hudgins returned in 1879 and served until 1897. Surprisingly, the 24 m octagonal stone Main Duck Lighthouse, beside the busiest shipping channel on all of Lake Ontario, was only built in 1903.

The Canning Industry on the South Shore of Prince Edward County

The moderating continental-maritime climate of the county, with relatively warm, moist breezes from lake water in fall and moisture-laden breezes from cool lake water in summer, and as a result less danger of early or late frost, meant that the area was suitable for fruit and vegetables. The development of canning technology in the early 19th century and the construction of a railway line from Trenton to Picton in 1879 opened new commercial opportunities. In 1882 canning started up in the county, and by 1915 over 50 canning companies were in operation, providing many jobs. Some 10 100 ha in the county was devoted to food destined for cans. In Cherry Valley in the early 1900s canning factories processed green beans, tomatoes, peas, pumpkin, pork and beans, strawberries, raspberries, pears, plums, huckleberries, peaches, and cherries. Indeed, Cherry Valley in Athol Ward hosted a number of canneries: J. Byron Hughes from 1884 to 1895, Fennell Canning Factory from 1918 to 1924, Hyatt Canning Company Ltd. from 1920 to 1925, Boulter and Colliver from 1924 to 1933, Cherry Valley Canners from 1933 to 1979, and W. Ernest Johnston from the 1930s to the 1950s. East Lake Canners operated in nearby Woodrous from 1929 to 1978. In South Marysburgh Ward, the Cecil J. Bongard cannery was active in Milford in the 1930s, and in Port Milford, South Bay Canning operated from 1905 to 1930 and Port Milford Canning Company from 1909 to 1930, their buildings being at 89 Colliers Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. As for North Marysburgh Ward, the Glenora Canning Company was active in Glenora from 1924, the Waupoos Canning Company from 1913 to 1986, and the Cressy Canning Company by Prinyers Cove from 1928 to 1967. By 1930 1.5 million cases of canned goods were being produced each year in Prince Edward County, and in 1941, during the Second World War, 1.5 million cases of canned tomatoes were emerging from county factories; other fruits and vegetables added much to the total. In 1940 43% of all canned tomatoes in Canada came from Prince Edward County. However, amalgamations began to take place, and in the 1950s serious competition arose from the multinationals H.J. Heinz Company, later called the Kraft Heinz Company, and the California Packing Corporation, later renamed Del Monte Foods Inc. Another challenge was the consumer interest in frozen foods, which local farmers tried to meet, but in vain. Expensive new processing technologies as well as rigorous government quality control standards and minimum wage, hours of work, and safety regulations created costs that multinationals could meet, but not family businesses. The 40 or so small, obsolete factories in the county began closing in the 1960s and 1970s, with produce now trucked to canneries owned by multinationals near the massive farms of Southwest Ontario. By 1985 only five canneries were left in the county. Sprague Foods, established at 10 Cannery Road in Mountain View, Ameliasburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario, in 1925, was the last to escape closure, but it shifted operations to nearby Belleville, Hastings County, in 1996, in order to be closer to Highway 401.

Cheese Production on the South Shore of Prince Edward County

When the Barley Days ended, farmers in southern Athol and South Marysburgh with their thin, rocky soil, turned to cattle grazing and cheese production, in partnership with fishing. The first cheese factory in the county was probably the one that appeared in Bloomfield in 1867. Cheese factories sprang up around the county, with one in the vicinity of 257 Whattams Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, a site now covered by red cedars about 100 m northwest of the junction of Whattams Road and Babylon Road. In 1878 it was by the farm of George James Whattam (1828-1904) and his wife Mary Jane (1834-1859), and they may have owned it. In 1878 Henry Metcalfe owned the South Bay Cheese Factory at 2292 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, and the old abandoned building at South Bay is probably the remains of the cheese factory. The same year Isaac James Striker (1823-1889) and his wife Emily Ingell (1827-1888) owned a cheese factory at 1246 Royal Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, which is now a field for horses. Another cheese maker in 1878 was Thomas E. Young (1836-1914), who owned Young’s East Lake Cheese Factory at 1157 County Road 11, Prince Edward County, Ontario, on the north shore of East Lake. The dairy industry still exists in the county, although many farmers sold their herds and dairy quotas by the 1990s. The last operating cheese factory in the county was the Black River Cheese Factory, 913 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, established by local Black River farmers in 1901. Black River Cheese was purchased as a brand by Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd. in 2016, and while a proportion of the milk that goes into the cheese still comes from Prince Edward County farms, Gay Lea, Ontario’s largest dairy farmers’ cooperative, makes Black River Cheese 73 km to the north at 11301 ON-62, Ivanhoe, Madoc, Centre Hastings, Hastings County, Ontario. The Black River Cheese Factory building is currently vacant.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Gysbert Peelen or Gilbert Palen

Paulus Peelen and Sara Turk’s son Gysbert Peelen or Gilbert Palen (baptized 13 August 1738 in Beekman, Dutchess County, New York; died about July 1836 in Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario) married Phoebe Simpson or Simson (born about 1745; died Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario) on 13 October 1765. Phoebe was a daughter of John Simson and Catherina DeLong (born New York, Kings County, New York). Gysbert was of Dutch ancestry, and his wife’s mother was Dutch as well. During the American Revolution Gysbert Peelen’s mother had to pay a fine because her son was serving in the Loyalist units of the British army, quite likely the Loyalist militia, but he managed to stay in New York after the war, almost certainly because he changed sides and took the oath of allegiance to the United States at some point during the conflict to avoid his land being confiscated by the Patriot authorities. The names Gilbert and Ezekiel Palen were on a muster roll of the Patriot 5th Regiment of Dutchess County Militia, commanded by Colonel William Humphrey from 1775 to 1778 and then Colonel Jacobus Van de Burgh or James Vanderburgh from 10 March 1778 to about 1783, and they were eligible for a land bounty for their service. Eventually, in about 1803, Gysbert set off for Prince Edward County, Ontario. His daughter Mehetable Palen and her husband Paul Clark had already moved to Prince Edward County in 1798, where Paul and a man named Samuel Williams worked as carpenters and labourers for the Society of Friends or Quaker member Thomas Bowerman and his wife Matura Bull. Bowerman lived at 14880 Loyalist Parkway, Bloomfield, Ontario, and in 1809 officially bought this western part of Lot 1 at the western end of the 1st Concession Military Tract, a large triangle owned by Mr. Saylor and Mrs. William Hubbs in 1878. It was bounded on the west by Matthie Road, on the north by Ontario Highway 62, on the northeast by 725 Ontario-62, Bloomfield, Ontario, on the east by 14843 Loyalist Parkway, Bloomfield, Ontario, and on the south where it came to a point in the marsh of Bloomfield Creek north of 404 Wesley Acres Road, Bloomfield, Ontario. With the wages Paul Clark earned working on the Thomas Bowerman farm, he saved up money to buy a lot in Cherry Valley. It is possible that Gysbert and Phoebe were accompanied by their daughter Catherine Palen and her husband Henry Van Vlack. Gysbert and Phoebe probably followed the route of many “Yorkers” who followed the first Loyalist contingent to the region, going by river boat north up the Hudson River to Troy, New York, reembarking in a smaller boat above the Cohoes Falls for a trip west along the Mohawk River to Rome, New York, continuing by wagon along Wood Creek to Oneida Lake, crossing the lake on a boat, then resuming their trip west by wagon to Oswego on Lake Ontario, finally taking a boat north across the lake to British territory, a journey of about six weeks. After a probable stop in Adolphustown, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario, they made their way to Prince Edward County. On 4 November 1804, Gysbert and Phoebe purchased all 200 acres or 81 ha of lot 14 of the 1st Concession South or East of East Lake and built a home at 882 County Road 18, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario. This looked out from the southwestern shore of East Lake and was part of Hallowell Township at the time, later being part of the new Athol Township, now Athol Ward of Prince Edward County. The lot had been granted by the Crown to Loyalist James Blakely (1730-1814) on 11 July 1801 for his services during the American Revolutionary War, but it is doubtful that James cut down a single tree before selling the lot to Gysbert Palen because he lived on lots 7-8 of the 1st Concession South or East of East Lake, now 369 County Road 18, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario. James Blakely, who wore a kilt his entire life, lived in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Boston area, and Pittstown, Rensselaer County, New York; in 1781 he and his wife Ann Keogh were members of Gilead Evangelical Lutheran Church, then at 17 Mickel Hill Road, Brunswick Center, Troy, New York, and now at 308 Brick Church Road, Brunswick Center, Troy, Rensselaer County, New York. Blakely served as an ensign in Lieutenant Colonel Edward Jessup’s King’s Loyal Americans (later renamed the Loyal Rangers) and Colonel Francis Pfister’s Corps of Royalists and had to move his family to a refugee camp in Saint-Jean-sur Richelieu, Le Haut-Richelieu, Montérégie, Québec, in 1781. Travelling to Prince Edward County in 1785, James received 1 200 acres or 486 ha because of his rise to the rank of colonel in administrative duties. In an Assessment of the Township of Hallowell for the Year 1808 (Athol had not been created yet) Gysbert Palen is listed as having 80 acres or 32 ha cultivated and 120 acres or 49 ha uncultivated. He was a carpenter and builder and put up many houses in the Cherry Valley area. Gysbert registered a will on 24 April 1819, leaving his 200 acres to his executors. It is possible that he died in 1836, for on 22 July 1836, his son Ezekiel Palen, “heirs at law of Gilbert Palen”, sold the 200 acres to another son, John Palen, although this may have been an act of power of attorney for the father who was still alive. On 27 March 1847, the executors of Gilbert Palen are listed as his son-in-law John Bull, his grandson Palen Clark, Preston, and Helen, the latter possibly his granddaughter Helen Van Vlack; it is possible that Gysbert or more likely his wife Phoebe Simpson died at this time. The heirs sold the lot with its 200 acres to Dyer Stanton and his wife on 19 August 1856. The location of Gysbert and Phoebe’s graves is unknown; they may have been buried on their farm with wooden grave markers, but it is possible that their wooden or stone grave markers in the Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, established in 1826, have disappeared. Gysbert Peelen or Gilbert Palen and Phoebe Simpson had several children: Petrus or Peter, born 1765, Johannes or John, born in 1767, Ezekiel, born in 1769, Elizabeth, born in 1773, Stephanus or Stephen, born in 1775, Catherina, born in 1778, Mehetabel, born in 1778, Maria or Mary, born in 1782, and Nancy, born in 1783.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Gottlieb Mauch or Mouck

An early settler in South Marysburgh was Gottlieb Mauch, later anglicized as Mouck (born in 1737 or 1744 or 1755 in Unterellen, Wartburgkreis, Thüringen; died 1792-1795 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario). He may have married as many as four times. Gottlieb was a Jӓger or light infantryman in Oberstleutnant/Lieutenant Colonel Carl Adolf Christoph von Creuzburg’s Jäger-Corps von Creuzburg. This unit belonged to the principality of Hessen-Hanau in central Germany and was composed of four companies of 100 men each, and Gottlieb Mauch served in the company of Hauptmann/Captain Graf/Count Ludwig Karl von Wittgenstein. The Grafen von Wittgenstein were based in the Rheingau, west of Mainz in Hessen. Although many of the soldiers in these units that were rented by Protestant German princes to the British Crown for the duration of the American Revolutionary War were conscripted, Mouck volunteered in March 1777. His unit was recruited among foresters and professional hunters, marksmen who were believed to be well suited to warfare in the forests of North America, and they were paid more than the conscripts in other units. Although the “Hessians” are often described as mercenaries, this is not really accurate since they were in their national armies, lent by their governments for money that was paid to the government, not the soldiers. The semi-sovereign dukes of the Holy Roman Empire maintained larger armies than they could easily sustain from their revenues, so they regularly contracted out their forces to the highest bidder. The unit arrived in Québec on 11 March 1777, and Oberleutnant Philipp Jakob Hildebrand’s company took part in Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s Saratoga Campaign and was present at the successful Siege of Fort Ticonderoga on 2-6 July 1777, the unsuccessful Siege of Fort Stanwix on 2-22 August 1777, and the successful Battle of Oriskany on 6 August 1777. Being with Brigadier General Barrimore “Barry” St. Leger in the Mohawk Valley of New York, they avoided being captured by the Americans after the Battle of Saratoga, and the other three companies arrived just as the surviving British troops retreated to Canada. The corps then guarded the approaches to Montréal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River and at Île aux Noix and Lacolle on the Rivière Richelieu close to the border of New York and Lake Champlain. Gottlieb’s term of service was not completed at the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, and he was ordered to embark for Germany, but decided not to do so, deserting in June 1783. The German foresters liked Canada and its opportunities and almost half decided to stay in the colony. The British did not force him to return to Europe, allowing him to stay in Canada. Judging by the birth dates of his children Ludwig/Louis/Lewis in 1773, Peter in 1780, Wilhelm/William in 1782, and Michael Andrew, born in 1784, his first wife most likely accompanied him to Canada from Germany, since married soldiers brought their wives and children with them. It is conceivable that Gottlieb Mauch cycled through four wives, marrying one unknown one in Germany and three in quick succession in Québec, two perhaps widows or daughters of fellow German soldiers. One entry says that “Godlieb Mauck” married Helen Walderf (probably Helene Waldorf) at the congregation of the future Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in Montréal in September 1782. “Godefroy Maouk” (a reasonable French transliteration of Gottlieb Mauch, Godefroy being a Frankish Germanic name meaning God's peace instead of God's love) and Susanne Klus (died before 1785) had a son baptized at the Roman Catholic Église Saint-Philippe, 11 Rue Foucreault, in Saint-Philippe, Roussillon, Montérégie, Québec, south of Montréal, on 16 December 1783. There was a Friedrich Klauss (born in about 1753), a Waldhornist or the person who blew the rallying call during hunts, from Griedel, Darmstadt, Hessen, or Griedelbach, Waldsolms, Hessen, in the Jäger-Corps von Creuzburg. And Gaspard Mauk or Mouch married Marie Louise Tesson D’Honoré (born in about 1767 in Saint-Philippe, Roussillon, Montérégie, Quebec; died 1828 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) at the congregation of the future Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in Montréal in January 1785. Although Kaspar or Caspar was a legitimate German name of the time period, Gaspard may be what his new French-Canadian wife Marie Louise Tesson D’Honoré called him, or what he called himself, since the only French equivalent of Gottlieb is Amédée. Her parents Joseph Tesson dit Honoré (1742-1809) and Marie-Angélique Raymond (1740-1800) moved to the vicinity of Adolphustown, Lennox and Addington, Ontario, perhaps wanting new farmland and to stay close to their daughter and son-in-law. Gottlieb was given land in Prince Edward County and settled in South Bay in South Marysburgh at Lot 10, Concession Round Prince Edward Bay, now 2457 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, with the farm lining the east side of Helmer Road south almost to where Helmer Road turns east. It is believed that Gottlieb was buried in the Mack Farm Cemetery near the stream by the shore of Prince Edward Bay behind 2457 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, a house believed to have been built before 1802. His widow Marie Louise Tesson D’Honoré remarried to Johann Jacob Dehnert, altered to Dainard in Canada (born 12 October 1755 in Obergebra, Nordhausen, Thüringen; died 24 December 1817 in South Bay, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), a German soldier like Gottlieb who was serving in a Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel unit in 1783 at the end of the American Revolutionary War and originally settled near Rose House Museum in North Marysburgh close to Kanonier/Gunner Johann Konrad Bangert/Bongard of Hauptmann/Captain Georg Pausch’s Hessen-Hanauische Artillerie-Kompanie and the Dragoner/Dragoon Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Meinecke/ Minaker of Oberstleutnant/Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum’s Dragoner Regiment Prinz Ludwig, a dismounted cavalry unit from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, both of them in units captured by the Americans in the Battle of Saratoga. Johann Jacob Dehnert died on Christmas Eve 1817 when carrying a huge log of large-tooth aspen or Populus grandidentata to use as a Yule log. He slipped on the hearth of his home and fell backwards, the log crushing him. Gottlieb had several children by his earlier wives, including Ludwig or Louis or Lewis Mouck, born in 1773, Peter Mouck, born in 1780, Wilhelm or William Mouck, born in 1782, and Michael Andrew Mouck, born in 1783).

Gottlieb’s son Ludwig or Louis or Lewis Mouck married Mary Collier (born 12 May 1781 in Québec; died 7 August 1872 in South Bay, Prince Edward County, Ontario), daughter of Peter John Collier (born 29 January 1756 in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England; died 1 July 1823 in Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Isabella Powers (born about 1760 in Île-aux-Noix, Saint-Paul-de-l’Île-aux-Noix, Le Haut-Richelieu, Montérégie, Québec; died 1791-1792 in South Bay, Prince Edward County, Ontario), in 1801, and lived in South Bay; he was probably buried with his wife in South Bay Cemetery at 1931 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. Peter John Collier was a weaver in Leigh, Lancashire, before in about 1774 becoming a private and later a corporal and sergeant in the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot, now the Mercian Regiment (Cheshire, Worcesters and Foresters, and Staffords); he was stationed in Québec from 1776 to 1784 during th American Revolutionary War, being discharged from the British army after nine and a half years’ service at Fort Saint-Jean or St. John’s, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Le Haut-Richelieu, Montérégie, Québec, on 24 May 1784. Gottlieb’s son Peter Mouck (born in 1780 in Québec; died in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) probably fully cleared the west half of Lot F of the Concession South of Prince Edward Bay, selling timber as well as ash for lye to make soap and planting grain. He built a house at 1243 Babylon Road which has now disappeared, situated 200 m north of the road, today accessed by a long tractor path that winds its way northeast to 4044 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. However, it would be faster to follow the western fence of Lot F north from Babylon Road to the location, even if it means pushing through some bushes. One problem with Lot F is that there is a steep cliff on Prince Edward Bay, meaning that the farmers had to use wagons on Babylon Road to get their produce to market rather than load it on boats close to their farms. Gottlieb’s son William Mouck (born 1782 in Québec; died in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), who owned the east half of Lot F, Concession South of Prince Edward Bay, built his house at 1253 Babylon Road, Milford, Ontario, a farm that still exists today as Wildwood Acres Bed and Breakfast. During the War of 1812 he was a private in Captain John Howell’s 1st Regiment of Prince Edward County Militia, serving from 25 December 1812 to 24 April 1813, although it is unclear what he did during this time except drill. Perhaps he also formed part of a bateaux crew. Strangely, we do not know the names of Peter or William’s wives or where the brothers were buried. It could be that they were buried with their father behind the Mauck homestead at 2457 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, with wooden markers that have now disappeared. Alternatively, they may have had grave markers in South Bay Cemetery that are now gone. Gottlieb’s son Michael Andrew Mouck (born 16 December 1783 in Saint-Philippe, Roussillon, Montérégie, Québec; died 1860) married Nancy Ann Collier (born 6 March 1786 in South Bay, Prince Edward County, Ontario), also a daughter of Peter John Collier (born 29 January 1756 in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England; died 1 July 1823 in Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Isabella Powers (born about 1760 in Île-aux-Noix, Saint-Paul-de-l’Île-aux-Noix, Le Haut-Richelieu, Montérégie, Québec; died 1791-1792 in South Bay, Prince Edward County, Ontario). Michael was a private in Captain James Wright’s Company of the 1st Regiment of Prince Edward County Militia, mustering from 25 to 28 March 1813 and 18 to 28 March (May?) 1813 during the War of 1812, but being in company of sedentary militia meant that he drilled on occasion but did not take part in active service. The Mouck sons had many Dainard quasi-siblings, the offspring of their stepmother and her second husband, but were not genetically related to them.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Moses Hudgin

The Hudgins were from the English-Scottish border and emigrated to the Gwynn’s Island area on the Chesapeake Bay coast by Hudgins, Virginia. When the American Revolution broke out, the family was divided into Patriots and Loyalists, with two brothers, Sergeant William Hudgin (1758-1842) and Corporal John Hudgin (1760-1781), serving in Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers or 1st American Regiment, a force of Loyalist light infantry and light dragoons, from at least October 1778, serving in New Jersey and Virginia. On 7 October 1780, they were both transferred to John Saunders’ Troop of Light Dragoons, on detached duty from the Queen’s Rangers, going to South Carolina, where they operated around Dorchester and Charleston. Near Georgetown, South Carolina, on 6 January 1781, the Hudgin brothers were with Lieutenant-Colonel George Campbell on a patrol to find some of Brigadier General Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion’s men who had been harassing his foraging expeditions. There was a troop of Queen’s Rangers under Lieutenant John Wilson and some Loyalist militia of the King’s American Regiment on horseback, approximately 60 men in all, and they headed north from Georgetown along what is now the Ocean Highway. About a dozen of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Horry’s Patriot horsemen were spotted on the road in the vicinity of 5455 Wesley Road, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, and Campbell ordered the troopers to charge them. The Patriots rapidly retreated and led the Loyalist cavalry into an area with swampy woods on both sides of the road. About 70 concealed Patriots fired a volley. Corporal John Hudgin received multiple wounds and died, while his older brother Sergeant William Hudgin was hit by a bullet that shattered his jaw. He was seized by the Patriots and taken away. Another sergeant was captured as well and three Loyalists wounded. The Queen’s Rangers withdrew a short way, then rallied and charged, and the Patriots mounted their horses and retreated into the swamp. The Patriots lost two men wounded and one captured. William was held in Philadelphia until released in a prisoner exchange in April 1783. When the war was over, Sergeant William Hudgin was given 200 acres or 81 ha on the banks of the Saint John River in Southampton, above Nackawick and Fredericton, New Brunswick, and had eleven children there with his wife Esther Nelson (1765-1818). In 1809 he moved to Adolphustown, Greater Napanee, Ontario, and volunteered to serve under Colonel McGill and Colonel Shaw in the Incorporated Militia Battalion during the War of 1812. He was presumably with them in the Battle of Lundy’s Lane around 6115 Lundy’s Lane, Niagara Falls, Niagara Region, Ontario, on 25 July 1814, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. In 1818 he settled on 200 acres, lot 15, “1st Concession South of Point Traverse,” which must mean the Concession Round Prince Edward Bay in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, now 440 Hill Top Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario. However, when he died and was buried in South Bay Cemetery, 2141 County Road 13, Prince Edward County, Ontario, his land was found to be on a clergy reserve for the support of the Anglican Church and could not be passed onto his heirs. Sergeant William Hudgin and Esther Nelson’s son James Ezekiel Hudgin (1786-1861) married a woman named Isabela Simcoe (1783-1857); they may have lived at 1378 Old Milford Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and both are buried in South Bay Cemetery, 2141 County Road 13, Prince Edward County, Ontario. James and Isabela’ probable daughter Margaret Hudgin (born 1811-1812 probably in Adolphustown, Greater Napanee, Lennox and Addington, Ontario; died 31 May 1882) married John Palen (born 1803; died 29 June 1878), son of Stephen Palen and Sarah Striker, on 3 June 1834 in a ceremony officiated by the Reverend James Rogers of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, 31 King St., Picton, Ontario, and witnessed by her presumed father James Hudgin. St. Andrews was a new congregation founded in 1833, but the church building was not erected until 1837. In 1830 John Palen signed a petition to make Prince Edward County a district. Margaret and John were buried in Glenwood Cemetery, 47 Ferguson St., Picton, Ontario. James and Isabela’s son Captain Lewis Hudgin (1813-1899) married Sarah Dulmage, having a daughter named Clarissa Palen Hudgin (born 1851). Another child of Sergeant William Hudgin and Esther Nelson was William Hudgin (born 1788 in New Brunswick; died 27 April 1871 in Prince Edward County, Ontario), who married Rachel Wright (born 1790; died 1829) and then a 17-year-old Irish immigrant, already a widow, named Esther Johnston Marr. This William had a son named Moses Hudgin (born 1818 in Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 18 May 1878 in Prince Edward County, Ontario) who married Ann Mouck (born 1825 in Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 10 December 1896 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), daughter of Michael Andrew Mouck and Nancy Ann Collier. Moses fished and sailed and engaged in subsistence farming. Moses Hudgin built the Moses Hudgin House or Cabin of about 1865 that is being restored at 191 Ostrander Point Road, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Like many of the early settlers, Moses and Ann were buried in South Bay Cemetery, 2141 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. They had nine children, two of whom died in infancy; the other children either became or married sailors or fishers.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Captain Paul Clark

Palen Clark and Gertrude Minaker’s son Captain Paul Clark (born 1834 in South Marysburgh, Ontario; died 28 March 1909, in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario) first married Elizabeth “Betsey” Welbanks (born 1834 in Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 10 February 1886) and then, after Betsey died, Lucretia A. VanAlstine (born 13 November 1843 in Ontario), who was apparently a widow and second wife of Allen Innes Corkindale (born 1839 in Scotland; died 16 November 1888 in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario); she was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, 47 Ferguson St., Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. In his youth Paul was a mariner or sailor and sailed to California, where he engaged in mining operations, probably for gold. After a few years he returned to Ontario and resumed his career as a mariner, but travelled again to California and Oregon before returning to Lake Ontario. On 4 January 1873 he became co-owner with Andrew and Peter Clark of the two-masted schooner Ocean Wave, 24.7 m long and 89 tonnes displacement or weight, launched at Picton in 1868 and first owned by George Curry and G. Striker. The Clarks sold the schooner to Patrick McMahon of McMahon Bluff, Black River, South Marysburgh, Ontario, now 1016 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, on 8 February 1873. This vessel was bound from Trenton, Ontario, to Oswego, New York, with barrel parts and shingles and was caught in a gale, capsizing and sinking 24 km off Oswego, New York, with the loss of all six of its crew. Then on 21 March 1874 Paul or “Clark et al.” bought the two-masted schooner J.W. Langmuir, 27 m long and 105 tonnes displacement, built in Picton in 1865 using the hull of the schooner Hannah, the latter launched in 1844. The J.W. Langmuir’s first owner was George C. Curry of Picton. The owner previous to Paul was “Welbanks et al.”, so Paul may have had a shared ownership of the vessel as early as 17 March 1873. Paul sold it to its last owner Edward Neale of Toronto, Ontario, on 20 June 1874, and in November 1874 the J.W. Langmuir was driven ashore by a storm and wrecked on Galloo Island, 10 km off Sackets Harbor, New York, while bound from Picton to Oswego with a cargo of lumber. Paul’s next acquisition was the Kate of Oakville, Halton Region, Ontario, which often sailed to Port Granby, Clarington, Durham Region, Ontario. After selling the Kate he turned to farming, and in 1878 was living on the south half of lot 5, 1st Concession South Side of East Lake, Athol Township, Prince Edward County, Ontario, now 158 Brummell Road, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario. However, he soon gave up farming and in 1901 with his son Alexander M. Clark of South Bay acquired the wooden steamer C.H. Merritt of Belleville, Ontario, 26 m long, launched in Chatham, Chatham-Kent, Ontario, in 1883, and first used for passengers and freight between Chatham, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan. Paul made it a popular excursion boat in the Bay of Quinte area. Whether he owned it at the time or not, it carried the Brick Methodist Church Sunday School picnic to Twelve O’Clock Point at the eastern end of the Murray Canal, 154 Twelve O’Clock Point Road, Carrying Place, Ontario, on the Bay of Quinte. His obituary said that after forty years of sailing, his face was known in every port and waterway of Lake Ontario, particularly in the eastern half of the lake. In 1905 he finally sold the C.H. Merritt and retired to Picton. There is a report that the vessel sank in 1902, but this may be an error. He was a member of the Anglican Church, a Conservative in politics, which means a supporter of Sir John A. Macdonald and his successors up to Robert Laird Borden, and a Royal Arch Mason. Freemasonry was a popular religious association or church in the 19th century, and you could belong to your regular church and the Freemasons at the same time. Paul died of heart failure in his home on King St. in Picton and was buried with Masonic rites beside his first wife Betsey in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Walter McMahon

Walter McMahon (born about 1840?) was probably an older son of the Roman Catholic, Irish-born Patrick “Pat” McMahon (born about 1813 in Ireland) and his wife Maria (born about 1821 in Ireland) of McMahon’s Bluff on the western bank of Black River. Patrick had his home at 1016 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, and accessed his large lot in part by McMahon Lane. He had the schooners Hibernia and the Morning Star built by shipwright John Tait at Black River bridge in 1863 and 1868 respectively. Walter McMahon was the mate of Captain James Savage’s 33 m long, 145 tonne, two-masted schooner the Ida Walker. It was built on the Bay of Quinte in Sophiasburgh Township, Prince Edward County, in 1867, rebuilt in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1880, and purchased by James Savage of Wellington in 1885, who seems to have kept it in Whitby, Durham Region, Ontario, at least during the winter. The vessel was at the wharf in Wellington, Prince Edward County, on 19 November 1886, loading barley, but before half of the 442 868 L was aboard, a gale with winds from the northwest forced the schooner to sail away from this exposed spot, looking for a safe anchorage in the shelter of Presqu’ile Point at the end of Lighthouse Lane, Brighton, Northumberland County, Ontario, now in Presqu’ile Provincial Park. They reached it, but their anchors dragged and they went ashore on nearby Stony Point. Another vessel helped lighten the schooner by removing 14 096 L of grain, and the schooner floated free, but then, with some men from the other ship still on board, dragged its anchor as it was blown east onto the gravel bar, now part of Wellers Bay National Wildlife Area, south of 750 Barcovan Beach Road, Carrying Place, Ontario. Waves washed over the deck and smashed everything, forcing the ten men and one woman to cling to the mainboom gaff that had fallen on the cabin roof, remaining there all night. Snow squalls periodically hid them from the people gathering on shore to watch the tragic sight. Women knelt to pray and men prepared fires to warm the survivors if they got ashore. Captain Hugh McCullogh’s Wellington Lifeboat Station crew was summoned. One member of the crew was Fulton Palen and Sarah Huyck’s son Salem H. Palen (born about 1851-1852 in Wellington, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 28 October 1886 in Wellington, Prince Edward County, Ontario). Salem had an unusual name spelled “Selem, Selim, and even Celim Palen” in the 1861 census; while his parents may have wanted to name him Salem after the Hebrew cities of Shalem or Yerushalayim, both based on the word shalom peace, it is possible that they used a phonetic version of it. A message was sent to Wellington, and Salem Palen and the rest of the lifeboat crew brought their boat on a railway flatcar pulled by a train locomotive on the Central Ontario Railway line built in 1879 from the Grand Trunk Railway (Canadian National Railway) station in Trenton through Carrying Place, Consecon, Hillier, Wellington, and Bloomfield to Picton; the railway bed is now the Millenium Trail. Probably at 29 Fort Kente Road, Carrying Place, Ontario, they pulled their boat on rollers to Wellers Bay, rowed across the choppy waters of the bay, then dragged the boat across the gravel bar into the raging water of Lake Ontario. Almost 36 hours had passed since the schooner had gone ashore. “Capt. Hugh McCullogh took his place in the stern with the long steering oar. His brother, Bill, pulled stroke, with Horatio Curlett next him. There was Ed Cleary and George Insley, and Selem Palen and Ed Bedell, all Prince Edward County boys... They lashed themselves to the thwarts. ‘If she goes over we stay with her,’ they vowed. The volunteers grabbed the boat by the gunwales and ran her over the beach stones and into deep water, up to their necks. Gasping, floundering, they held her until the six oars, bending under the tug of six strong men, bit the wavetops and lifted her clear of the innermost breaker… Out she worked, foot by foot, past the wreck … Then, holding her head-on to avoid capsizing, Capt. McCullough let her come back past the group on the cabin top, heaving a coil of stout line as he passed. Alas! Fingers numbed with hours of freezing in snow and lake water fumbled it. The line dragged across the wreck and washed back into the boat on the crest of the next breaker. Four times those brave Prince Edward men forced their lifeboat lakewards, and let her drive back on the combers to rescue the perishing. Three times their lifeline fell short or could not be caught by the benumbed and exhausted crew. The third time the lifeboat was so close that the volunteers could look into the eyes of the men and woman on the cabin top, and their agonized expressions cut Capt. McCullough to the heart. ‘Boys,’ he said, ‘we’ve got to get them if we have to swim to them with that line. Let’s try again!’ This time by a miracle, the line caught and held. Walter McMahon, the mate of the Ida Walker leapt into the lake with the cook in his arms. They were seized and dragged aboard the lifeboat. Carefully hauling in and easing off as the seas required, and balancing the boat on their oars, the lifesavers rescued everyone on the cabin-top. As the lifeline that held the boat to the wreck was cast off a greater wave than any yet burst over the whole schooner. The mast fell and the seas tore the cabin-top from the deck. Its fragments washed in on the beach before the lifeboat made a safe landing.” The wreck remains in 3 m of water 200 m southeast of the rock wall guarding the entrance to Wellers Bay, and the outline of the schooner can be faintly seen on Google Earth.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Emma Welbanks

Palen Clark Welbanks and Mary Ann Martin’s daughter Emma Charlotte Welbanks (born 25 August 1857 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died after 1927) seems to have married twice, with the first marriage ending in divorce, very rare at the time, unless there is some confusion in the records. Emma first married William Henry Bowerman (born 30 October 1854 in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 28 March 1927 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), son of labourer Leonard Bowerman and housewife Barbara A. Lambert, on 31 January 1876 in The Manse, Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. In 1876 William was a miller in Athol Township, most likely Cherry Valley, and was living in Cherry Valley in 1896, but when he died in 1927 he was a labourer in South Marysburgh. The Bowerman Gristmill was behind 13 Thompson Road, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and while the tiny creek is still there, the millpond has dried up and is now a darker patch of a farm field. William was buried in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Athol, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Emma then married Samuel Rousseau (born about 1859 in Prince Edward County, Ontario), son of South Marysburgh farmer Peter Rousseau or Rosseau (born 1822-1824 in Montréal, Québec) and Rosettas/Rosana/Rosilla/Lucina Demore, on 14 October 1885 in South Marysburgh. Samuel’s father was born in Montréal and was probably descended from one of several French settlers with the surname Rousseau who arrived in Canada in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Samuel may have taken over his father’s farm, lot 6 of Block No. 15 , South Marysburgh, now the vicinity of 1600 Army Reserve Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, with the house at the northern end of the lot on the south side of the curve 100 m south of the junction of Dainard Road, Hill Top Road, and Army Reserve Road, and the southern end of the farm fronting the shore of Lake Ontario. Emma was buried in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Willet Palmatier

Willet Bratton Palmatier (1846-1925), husband of Jane Clark (1852-1946), was a son of Jacob Palmatier (1823-1881) and Rebecca Bongard (1824-1877). The Palmatiers were descended from Pierre/Pieter Parmentier (born 1630 in Kortrijk, West-Vlaanderen, België; died 1701 in Kingston, Ulster County, New York), son of the French Huguenots or Protestants Jean Parmentier (born 1600 in Condé-sur-l’Escaut, Nord, Hauts-de-France) and Jenne Foure (born 1600 in Kortrijk, West-Vlaanderen, België), who emigrated to Dutch Nieuw-Nederland or the Province of New York to escape persecution by the Roman Catholic authorities in France and the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium). Willet married a woman named Jane in 1875, and was a farmer and sailor or mariner who lived on his father’s farm at 4045 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, with the house site between the road and the cliff now overgrown with eastern red cedars, bur oaks, and shagbark hickories. There was no water access here, so he may have travelled to Point Traverse Harbour by the Point Traverse Lighthouse on the property of his relative Zachariah Palmateer or Palmatier (1825-1902) and Zachariah’s wife Jane A. Dulmage (1821 or 1824-1905) who lived near 6136 Long Point Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and were buried at Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery in Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Alternatively, he could have gone to South Bay, Port Milford, Black River, Waupoos, or even Picton to join the crew of the ship he worked on. Willet and Jane had three children, and after dying at the ages of 79-80 and 93-94 were buried in Glenwood Cemetery, 47 Ferguson St., Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Captain Bill VanVlack

William “Bill” Elias VanVlack (born 19 May 1850 in Milford, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 3 October 1938 in Cressy, North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), son of Stephen Van Vlack and Maria Anne Dulmage, married Mary “Minnie” Muir (born 23 July 1860; died 16 November 1928). He met Minnie in Port Dalhousie, St. Catherines, Niagara Region, Ontario, where her father owned a drydock. He often sailed out of Toronto. Captain Bill VanVlack was half-owner with Jacob Collier of South Bay, South Marysburgh, of a schooner named the Eliza Quinlan. This vessel, 119 tonnes displacement and valued at $1,500, was launched in Kingston, Ontario, in 1852 and based at Port Hope, Ontario, carrying freight on Lake Ontario. Bill VanVlack was in command and loaded coal from a freight train through a chute in the railway bridge, now the Harbor Rail Trail across the Oswego River by Canal View Drive in Oswego, New York, on 3 December 1883. It was very cold that night and the harbour froze over, so it was late the next morning when tugs broke up the ice and towed the vessel out into Lake Ontario, where the sails were hoisted and the Eliza Quinlan set sail for Napanee, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario, to the north. By this time it was very foggy, and it soon began to snow and blow from the southwest. Captain Bill VanVlack planned to sail between Swetman Island/False Duck Island off Point Traverse at the end of Long Point in Prince Edward County and Main Duck Island in order to get into the Bay of Quinte and reach the Napanee River, but because of a magnetic anomaly at the “Marysburgh Vortex” or “Graveyard of Lake Ontario” his compass stopped working and at about 2:30 p.m. on 4 December 1883 the schooner went aground on the Poplar Bar by Big Poplar Point on the south shore of Long Point, 4.8 km west of the lighthouse at Point Traverse, Prince Edward County. This spit of flat underwater rocks is west of the end of the small lane going southeast from 4898 Long Point Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. James Jackson Bongard of 4732 Long Point Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and Captain Nathan “Nate” McCrimmon of the west half of lot L, Concession West of Long Point, South Marysburgh, now 253 Gravelly Bay Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario, manned a fishing boat with a picked crew and at great risk to themselves went out into the foaming breakers to rescue the crew. The next spring a salvage tug tried to pull the Eliza Quinlan off the bar, but the effort failed and the hull remained there for many years until broken up by storms. From 1900 to 1902 Captain Bill VanVlack owned the Chub, a wooden steam barge built by Lemuel Dorland in Bronte Harbour, Bronte, Oakville, Halton Region, Ontario, in 1893. It had one mast and one propeller, was 21.8 m long and 51.7 tonnes displacement. In 1939 the barge was broken up at Peche Island in the Detroit River off Lakeview Park Marina, Windsor, Ontario, and the wheelhouse and captain’s quarters were installed as a summer home at Bar Harbor, Harsens Island, Michigan, on Lake St. Clair 10 km from Windsor. In 1912, when Captain Bill retired, he bought a farm with his son Muir on the Bay of Quinte at Cressy, North Marysburgh.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Minerva McCrimmon

Minerva “Nerva” Anna McCrimmon (born December 1860; died 3 April 1882, in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) was the daughter of Captain Nathan “Nate” McCrimmon and Eve Dulmage (born 1841) of the west half of lot L, Concession West of Long Point, South Marysburgh, now 253 Gravelly Bay Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. The 38 m barley schooner David Andrews, owned by her father, was difficult to handle, but the teenage Minerva kept the vessel running straight even in stormy weather, as well as cooking meals for the crew. She often wore her mother’s old grey shawl that had covered Minerva when she was a baby. When the ship drove into a reef at Oswego, New York, during a snowstorm on 13 April 1880, the rescuers shot a line from the shore out to the vessel with a rocket gun, then suspended a breeches buoy, a lifesaving cradle or ring, from it. When the sailors refused to trust the device, the 19-year-old Minerva saved the 21 crew, including her own father, by escorting them one by one along the line above the freezing water and slushy ice. She married Henry Whattam of 749 Babylon Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and died at age 21, being buried in South Bay Cemetery, 2141 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Stories of People on the South Shore: James Walmsley

Andrew William Walmsley and Jane Galloway Whattam’s son James Walmsley (born 28 September 1869 in Prince Edward County, Ontario; died about 1956) married Lena May Rivers Ostrander (born 2 July 1877 in South Marysburgh, Ontario; died 11 September 1910 in Waupoos, North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), daughter of mariner or sailor William Abraham Ostrander (born about 1850 in Milford, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 13 December 1918, in Milford, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Mary “Ellen” or “Gaudy” Wood (born about 1855 in Ontario), on 23 November 1893 in North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario. After Lena died and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, 47 Ferguson St., Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario, James married for a second time to Annie Maneely (born about 1883 in Prince Edward County, Ontario; died about 1973), daughter of Waupoos farmer William Maneely and Ann Armstrong. Andrew’s wife Lena’s father was a son of William Ostrander (born about 1805-1811 in Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 27 January 1901 in West Point Traverse, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Phebe Palmatier (born 1814 in South Bay, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died November 1867 in Prince Edward County, Ontario), who lived on the west half of lot 5, Concession Long Point, South Marysburgh, now 4998 Long Point Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario, with his brother Oliver Ostrander on lot H of the Concession South of Prince Edward Bay, South Marysburgh, now the vicinity of 4150 County Road 13, Prince Edward County, with the stone foundation of his house in the trees at the corner closest to Halfmoon Point. William Ostrander was a son of Samuel Ostrander (born 18 January 1783 in New York; died 11 December 1864 in Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Isabella Collier (born about 8 February 1789), and Samuel was in turn was a son of Isaac Ostrander, who settled in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County in 1796 with his sons Samuel and Isaac. The Ostranders had Frisian-speaking ancestors from Noordstrand, Nordsee-Treene, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, who moved to Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland, and then the Hudson Valley of New York State.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Viola Dulmage

Annie Maud Walmsley and Owen Dulmage’s daughter Viola Dulmage (born 29 December 1893 in North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died about 1987) married her cousin James Cooper Dulmage (born 21 November 1886 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died about 10 October 1970), son of South Marysburgh farmer James Nelson Alfred Dulmage (born about 1865 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Jennie M. Maxum (born about 1863 in Kingston, Frontenac County, Ontario), on 28 May 1912 in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. James’ mother Jennie was adopted by James Cooper, who owned all the land and the dock and warehouses at Port Milford on the north shore of South Bay, now the end of Colliers Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario. James’ father James was a son of Thomas Dulmage (born 18 June 1829 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Isabella Hudgin (born about 1824 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 3 August 1919 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), who lived on lot 2 of Block D, South Marysburgh, accessed via the lane at 200 Brewers Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario (which crosses lot 1 of Block D, also Dulmage land). Thomas was a son of Philip Dulmage (born 9 August 1791 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 9 April 1880 in Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Lydia Ostrander (born 21 May 1791 in Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York; died 29 November 1872 in Sophiasburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario), who acquired lot 1, Block D, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario, now the Long Dog Winery at 104 Brewers Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario, after he walked on trails through the forest to Toronto, Ontario, to secure the deed for his land. Philip was a son of the Loyalist David Dulmage (born 15 March 1748 in Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland; died 25 July 1825 or 1840, probably in South Bay, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Mary Jennings (born 1 January 1747 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; died in Hay Bay, Adolphustown, Greater Napanee, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario). The Dulmages were German Lutherans from the upper Rheinland who had accepted the invitation of the British government to settle in Ireland, and David Dulmage’s grandfather was Johannes Dolmetsch (born about 1679; died before 27 December 1751 in Freimersheim, Alzey-Worms, Rheinland-Pfalz). In 1912 James Cooper Dulmage was a farmer in South Marysburgh, probably on his father’s and grandfather’s farm on lot 2 of Block D, South Marysburgh, accessed via the lane at 200 Brewers Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Viola was buried in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Stories of People on the South Shore: Norma Welbanks

Everett Hamilton Welbanks and Fanny Jane Ostrander had a daughter named Norma Gladys Welbanks (born 25 March 1896 in Milford, South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 22 April 1940 in Cherry Valley, Athol, Prince Edward County, Ontario). She married Jacob Stinson Hyatt (born 17 April 1890 in Point Traverse, South Marysburgh, Ontario), son of South Marysburgh farmer and fisher Jacob P. Hyatt (born 14 February 1861 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 1 March 1928 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario) and Sarah Alzina Farrington (born 9 November 1961, in Picton?, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 1 September 1911 in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario), on 25 January 1914 in Milford, South Marysburgh, Ontario. Her father-in-law Jacob P. Hyatt owned the northern 50 acres or 20 ha of lot F and about 5 acres or 2 ha on lot G of the Concession South of Prince Edward Bay, South Marysburgh, from 27 January 1916 to 24 April 1928 and lived at 4039 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario. Stinson’s grandparents Daniel Leavens Hyatt and Susan A. Bongard, the latter a daughter of Frederick Bongard and Sarah Knapp, were also involved in farming and fishing. The Hyatts were English members of the Society of Friends or Quakers who lived in Nine Partners, Dutchess County, New York, before moving to Prince Edward County. Stinson, as he was known, was living in South Marysburgh in 1914 and 1921, and his address was described as South Bay, South Marysburgh, in 1928. Stinson appears to have owned the Hyatt farm of 39 acres or16 ha on the southwest quarter of lot F of the Concession South of Prince Edward Bay, South Marysburgh, now 1242 Babylon Road, Milford, Ontario, with the north end of the farm on Babylon Road and the south end on a lane running east-west halfway between Babylon Road and Gravelly Bay Road beginning in the east at 566 Whattams Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, and ending in the west at 4493 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. This lane, no longer perceptible on its ends, can be accessed by another lane that runs north-south down the middle of the Hyatt farm starting at about 1242 Babylon Road, Milford, Ontario, roughly opposite the foundation of a building in a clearing on the north side of the road owned by a Henry Welbanks in 1878. Stinson was a commercial fisher and may have docked his boat at a wharf behind 4493 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, where the east-west lane behind his farm ended on Prince Edward Bay south of Halfmoon Point. If a storm appeared, the fishing boat could be pulled up the stone beach. Alternatively, he may have docked his fishing boat near the present wharf in Long Point Harbour at 2000 Traverse Lane, opposite the Prince Edward Point or Point Traverse Lighthouse at 6147 Traverse Lane, Milford, Ontario. However, this would have required using a horse or cart to travel 8 km each day, so this is less likely. Stinson later married a woman named Freda, but Norma and Stinson were both buried in Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, 1699 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Stories of People on the South Shore: John Rorabeck

Percy Franklin Rorabeck and Leola Laurene Ostrander's son John Malcolm Rorabeck married Geraldine Louise Fudge, daughter of William T. “Billy” Fudge and Helen Margaret Wadforth, on 12 August 1965. John was a fisher operating out of Point Traverse harbour, 6056 Long Point Road, Milford, Ontario, and Geraldine opened Picton Fabric World in 1978 at 261 Picton Main St., Picton, Ontario. They lived at 3820 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Although stocks of lake whitefish, lake trout, yellow perch, and burbot had declined through overfishing and the arrival of the invasive, parasitic sea lamprey, John used to catch the extremely abundant American eel for export, as much as 900 kg in a single night, until hydroelectric turbines at dams on the St. Lawrence Seaway began to grind up these fish in large numbers during their once-in-a-lifetime migration between Lake Ontario and the Sargasso Sea around Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean. In about 1987 John visited the Glenora Fishery Station to warn them of the falling eel population, and he worked with researchers from the Biology Department of Queen’s University who confirmed that eel numbers had fallen 99%. The Ontario government closed the eel fishery in 2005 and began an eel recovery program. Another problem was that the federal government, after creating the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area in 1978, stopped dredging the Point Traverse harbour mouth and then bulldozed the fishers’ buildings in 2013, meaning that John and other fishers could no longer operate their boats from the harbour dock. A jack of all trades, John produced apple juice, ran a wild boar farm for hunters, and served as an auctioneer. Amy Bodman, Suzanne Pasternak, and Dick Bird of the South Shore Joint Initiative have documented the history of the Point Traverse fishery in the book A Lifetime Upon These Waters: An Oral History of Prince Edward County’s Commercial Fishery.

Prince Edward County’s South Shore during the Early 20th Century

Fruit and vegetable canning and cheese production were the chief industries of Prince Edward County at the turn of the century. For the south shore it was mainly cheese, beef, and fishing. The large, open fields of the two concessions of Athol and South Marysburgh closest to the south shore were dotted with cattle or covered with the hay that would feed the cattle in barns during the winter. Many of the local farmers had boats that they could pull up the beach on a wooden boat launch or boat ramp to protect them from stormy weather, since there were no natural harbours along the south shore except for the small, marshy, and relatively shallow harbour by the Point Traverse Lighthouse, opened up by dredging. At least 15 fishing families kept their boats here, and there were eight or nine docks and shacks for sorting the catch. There was also a fish-packing plant by the harbour in the 1930s. At the Point Traverse Lifeboat Station there was a lifeboat on a wagon pulled by horses, and it could be moved along farm lanes to a spot closest to a wreck. Here the local volunteers would launch the lifeboat and bravely attempt to row out to save the crew, often throwing a line to be attached to the ship so that the people could get aboard. Just launching the lifeboat amid massive waves was life threatening and would have been impossible for most people, but these strong and skilled sailors could do so and were willing to risk their lives for others.

Soldiers during the First World War: MacMillan Van Vlack

During the First World War the young men of the county, many of whom were already members of the 16th Prince Edward Regiment of militia, founded in Picton in 1863, volunteered for military service, joining the 39th Battalion, 80th Battalion, 155th Battalion, and 254th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. All of these units were broken up as reinforcements for existing battalions of the Canadian Corps. Casualty rates were of course horrific, and many of these young men never returned to the county.

A soldier from Waupoos in North Marysburgh was MacMillan “Mac” Clarke Van Vlack (born 12 September 1898; died 20 June 1918, in Carlisle, Cumbria, England), who served as a private in the Canadian Army Service Corps as a driver for Major James Walker, commander of No. 131 Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps at Whinfell, Cumbria, England, during the First World War. Amazingly, Major Walker was 70 years old, a veteran of the Fenian Raids of 1871 and North-West Rebellion of 1885 and a Superintendant of the Royal North-West Mounted Police. The No. 131 Company was raised in October 1917 and stationed at Whinfell, Cumbria, England, before being transferred to How Mill, Hayton, Cumbria, England, in October 1918. The Canadian Forestry Corps was assigned to cut trees to supply the Western Front with railway ties, duckboards, shoring timbers, crates, and any other wood that was needed. Mac was well known to the local British civilians in Penrith, Cumbria, England, and on very friendly terms with Major Walker. However, he fell seriously ill, and was sent to Fusehill Military Hospital on Fusehill St. in Carlisle, Cumbria (now part of the campus of the University of Cumbria), where he died after several weeks. A funeral was held in a church in Penrith, probably St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, St. Andrews Place, Penrith, Cumbria, by the No. 131 Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps, with many local civilians and the band of the British South Lancashire Regiment, now the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (King’s, Lancashire and Border), in attendance, and he was buried in Beacon Edge or Penrith Cemetery, Beacon Edge, Penrith, Cumbria, England. Mac was also commemorated by his family in Saint John’s Anglican Cemetery, 3125 Prince Edward County Road 8, Waupoos, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Soldiers during the First World War: Hubert Dulmage

A soldier from Waupoos, North Marysburgh, and Cherry Valley, Athol, who was killed in action was Annie Maud Walmsley and Owen Dulmage’s son Hubert Dulmage (born 13 February 1896 in Waupoos, North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario; died 3 September 1918 near Écourt-Saint-Quentin, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France). He moved to Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, with his parents, then as a young man moved to Dundas, Hamilton, Ontario, working as a mechanic. The First World War began in 1914 when he was 18 years old. The details of his story, the routine and drama in the front line trench and behind it, are typical for soldiers from Prince Edward County and the rest of Canada during this terrible conflict. On 22 February 1916, age 20, single, Methodist, and 170 cm or 5 feet 7 inches tall, he enlisted as a private in the Dundas-raised 129th Battalion (Royal Hamilton Light Infantry), serving in that unit from 22 February to 18 October 1916. On 24 August 1916, while the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme were raging in France, the battalion embarked at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the Titanic’s sister ship the ocean liner Royal Mail Ship Olympic, which could carry 6 000 soldiers, and disembarked in England on 29 August. It had 32 officers and 804 other ranks. On 18 October the battalion was broken up and its men sent as reinforcements to three other units, including 329 men sent to the 123rd Battalion. Hubert ended up in A Company of the 123rd Battalion (Royal Regiment of Canada) from 18 October to 5 December 1916. This battalion had arrived in England from Toronto, Ontario, on 18 August 1916 and was still training in England. Next Hubert was transferred to a unit in France, the 60th Battalion (Victoria Rifles of Canada) from Montréal, Québec, serving with it from 5 December 1916 to 24 April 1917. Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Arthur de Long Gascoigne’s 60th Battalion was part of the 9th Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division of the Canadian Corps. It had lost a lot of troops in the Battle of the Ancre Heights, 1 October 1 to 11 November 1916, part of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July to 18 November 1916.

When Hubert joined the 60th Battalion it was near Thélus, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the southeast slope of Vimy Ridge, periodically rotating into reserve at Bray, Mont-Saint-Éloi, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and it conducted a raid on a German trench in front of the Paris Redoubt on 9 December 1916, although Hubert did not take part. The 3rd Division participated in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9-12 April 1917, part of the Battle of Arras, 9 April to 16 May 1917. Brigadier-General Frederick William Hull’s 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade of Major-General Louis James Lipsett’s 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng’s Canadian Corps, was in reserve behind the 7th and 8th Canadian Infantry Brigades immediately north of Neuville-Saint-Vaast, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, with the first two brigades successfully breaking through the German 79. Reserve-Division, taking La Folie Farm, and reaching the summit of the ridge above the village of Petit-Vimy, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, by the early afternoon of 9 April 1917. On 8 April the 60th Battalion left its billets at Villers-au-Bois, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and entered a trench on the western side of D937 or the Route de Béthune just northwest of Neuville-Saint-Vaast. At 11:15 a.m. on 9 April it advanced to take over the empty Canadian front line trench behind the craters at the bottom of Vimy Ridge, the now restored trenches near the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, where it remained until 8:45 p.m. on 11 April. Amid falling snow it went up the ridge, full of mud and shell holes, and relieved the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Canadian Mounted Rifles of the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade near the D55E2 or Route des Canadiens. At 4:00 p.m. on 12 April patrols were sent down the steeper northeastern reverse slope of Vimy Ridge to reconnoitre the western defences of the village of Vimy under rifle and machine gun fire, and on 13 April the battalion attacked, carefully advancing with almost no opposition. The village of Petit-Vimy was taken at 4:15 p.m., Vimy at about 4:25, and La Chaudière at 7:15 p.m., with troops also occupying the Gare de Vimy or Vimy Railway Station at 31 Rue de la Gare, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and the railway tracks. The 60th Battalion lost 68 dead and wounded during the battle, mostly due to German shell fire, light losses compared to other units, and it captured three guns, an airplane, a lot of engineering materials, and a few wounded Germans who had been unable to escape. However, on 24 April 1917, the unit was withdrawn from the front and much to its disappointment was broken up and its men sent to reinforce two other battalions.

On 24 April 1917 Hubert Dulmage joined Major Harold LeRoy Shaw’s 87th Battalion (the Canadian Grenadier Guards of Montréal, Québec), part of Brigadier-General Victor Wentworth Odlum’s 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade and Major-General David Watson’s 4th Canadian Infantry Division of Sir Julian Byng’s Canadian Corps, following its loss of 61% or 315 men out of 520, including 10 of 11 officers, in its attack on Hill 145 in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9-12 April 1917; Hill 145, named as such because military maps show it is 145 m above sea level, is where the Canadian National Vimy Memorial now stands. Subsequent commanders of the 87th Battalion were Lieutenant-Colonel James Vincent Patrick O’Donahoe from 8 May 1917 to 5 April 1918, Major Ivan Steele Ralston from 6 April to 14 May 1918, and Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Meikle Perry from 15 May to 10 September 1918. On 24 April 1918, the 8th Battalion was in divisional reserve at the Bois de Berthonval by the Rue du Huit Mai, Farbus, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, by the southeast edge of Vimy Ridge, and the following day most of the men worked on roads and tram lines (mini railway spur lines) between Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and Givenchy-en-Gohelle, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the west side of Vimy Ridge. Almost every day the soldiers had work to do digging or repairing trenches, building or repairing roads, and bringing up supplies, all the while dodging German shells. On 30 April 1917 the battalion moved to Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, which was the 4th Division headquarters behind the lines, training with the newly-absorbed officers and men from the 60th Battalion. On 10 May 1917 the 87th Battalion marched to Cobourg Street Trench in Zouave Valley just north of Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery, accessed by a path continuing from the Rue du 19 Mars 1962, Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the northwest slope of Vimy Ridge. That night seven men were killed or wounded during a German counterattack on an advance battalion reconnaissance party sent to the east near La Coulotte, Avion, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. At 8:30 p.m. on 11 May and 2:45 on 12 May the battalion marched over Vimy Ridge and relieved or took over the positions of the 44th Battalion between Vimy and the La Coulotte district of Avion, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. There was an exchange of Canadian and German artillery fire, some German trench mortar fire, a small German grenade attack that was repulsed, and several hits on German soldiers due to Canadian sniper fire on 13 May—a routine day in the front line. On subsequent days aircraft fought overhead, the Canadians dug trenches forward at night, patrols went out, and Germans collected their wounded under a Red Cross flag—although the Canadians were justifiably suspicious that they were also gathering information about the Canadian positions. On the night of 20-21 May the battalion was relieved after losing three officers and 75 other ranks casualties during this short tour in the front line and the troops marched back to Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. They bathed and rested for two days, then started training again. On 28 May 1917 they moved to the Bois de Berthonval, Farbus, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, also behind the lines, where they did more training, some went out on work parties, and some men received medals for valour at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. On 6 June the 87th Battalion went into the front line near the Boulevard Henri Martel, La Coulotte, Avion, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, taking part in the actions south of the Avion River, 3-25 June 1917. At 11:45 p.m. on 8 June they took part in a trench raid on the Germans in La Coulotte, assisted by an artillery barrage. They attacked northwest and fought their way through the western half of the village, destroying dugouts, destroying or capturing machine guns, and causing about 300 German casualties, including taking over 100 prisoners. Canadian losses amounted to 19 killed, 104 wounded, and 7 missing. On 12 June they returned to Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. On 19 June the battalion moved to Cobourg Street Trench in Zouave Valley just north of Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery, accessed by a path continuing from the Rue du 19 Mars 1962, Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the northwest slope of Vimy Ridge; they acted as 4th Division support and did railway work, then training. They remained here in reserve when the 4th Division captured the southern half of Avion, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France at 2:30 a.m. on 28 June 1917. On 11 July 1917 King George V visited the area and the 87th Battalion stood at attention lining the D65 road from Gouy-Servins to Villers-au-Bois, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, close to the 4th Division headquarters at Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. On 26 July 1917 the 87th Battalion went into the front line again, starting from Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and marching east through Gouy-Servins, stopping in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire for tea, and then continuing east on D57 and D58E2 through Souchez, Angres, and Rollencourt, to the north side of Liévin, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, northeast of Vimy Ridge and just east of Avion and Lens. They went into the line in the vicinity of 251B Avenue Alfred Maes, Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, facing northeast along the Avenue Alfred Maes or D58E1 toward the German trench lining the Rue du Temple, Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Artillery fire, mortar fire, and poison gas caused some casualties. Preparations were made for a major attack. The battalion took part in the Battle of Hill 70 on 15 to 25 August 1917; four hours after the main attack against Hill 70 north of Lens on August 15, two companies of the 87th Battalion made a diversionary attack against Lens itself to keep the Germans from moving troops away from this area. The 287 Canadians seized the German first line, dubbed Aconite Trench, at about 6:00 a.m., and some got close to the railway line north of Rue Paul Bert, but their flanks were exposed and a strong German counterattack from the ruined houses on the centre and east flank and east rear at about 10:15 a.m. allowed the Germans to recapture most of their position. At 1:50 p.m. the Canadians only held about 15 m of the western end of the German front line trench. The Canadians used up most of their rifle and machine gun ammunition and grenades and killed a lot of Germans before the survivors retreated in small groups or individually. On the night of 17-18 August 1917 the battalion was relieved and marched back to the Zouave Valley southeast of Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. They spent from 22 to 25 August at Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, then on 26 August returned to the trenches on the southeast side of Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. They dug a new trench forward to connect with the part of the German front line still held by the Canadians. The period involved the usual patrols, sniping, and artillery fire. On the night of 1-2 September 1917 they were relieved and moved back to brigade support in Liévin, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, a few hundred metres from the front line, preparing a support trench, then went for rest and training in Gouy-Servins near 4th Division headquarters from 7 to 11 September 7. They moved a short distance to Albert Camp, Gouy-Servins, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, for rest and work parties. On 19 to 23 September they were in Zouave Valley southeast of Souchez, then moved to the front line in the Avion Sector. On the night of 27-28 September 1917 they moved to billets in Petit-Servins, Servins, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, a rest area next to Gouy-Servins, where they did training and played sports.

On 4 October 1917 Hubert Dulmage and the 87th Battalion (Canadian Grenadier Guards) marched northwest to Houdain, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, via Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen and Rebreuve-Ranchicourt, for further training, moving north by train on 12 October from Rue de la Gare, Houdain, to Rue de la Gare, Thiennes, the men mostly billeting in Pecqueur, Aire-sur-la-Lys, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Embarking again on a train, they moved farther north to the Gare de Cassel, Rue de la Gare, Bavinchove, Nord, Hauts-de-France, billeting in Oxelaëre, Nord, Hauts-de-France, in French Flanders. There was a lot of rain, but the men trained while their officers studied models of an area around a village near Ieper (Ypres) called Passendale or, in the local Flemish dialect, Passchendaele, in West-Vlaanderen, België or Belgium, where the Second Battle of Passchendaele, 31 July to 10 November 1917, had already been raging for two and a half months. From 26 October to 10 November 1917, Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie’s Canadian Corps would get its turn in the battle. On 22 October the 87th Battalion embarked on a convoy of buses and travelled northeast across the Belgian border to Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, where they got off the buses and marched to Toronto Camp in Brandhoek, West-Vlaanderen, west of Ieper. There was more rain. On 27 October they marched east through Vlamertinge and the Grote Markt in the centre of Ieper to the hamlet of Potyze, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, on the northeastern outskirts of Ieper. Here in the divisional reserve the shelling was almost continuous as the men formed work parties and officers went out to reconnoitre toward the front line where the battalion was expected to go next. However, on 2 November 1917, they marched back to Brandhoek, west of Ieper, for bathing, rest, and an issue of winter underwear before they boarded trains the next day and travelled back across the French border to Caëstre, Nord, Hauts-de-France, and marched to billets in Saint-Sylvestre-Cappel, Nord, Hauts-de-France, in French Flanders. On 10 November 1917, the last day of the Second Battle of Passchendaele, when the Canadian Corps took the ridge and village of Passchendaele and was ordered to stop, the 87th Battalion travelled by train to Belgian Flanders, taking up quarters in Toronto Camp in Brandhoek, West-Vlaanderen. On 11 November they took the train to Ieper, then marched to Potyze before advancing to Abraham Heights in the vicinity of Schipstraat 61, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, about 1 km southwest of Passendale/Passchendaele, where they relieved the 22nd Battalion (now the Royal Vingt-Deuxième Régiment). The battalion headquarters was at Boethoek farm at Schipstraat 63, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen. On 12 November they moved right to the front line with one platoon at at Crest Farm, the site of the Passchendaele Canadian Memorial, Canadalaan 35, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, on the southwestern edge of the village of Passendale, and other troops on the north side of the village. The battalion headquarters was at Hillside Farm, Vijfwegestraat 1, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, 1.5 km southwest of Passendale village. German shellfire was the worst they had encountered so far in the war, and the water-filled shell holes that formed the 87th Battalion line of defence provided little shelter, resulting in four officers and 172 other ranks being killed or wounded during these few days at Passchendaele village. Being at the tip of a salient, they were hit by fire from three sides. They were relieved by the 102nd Battalion on 16 November and moved back to Abraham Heights, in the vicinity of Schipstraat 61, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, with the battalion headquarters at Boethoek farm at Schipstraat 63, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen. On 17 November they marched west to Potyze, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, and on 18 November they boarded a narrow-gauge train at a station in Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, then got off at Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, and marched to a camp in the Watou, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, area, where they had no tents, but were paid and cleaned up, having baths the next day. On 21 November the troops got on buses and drove south across the French border, disembarking at Merville, Nord, Hauts-de-France, and marching to Le Sart, Merville, Nord, Hauts-de-France, where they billeted for the night. The following day, 22 November, they marched to the vicinity of the Rue de Cantraine in the hamlet of Cantraine, Lillers, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the northeastern outskirts of Lillers in the direction of Busnes, where they stayed for the night. On 23 November they marched on south through Lillers and Burbure, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, stopping for lunch in the hamlet of Rimbert on the northern edge of Auchel, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, then billeted in La Thieuloye, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, after having covered 27 km in one day.

Here they rested and trained for the next few days, with a visit from Major-General David Watson, commander of the 4th Canadian Division, on 28 November. On 2 December 1917 they marched to nearby Diéval, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and on the following two days, 3-4 December, the soldiers voted in the Canadian election in which Prime Minister Robert Borden’s pro-conscription Conservative-Liberal Union coalition was reelected, defeating the mostly French-Canadian anti-conscription Liberals of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. This was the first national election in which Canadian women could vote, at least those who were military nurses and women with close relatives in the military. Borden extended the federal vote to all White women in 1918, once the election was safely won. Almost all soldiers voted for Borden and conscription. Some 110 reinforcements joined the battalion to replace the casualties from the Battle of Passchendaele, and training went on for several days. On 8 December Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps, was supposed to inspect the 87th Battalion and the rest of the 11th Canadian Brigade on the road by Diéval, but he was unable to attend, so the inspection was done by Major-General David Watson of the 4th Canadian Division. That evening the Battalion Concert Party played music for the men. The following day the soldiers played sports and No. 14 Platoon in “D” Company won and was entertained at supper in the YMCA tent. The men got baths at Ourton, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on 10 December and carried on training until 18 December, when they marched via Ourton, La Comté, Rebreuve-Ranchicourt, and Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen to St. Lawrence Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. The following day they marched to Hill Camp at Neuville-Saint-Vaast, and on 20 December 1917 they entered the trenches near Gaby Trench, Billie Burke Trench, and Toledo Trench on Hull Road or the Chemin de Méricourt in the La Chaudière Sector near La Chaudière, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Their line stretched southeast from 13 Rue des Lampistes, Avion, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, to 1 Route de Willerval, Méricourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, northeast of Vimy Ridge, and they relieved the 19th Battalion of the 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade. They faced northeast toward the southern edge of Avion and Méricourt, with the German front line extending southeast from 44 Rue des Lampistes, Avion, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, to 61 Rue de l'Égalité, Méricourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. On the night of 21 December they reinforced the barbed wire in front of their trenches and patrols crept close to the German lines. And on 22 December German shells, gas shells, rifle grenades, and machine gun fire was directed at the battalion and at low-flying Royal Flying Corps aircraft; the Canadians responded in kind. Some shelling of rear areas took place the next day, and the Canadians pushed out patrols into no man’s land. On 24 December German and Canadian patrols were active and a battalion Lewis machine gun fired on a German work party. Christmas Day 1917 was cold, with some snow in the afternoon and German artillery and machine gun fire directed at Brandhoek Sap and Vesta Tilley Trench; there would be no Christmas truce this year. More German shellfire, rifle grenades, and machine gun fire followed during the next two days and two Allied aircraft forced a German plane down behind German lines. The 8 cm of snow and bright moonlight meant that patrols remained on the defensive in no man’s land. On 28 December the light railway line between Toronto Dump and Doris Dump was damaged by a barrage of 75 German shells of various calibres, interfering with the delivery of engineering material and rations, but battalion Lewis machine guns fired 1 000 rounds on a German plane and brought it down out of control behind the German lines. As usual, patrols went out to within 20 m of the enemy wire. On 30 December the 87th Battalion was relieved by the 79th (Manitoba) Battalion and moved back a few hundred metres to Petit-Vimy, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, by the northeast slope of Vimy Ridge, getting baths at Neuville-Saint-Vaast southwest of Vimy Ridge the following day. During their ten-day tour in the trenches they had record low casualties, only one man being wounded out of 757 men of all ranks.

Hubert Dulmage’s 87th Battalion spent New Years’ Day 1918 in 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade Reserve in the La Chaudière sector with the battalion headquarters in the village of Petit-Vimy, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, with two companies in Gertie Trench and two in the villages of Petit-Vimy and Vimy. They remained at the ready because of heavy enemy shelling and a German trench raid on another battalion of the brigade by German soldiers dressed in white to match the snow. These Germans took four Canadians prisoner. However, Canadians of a different battalion captured three of the enemy. Canadians had a reputation as aggressive trench raiders, and when they were in the line the enemy knew that there would not be a de facto easy-going truce. Canadian units also had a lot of skilled snipers, Indigenous hunters being particularly valued in this role, and Ojibwe Anishinaabe Sergeant Major Francis Pegahmagabow of Parry Sound, Ontario, 1st Battalion, killed 378 Germans and captured 300 more, putting the equivalent of an entire enemy battalion out of action. During the next few days it remained cold and the soldiers were engaged in work parties. It rained on 7 January, melting almost all of the snow, and a patrol examined the enemy wire, 75 cm high, to see if there were any gaps from artillery fire to make a raid possible. On 9 January the 87th Battalion was relieved by the 85th Battalion of the 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade, and the unit marched west through Givenchy-en-Gohelle to Nissan huts at Alberta Camp in Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the northwestern end of Vimy Ridge, where they would be part of the divisional reserve. Here they bathed, trained with live grenades and rifle grenades, and furnished work parties, and on 13 January they got Christmas dinner in two sittings, “enjoyed by everyone.” On 15 January they moved farther to the rear at Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie at Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. The weather was very bad on 16 January, so they trained in the huts as much as possible, got their gas mask respirators tested by walking through a room filled with poison gas, and watched a Christmas Pantomime called “Aladdin in France.” The whole 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade marched north to Liéven, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, in the Lens sector on 19 January, and the following day the 87th Battalion relieved the 49th Battalion in the front line in Crocodile Trench, which extended north-south from 12 Rue Frédéric Chopin, Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, to 3 Rue Mozart, Lens, beginning patrols immediately to become acquainted with no man’s land. The men soon began digging a new trench, added the existing Absalom Trench to the front line, and began strong points at Cotton Brook in Argyle Trench and by the battalion headquarters. Cotton Trench went west-east along the south side of a crescent-shaped railway line, now the Allée Marc-Vivien Foe, Lens, from near 12 Rue Frédéric Chopin, Lens, curving around the north side of the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Avenue Alfred Maes, Lens, to the Médiathèque Robert Cousin, 130 Rue de Béthune, Lens. Argyle Trench went north-south from near 22 Rue Alfred Maes, Lens, to 57 Rue d’Arras, Lens. So Cotton Brook Trench was probably somewhere near Rue Georges Bernanos, Lens. On 25 January they were relieved by the 75th Battalion and moved into brigade reserve at Liéven. Two days later, on Sunday 27 January, the chaplain held church services in cellars, and the rest of the time they formed work parties. On 30 January the whole brigade marched to Niagara Camp at the Château de la Haie in Le Bois de la Haie, Carency, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, as part of the Canadian Corps reserve. Here they cleaned up and had baths, were paid, and each of the 536 other ranks fired five rounds as part of training, did poison gas drills, held Roman Catholic and Protestant church parades, played football and baseball, and listened to music performed by the battalion concert party. On 6 February 1918 the officers and sergeants did a practice operation in which the personnel on the ground and an airplane communicated with flares and the plane communicated with headquarters by radio. Three days later, on 9 February, the 87th Battalion marched to the Berthonval Farm area by the Bois de Berthonval, Farbus, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the southeast end of Vimy Ridge, where the brigade did a mock attack supported by a real creeping barrage on an objective 700 m to 800 m away using ground and aircraft flares. The 87th Battalion marched to Columbia Camp in Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on the northwest end of Vimy Ridge on 15 February, relieving the 75th Battalion, then they moved again northwest via Ablain-Saint-Nazaire and Gouy-Servins to the hamlet of Petit Servins in Servins, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, on 18 February, continuing northwest via the hamlet of Grand Servins in Servins, Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen, and the hamlet of Olhain in Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen to Houdain, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, the following day. Every battalion or brigade march had an order of march with detailed instructions for all elements of the unit, including rations and stops for meals. Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps, inspected the 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade on 22 February 1918, with Hubert Dulmage receiving a Good Conduct Badge that day; Currie may possibly have awarded it, but more likely the lieutenant-colonel or some other battalion officer did so. Training took place on other days and there was a visit by an army dentist. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander-in-chief of the four British Empire armies on the Western Front, inspected the brigade on 28 February. On 3 March 1918 the battalion almost retraced its steps, marching southeast from Houdain to Le Pendu Camp at the hamlet of Le Pendu at the junction of D58 and Chausée Brunehaut, Acq, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and the next day a draft of 98 other ranks of French Canadians from the broken up 150th Battalion, the Carabiniers Mont-Royal from Montréal, arrived to join the 87th Battalion, and it was reported that they were a good looking lot of men and apparently well trained. After 1916 almost every newly-raised battalion to arrive from Canada had its officers and men split up and used to reinforce existing units. Usually, however, French Canadians from Québec were sent as reinforcements to the French-speaking 22nd Battalion. Most of the men watched a practice infantry attack with tanks on 6 March in the Bois de Berthonval area of Farbus, but it was not very satisfactory because two of the three tanks involved were stuck in ditches and unable to move forward for a time. The men, however, enjoyed baseball games in the afternoon. In the next few days the men did training, especially marksmanship, and practiced attacks on fields marked out with tape. On 11 March they marched northwest via Villers-au-Bois and Carency to Alberta Camp at the Bois des Alleux near Rue de Villers, Mont-Saint-Éloi, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, where they replaced the French Canadian 22nd Battalion, today the Royal 22e Régiment. From here the 87th Battalion, now 719 strong all ranks, marched north and entered the front line to occupy Approach Trench, Amulet Trench, Ague Trench, and St. Louis Crater in the Lens sector on 12 March, relieving the 51st Battalion. Amulet Trench ran north-south from the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Avenue Alfred Maes, Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, along the Rue du Temple and Rue de l’Église, Lens, to about 12 Rue Désiré Lemaire, Lens. Ague Trench behind it to the west ran north-south from 1 Rue Arthur Fassiaux, Lens, to 7 Rue du Stade, Lens. The Fosse St. Louis was at the Rue Saint Louis, Lens. The Germans were on the alert, and grenades were exchanged between advance posts. A large raid was planned against the trenches and houses around Fosse St. Louis or Rue Saint Louis and Alpaca Trench and the triangle between the Lens-Arras Road or Rue Arthur Fauqueur/Rue Gabriel Péri/Boulevard Henri Martel, Mill Hill Road or Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, and the Bethune-Lens Railway or Gare de Lens, and on 14 March patrols investigated the area to be attacked. German mortar fire, artillery fire, and gas shells wounded six men. Anti-aircraft Lewis machine guns drove off German aircraft. On 18 March the battalion was relieved and moved back to Liévin, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, but minds were still concentrated on the planned raid and training was focused on the operation. There was a lot of disappointment when the 87th Battalion moved forward into the front line on 22 March to relieve the 75th Battalion and the unit was simultaneously informed that the raid was indefinitely postponed. The following day the Germans hit the battalion’s headquarters area with high explosive shells and gas shells, and 400 or 500 shells were fired over the Canadians’ heads on Liévin. The Canadian artillery responded in kind, and the duel continued the next few days with four men in the 87th killed and two wounded. Canadian snipers scored hits on enemy soldiers. On the night of 28-29 March the 87th Battalion was relieved by British troops of the 1st Line 6th Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment (now the Mercian Regiment), 137th Infantry Brigade, 46th Division, and the Canadians marched to Columbia Camp near Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France.

The German Spring Offensive of 1918 began on 21 March 1918, and the Germans, reinforced by over a million German troops from Russia, which was now out of the war after Vladimir Lenin’s communists signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March, used stormtrooper assault groups to bypass strong points and made rapid progress against British and French troops on a wide front, hoping to reach the English Channel and win the war before the Americans arrived in force. On 29 March the 87th Battalion moved southeast to the embankment of the Lens-Vimy-Arras Railway in the Arras sector to relieve the British 1st Line 4th Battalion of the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) (now the London Guards), 168th Infantry Brigade, 56th Division. They were in the Thélus Ridge Line occupying dugouts and funk holes or indentations in trench walls in Brierley Hill Trench, Tommy Alley, Tired Alley, Ouse Alley, and Ridge Redoubt, in the vicinity of Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Brierley Hill Trench was their main front line and extended north-south from near Rue du Huit Mai, Farbus, to a point in the fields about 1 km west of the Chemin du Bon Lieu and Albuera Cemetery, Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Tommy Alley ran west-east from west of 9 Rés la Couture, Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, to just north of 34 Rue d’Arleux, Oppy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, where Tommy Post was situated. Ouse Alley ran west-east parallel to Tommy Alley just south of it, from west of 4 Allee du Charpentier, Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, to near 29 Rue d’Arleux, Oppy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. These alleys were both essentially communication trenches that pointed in the direction of the German advance from the west and most of their length had been lost to the German infantry by the time the Canadians arrived, except at their junction with the Brierley Hill Trench about 1 km west of Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult. Canadian troops of the 75th Battalion were in forward positions near Albuera Cemetery on the west side of the railway tracks just west of Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, since the battalion war diary mentions the railway embankment as part of the Canadian position. Rain made their new quarters uncomfortable, especially since they had been in forward and close support positions continuously for 20 days without baths or changes of clothing. Their strength was 43 officers and 1 050 other ranks, although some of these men remained in rear areas. On 1 April 1918, the 87th Battalion was in support in Brierley Hill Trench and the men dug a cable trench for telephone lines, work that continued the following day, with Canadian patrols checking the wire and German activity. Both sides shelled each other, snipers were active, and German flares were seen, but with no attack. A German carrier pigeon was shot, but its message was in code and sent to brigade headquarters. A few German aircraft were driven off by machine guns, but several formations of Royal Flying Corps planes were seen headed over German lines. More trench digging followed, and relays of companies hitched a ride on the light railway to get baths in Roclincourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. On April 4 the 87th Battalion relieved the 75th Battalion in the front line. A few days later, on 7 April, an officer leading a patrol was mortally wounded in no man’s land after some Germans threw grenades at the patrol, with the officer dying later in the day. On 10 April three platoons conducted a trench raid on the Germans to collect intelligence in the vicinity of the Chemin du Château d’Eau, Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Some got into the position and found it unoccupied, advanced through the enemy trenches, and exchanged grenades with the enemy before withdrawing. That evening they were relieved by the 38th Battalion and marched to Wakefield Camp at Roclincourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, as divisional reserve. Orders came that the 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade would be moved to a new sector, and on 12 April the 87th Battalion marched north to Neuville-Saint-Vaast on the west side of Vimy Ridge, where they were given poor accommodations in the tunnels built before the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a location referred to as Cellar Camp. On the evening of 17 April they marched northeast across Vimy Ridge and relieved the 75th Battalion in the Méricourt sector, where they had been twice before, and occupied Lily Elsie Trench, Vesta Tilley Trench, Billie Burke Trench, New Brunswick Trench, Toast Trench, Winnipeg Trench, Montreal Trench, Twelfth Avenue Trench, and Totness Trench near the Chemin Arleux Fossé Huit, Avion, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, facing the Germans to the northwest in Méricourt and Asheville, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. The usual patrols and trench digging began, and on 21 and 22 April patrols entered the enemy trenches, finding no one, although there were active German concrete machine gun emplacements nearby. On 23 April the 87th Battalion went into brigade reserve by La Chaudiere Wood at La Chaudière, Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. They were paid their wages, and in groups got baths. On 29 April they relieved the 75th Battalion in the front line. Rain caused some trenches to flood, so sump holes had to be dug to drain them, doubtless an enjoyable task. There was the usual shelling, sometimes with poison gas shells, and machine gun fire. On 1 May 1918 a battalion patrol captured a soldier belonging to the 51. Reserve Infanterie Regiment, 12. Reserve Division, who reported that his division had relieved the 9. Division three days earlier. On the night of 7 May they were relieved by the Scottish 7th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry (now the Royal Regiment of Scotland), and the next morning they reached buses at the crossroad at Thélus, just south of Vimy, and drove west to Mingoval, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, where they were billeted, some staying in neighbouring Béthonsart. They got baths at Caucourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, the following day, when they learned that Lieutenant-Colonel James Vincent Patrick O’Donahoe, their battalion commander, had died in a military hospital in Étaples from the shrapnel wound he had received on 5 April. Training, brigade manoeuvres with Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie in attendance, football, baseball, and concerts took place, and on 12 May a memorial service for their commander, with Major-General Sir David Watson, Brigadier-General Victor Odlum, and acting battalion commander Major Ivan S. Ralston in attendance. On 25 May they moved west even farther behind the front to new billets at Valhuon, with their headquarters in neighbouring Diéval, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. There was more training, and on 1 June 1918 brigade manoeuvres at Magnicourt-en-Comte and Monchy-Breton, with more brigade manoeuvres at Marquay on 4 June. Clothing was disinfected to kill lice, and there were vaccinations. Two more brigade manoeuvres followed, along with lectures on the use of tanks in attacking strongpoints and other topics. On 16 June the first soldiers began to get sick from a particularly dangerous strain of influenza called the “Spanish flu”, now referred to as the 1918-1920 flu pandemic, which so far their unit had escaped. By the following day 83 men were sick in quarters due to influenza, and 107 sick the day after that, 114 on 19 June, and 57 on 20 June, the day Lieutenant-Colonel F.S. Meighen arrived to take command of the battalion. A total of 39 were sick on 21 June, 53 sick on 22 June, 10 on 23 June, 23 on 24 June, 30 on 25 June, after which the number of sick is no longer reported in the battalion war diary. Meanwhile, training and sports continued and there was an inspection by Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps, on 30 June. On 1 July 1918, the battalion celebrated Dominion Day (Canada Day) and there was a holiday with sports. Battalion strength was 47 officers and 923 other ranks. On 10 July the 87th Battalion boarded a train at Diéval and moved west to Anzin-Saint-Aubin via Maroeuil, then marched to Roclincourt on 11 July, where they ate a hot meal before proceeding to the trenches south of Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and relieving the 1st Line 4th Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders and 1st Line 7th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (both now amalgamated into the Royal Regiment of Scotland) of the 15th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division. Their positions were between Railway Alley and the railway line in the north and the D950 Gavrelle-Arras Road, Tony Alley, and Haystack Trench in the south, roughly following the Rue du Cardo, Saint-Laurent-Blangy, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. On 15 July the 87th Battalion was relieved by the 75th Battalion and moved a few hundred metres to the north to relieve the 46th Battalion west of Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, taking up their old positions along Brierley Hill Trench and Brown Trench between Ouse Alley Trench in the north and Bailleul Alley Trench in the south. On the night of 17 July the 87th Battalion was relieved by the 102nd Battalion and became the brigade reserve at Roclincourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Only two men had been slightly wounded during their tour in the trenches. There were various work parties during the next few days.

Meanwhile, the German Spring Offensive of 1918 had ground to a halt on 18 July 1918, and while the Allies had lost 863 000 casualties, the Germans had lost 688 000 men that they could never replace and American troops were now pouring into France and heading to the French part of the front. Allied commander-in-chief Maréchal Ferdinand Foch had kept the elite Canadian Corps out of the battle, intending to use them in a grand counterattack. On 23 July the battalion went back into the line west of Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult and patrols went out. On 28 July there was a trench raid near Ouse Alley and the railway line, and two groups entered the German trenches through damaged wire, one group killing 17 Germans and bringing back one prisoner and the other group killing 11 Germans but taking no prisoners. The Germans fought back in both cases and the Canadians lost five wounded and one missing. On 31 July they were relieved by the 4th Battalion of the Royal Scots (now the Royal Regiment of Scotland) and marched west to Brant Camp and Reinforcement Camp at Écuries, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, after losing 3 killed, 1 missing, and 24 wounded during this tour in the trenches. In hot weather on 1 August 1918 the 87th Battalion marched southwest and south through Maroeuil, Agnez-lès-Duisans, Warlus, and Berneville to Simencourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. After bathing the following day, on 3 August they marched northwest to Wanquetin, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, and boarded buses, travelling southwest overnight to Oisemont, Somme, Hauts-de-France, where they got off the buses and marched north to Vaux-Marquenneville and Neuville-au-Bois, Somme, Hauts-de-France, where they were billeted. That night, 4-5 August, they marched southeast to Vergies, Somme, Hauts-de-France, having difficulty on the rough roads in the dark. They were informed that an offensive was coming and it was important to move under cover of darkness so that they could not be spotted by enemy aircraft. The Germans knew the quality of the Canadian troops, bolstered, unlike the exhausted British and French, by an influx of 25 000 conscripts from Canada, so some Canadian units were moved north to Belgium to make the Germans believe the Canadians were moving north instead of south and that the offensive would take place there. Officers were briefed on operations, and that night they made a long march southeast to Namps-au-Val, Somme, Hauts-de-France. After resting during the day, they made another overnight march on 6-7 August east to the Bois de Boves in Boves, Somme, Hauts-de-France, southeast of Amiens, where nearly the entire Canadian Corps concentrated in the woods and prepared for the attack. On the evening of 7 August the 87th Battalion marched to the Bois de Gentelles just west of Gentelles, Somme, Hauts-de-France, arriving at midnight.

The 8 August 1918 was the Black Day of the German army, the beginning of the Battle of Amiens, 8-11 August 1918, and the Hundred Days Offensive of 8 August to 11 November 1918 that would end the war. It would be spearheaded on the British Empire front by Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie’s Canadian Corps, with Hubert Dulmage in its ranks. British, Australian, French, and American troops also took part in the offensive. The American soldiers were brave and enthusiastic in their assaults, but their generals, ignoring advice from their more experienced allies, insisted on using old-fashioned massed waves of infantry that cost their men heavy casualties and allowed the Germans to move reserve forces against the Canadians. The first Canadian units went over the top at dawn on 8 August 1918, with other units moving forward to leapfrog the leading units at specific times or as necessity dictated. Zero Hour was at 4:30 a.m., and at 5:30 a.m. the 87th Battalion went around the southern edge of the Bois de Gentelles and then marched southeast beside Route D934, crossing the Rivière Luce near 35 Rue du Pont, Domart-sur-la-Luce, Somme, Hauts-de-France, reaching the morning jumping off point of the 3rd Canadian Division. They then moved across the recently captured battlefield to an area just south of Cayeux-en-Santerre and north of Beaucourt-en-Santerre, Somme, Hauts-de-France. The first assault wave of Canadians had met with success, and groups of German prisoners were streaming past the 87th Battalion as it advanced. Pausing briefly for further orders, they soon received them. Major-General Louis Lipsett’s 3rd Canadian Division had captured Démuin and achieved its objective the Red Line, and Brigadier-General Victor Odlum’s 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade of Major-General David Watson’s 4th Canadian Division was ordered to go through it and continue the advance with the 54th (Kootenay) Battalion and 102nd (North British Columbia) Battalion in the lead, the 75th (Mississauga) Battalion in support, and the 87th (Canadian Grenadier Guards) Battalion in reserve. Leading elements of the brigade did not achieve their objective, so at 11:30 p.m. the 75th Battalion and 87th Battalion headed forward to their jumping off position in the woods and darkness. Opposite them was the German 117. Division of the V. Reserve-Korps, in General der Kavallerie Georg von der Marwitz’s 5. Armee, part of General der Artillerie Max von Gallwitz’s Herresgruppe Gallwitz. On the morning of 9 August at 10:30 a.m. they were in position, but progress was impeded by heavy German machine gun fire. Tanks went forward at 11:15 a.m., although as was often the case they proved to be of minimal usefulness. The 75th Battalion attacked from Baucourt-en-Santerre and entered Le Quesnel, Somme, Hauts-de-France, while the 87th Battalion attacked from just north of Baucourt-en-Santerre and moved southeast across the Rue de Caix on the northern edge of Le Quesnel, reaching the Dotted Blue Line. Two officers were wounded and 10 other ranks killed and 42 wounded and they captured two German officers and 13 other ranks and two searchlights, four machine guns, and one flamethrower. The battalion dead were buried in Le Quesnel Cemetery, Le Quesnel, Somme, Hauts-de-France. Relieved by the 46th Battalion, they moved back to the Bois de Gentelles in Gentelles, but on 11 August the 87th Battalion marched forward to attach itself to Brigadier-General Edward Hillam’s 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade, Major-General David Watson’s 4th Canadian Division, Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie’s Canadian Corps, near the southern edge of Maucourt and Chilly, Somme, Hauts-de-France. The planned attack was cancelled because it was believed that the Germans were massing for a counterattack and the 87th Battalion would be defending its position on the northern flank of the brigade. Heavy German shelling took place, but the expected German counterattack did not materialize. On 13 August they had an inspection and all men were reequipped and 70 reinforcements distributed among the companies, and the next few days the men bathed and rested, with officers briefed on planned operations. Finally, on 17 August they went into the front line, relieving the 22nd Battalion which had captured Méharicourt, with the Rue de Lihons, Chilly, running north-south in front of their position, with their northern flank on the railway south of Lihons and their southern flank in Chilly. On 19 August, after a barrage of artillery shells and Vickers machine gun fire in an arc to rain down on known German positions, companies of the 87th Battalion advanced east, and despite a German counterbarrage were able to take their objectives on the west side of Fresh Wood or the Bois Caillotte, northwest of Hallu, Somme, Hauts-de-France, and objectives in adjoining areas. The battalion lost 8 killed and 55 wounded in the attack. They captured two machine guns and one officer and 7 soldiers of the Infanterie-Regiment “Großherzog von Sachsen” (5. Thüringisches) Nr. 94, 83. Infanterie-Brigade, 38. Infanterie-Division, XI. Armee-Korps, in General der Infanterie Otto von Below’s 6. Armee, part of Generalfeldmarschall Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern’s Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht. On 20 August they were relieved by the 102nd Battalion and marched west into brigade reserve in woods near Blangy-Tronville, Somme, Hauts-de-France. The Allies had lost 44 000 casualties and the Germans 75 000, including 50 000 prisoners. The Canadians had lost nearly 12 000 dead and wounded, but had advanced 22 km on a front of 10 km and captured 9 000 prisoners, 200 guns, and over a thousand machine guns. The Germans had piled reserves in front of the Canadians to slow their advance, and the Canadians were outrunning their supplies and artillery support, so now the Canadian Corps would be secretly moved north to attack near Arras.

Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie’s Canadian Corps launched another breakthrough in the Second Battle of Arras, 26 August to 3 September 1918, another part of the Hundred Days Offensive. On 27 August 1918 the 87th Battalion boarded a train at the station in Longueau, Somme, Hauts-de-France, southeast of Amiens, and travelled north to Acq, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, at night, then in the morning boarded buses and drove south to Berneville, southwest of Arras. On 29 August they marched to Neuville-Vitassse, southeast of Arras, and incorporated reinforcements, bringing their strength up to 40 officers and 1 001 other ranks. On 1 September 1918, Hubert Dulmage and the 87th Battalion marched east from Neuville-Vitasse to Vis-en-Artois, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, arriving by midnight, and they prepared to go into action in a few hours to break through the German Wotan Stellung or Drocourt-Quéant Line on 2-3 September 1918. That day other Canadian troops cleared the approaches to the Drocourt-Quéant Line, despite a German counterattack in which a future resident of Prince Edward County’s south shore 18-year-old Musketier Walter Martin Nicolai of the Infanterie-Regiment “von Goeben” (2. Rheinisches) Nr. 28, 30. Infanterie-Brigade, 16. Infanterie-Division, VIII. Armee-Korps, in General der Infanterie Oskar von Huttier’s 18. Armee, part of Generalfeldmarschall Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern’s Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht, was shot through the thigh by a bullet fired by someone in the 38th (Eastern Ontario) Battalion, 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, in Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie’s Canadian Corps, southeast of Haucourt and Vis-en-Artois and southwest of Dury, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Walter Nicolai became a junior banker in Berlin after the First World War, and married an Italian noblewoman named Giulia Maria AsSunta Leonora Matteucci. He was conscripted again in 1940 and served as an Oberleutnant and Oberzahlmeister (First Lieutenant and Senior Paymaster) in the coastal artillery in Norway, the Afrika Korps, and the 11. Armee and 3. Panzerarmee of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Luitpold Himmler’s Herresgruppe Weichsel or Army Group Vistula on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, surrendering to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s 21st Army Group. Quickly released because of his lack of ties to any Nazi organization, Walter then rose to become director of the foreign department of the Deutsche Bundesbank or German Federal Bank; he bought a cottage at 3975 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, in 1966, to be close to his two children, who had emigrated to Canada in the 1950s. His son Martino Aldo Nicolai, a Panzergrenadier attached to 17. Armee in Generaloberst Ferdinand Schōrner’s Heeresgruppe Mitte or Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front in 1945 at age 15 and 16, surrendered to Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front Army Group, but was luckily able to go back to his Grade 10 classroom instead of a prisoner of war camp in the Soviet Union. Aldo worked in banks in several countries and later became a proud Canadian citizen and Vice President, International Trade and Finance, of the Royal Bank of Canada, marrying a woman named Norma May Lathe with family ties to large numbers of people in Athol and Marysburgh, including her cousin Hubert Dulmage.

The task of Major-General David Watson’s 4th Canadian Division was to break through this major defensive line with up to five belts of barbed wire, each 60 m wide. On 2 September 1918 a heavy barrage began at 5:30 a.m., using special shrapnel to cut as much wire as possible, and at 6:20 a.m. the 87th Battalion advanced east along the south side of Route D939 and then north near Route D956 to its jump off point west of Mount Dury, on the west side of Route D956 about 500 m southwest of Dury, each man with 130 rounds and other supplies and two days rations. Reaching the jump off point at 7:30 a.m., the battalion went into the attack at 8:30 a.m. and passed through troops of the 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade, the latter checked before their objective the Red Line. The soldiers came under heavy artillery fire as well as machine gun fire from the German troops in Dury village and the Rue du Calvaire or Sunken Road that ran southeast between Dury and Villers-lès-Cagnicourt as they reached the top of the slight rise in the ground called Mount Dury 500 m south of Dury between the Rue des Hallots in the east, the Rue du Calvaire or Sunken Road in the west, the Dury Crucifix Cemetery in the north, and Dury Mill British Cemetery in the south, but managed to capture the Rue du Calvaire or Sunken Road right by the now-demolished Moulin Damien or Dury Mill, 500 km south of the eastern end of Dury village. They established a new line 150 m or 200 m east of the Rue du Calvaire or Sunken Road, Dury, but could go no further beyond the Red Line without artillery and tank support, sending a message back to this effect at 1:30 p.m.. Stretcher-bearer Private John Francis Young of the 87th Battalion, who had signed up in Montréal, won the Victoria Cross for dressing wounded soldiers in the open under heavy enemy fire on Mount Dury for over an hour, and when fire slackened organizing stretcher parties to move them to a medical post. The battalion dug in at this new position and prepared to continue the attack the following day. On the morning of 3 September 1918, aircraft reported that there were no Germans in Saudemont or Écourt-Saint-Quentin east of Dury and battalion patrols moved forward immediately at 9:00 a.m., observing at 10:00 a.m. that small parties of Germans were falling back from Saudemont toward the Canal du Nord and that Canadians were entering Récourt northeast of Dury. The 87th Battalion moved forward and entered Saudemont at 11:15 a.m., and despite machine gun fire from the north entered Écourt-Saint-Quentin at about 12:20 p.m., finding 45 civilians in the cellars in the latter village. The battalion headquarters skirted Saudemont and set up in the woods on the western edge of Rumaucourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. At 12:30 the 87th Battalion reported that the Green Line, 1 km west of the Canal du Nord at Écourt-Saint-Quentin, had been captured. German artillery fire increased in the afternoon, and although the Canadian artillery retaliated, the battalion headquarters found the shells exploding in the woods at Rumaucourt unpleasant and moved to the cellar of the “château,” possibly the orphanage at 311 Rue Clemenceau, Rumaucourt. Patrols were sent forward to locate bridgeheads over the dry bed of the Canal du Nord by Oisy-le-Verger. However, German fire from the opposite bank was so heavy that they could go no further. Still, the Canadians had advanced 6 km in only about 2 hours. One officer and 35 other ranks were casualties that day, and among them was Hubert Dulmage, age 22, who was acting as a runner. Hubert was killed near Écourt-Saint-Quentin by artillery fire, probably while relaying a message between the troops in that village and the battalion headquarters in Rumaucourt, likely dying somewhere around 11 Rue de Rumaucourt, Écourt-Saint-Quentin, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. He was buried in Dury Mill British Cemetery, Dury, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. The 87th Battalion’s losses in three days of fighting were 4 officers killed and 7 wounded and 50 other ranks killed, 240 wounded, and 30 missing, the latter probably dead, a total of 331 casualties or about 32% of the unit’s manpower. The battalion captured about 50 prisoners from the Garde-Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 64, 1. Garde-Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade, 1. Garde-Reserve-Division, Garde-Reserve-Korps, in General der Kavallerie Georg von der Marwitz’s 2. Armee, part of Generalfeldmarschall Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern’s Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht, and from the Braunschweigisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 92, 40. Infanterie-Brigade, 20. Infanterie-Division, X. Armeekorps, also in General der Kavallerie Georg von der Marwitz’s 2. Armee, part of Generalfeldmarschall Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern’s Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht, and one anti-tank gun, two large mortars, two light machine guns, and one anti-tank rifle. The 87th Battalion (Canadian Grenadier Guards) went on to take part in the Battle of the Canal du Nord, 27 September to 1 October 1918, the Battle of Valenciennes on 1-2 November 1918, involving the capture of Mount Houy, and lastly the passage of the Grande Honnell, 5 to 7 November 1918, just before the armistice was signed with the Germans on 11 November 1918, ending the First World War. The Canadian Grenadier Guards of Montréal remains a primary reserve regiment in 34 Canadian Brigade Group, 2nd Canadian Division, and along with the Governor General’s Foot Guards furnishes troops for the daily changing of the guard at Parliament Hill in Ottawa as well as forming part of the guard at Rideau Hall, residence of the Governor General of Canada.

The South Shore during Prohibition

Better times for Canada came in the 1920s, and many young people in Prince Edward County who did not want to work in the fields and canneries left the increasingly mechanized farms and headed to the cities for jobs. In both Canada and the United States the period between 1919 and 1933 was marked by the prohibition of alcohol. The Americans passed a constitutional amendment banning alcohol except for medical use. In Canada, however, the situation was more complicated because prohibition fell under provincial jurisdiction. Ontario allowed production of alcohol for export, but banned it for local consumption. Alcohol was officially labelled for export to Europe, but mysteriously it ended up being exported south across the border to the U.S. or to thirsty Ontarians by various shady means. Québec briefly banned spirits, but French Canadians thought prohibition was ridiculous and quickly reversed any move in this direction. As a result, this made Montréal the alcohol production and nightclub entertainment capital of North America. While distilleries like Seagram operated around the clock, American and Canadian tourists flocked to the jazz cabarets of Rue Sainte-Catherine in order to openly consume alcoholic beverages. The porous land border between Québec and the United States meant that trucks packed with crates of bottles followed farmers’ tractor lanes across the frontier at night, headed for New York City and other destinations. Many farmers and entrepreneurs in Prince Edward County also saw economic opportunities for export to “Spain”, “Cuba”, “Bermuda”, or “Mexico”, as shipping labels indicated to satisfy complicit authorities. In fact, Prince Edward County came to be nicknamed “Little Spain” for a time, with Spain being a codeword for Rednersville, opposite Belleville on the Bay of Quinte, a waystation for the trip to Main Duck Island. Locals could load up trucks at Seagram in Montreal or Gooderham & Worts at 34 Distillery Lane, Toronto, or source alcohol from Hiram Walker or J.P. Wiser in Windsor, and take it to a quiet dock in Prince Edward County. A favourite spot was Port Milford, 96 Colliers Road, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Pay a local farmer for the use of his dock, and the farmer could bar the police from entering his property without a warrant. Then, with a top-of-the-line speedboat, faster than any police boat, the smugglers could travel to Main Duck Island, in the middle of Lake Ontario only a few kilometres from the U.S. border. There could be over a hundred men on this privately-owned island, partying while waiting for the right moment, such as a moonless night with calm water, to dash to the shore of New York State. Here American gangsters, flashing the all clear from shore, would quickly transfer the cargo to trucks for the drive to New York, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or other destinations. Circumventing the authorities in Ontario was even easier when Ontario ended the ban on alcohol that had lasted from 1916 to 1927, while prohibition was still in effect in the United States until 1933. The authorities, often men much attached to imbibing and who understood the importance of the alcohol industry in Canada, especially during the Great Depression when alcohol was legal again in Ontario, were frequently half-hearted in their pursuit of smugglers. A story says that when a big party was being organized in Belleville during prohibition, the alcohol was sourced from the export stockpile in nearby Rednersville, Ameliasburg, Prince Edward County, and Belleville’s mayor and chief of police helped to unload the party supplies at the dock. After prohibition ended in the province, the newly-established Liquor Control Board of Ontario carefully rationed out weekly quotas of alcohol to citizens with permit books. Until 1975, suspected Ontario “drunkards” could be scrutinized by LCBO investigators at their homes, workplaces, and even churches to see if they should have their liquor permits cancelled and their names placed on the interdiction list. How times change!

The Canadian Military on the South Shore during the Second World War

Mackenzie King’s government invested almost nothing in the armed forces during the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1938 the Canadian government purchased the Army Reserve east of Point Petre, now mostly the Monarch Point Conservation Reserve, as an artillery range, with the guns firing into the lake. When the Second World War broke out, the 1st Battalion of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, formed in 1920 from an amalgamation of the 16th Prince Edward Regiment and 49th Regiment Hastings Rifles, mobilized at the unit’s armouries in Belleville and Picton on 1 September 1939 and set off for England on 22 December 1939. It landed at Brest, Finistère, Bretagne/Brittany on 13 June 1940 and advanced to Laval, Mayenne, Pays de la Loire. When Paris fell and France was defeated, however, the regiment was evacuated to England. After spending three years defending Britain from a potential invasion, Colonel Bruce Albert Sutcliffe’s and Lieutenant-Colonel John N. S. Buchan, 2nd Baron Tweedsmuir’s Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment sailed from England and landed in Sicily on 10 July 1943 as part of Brigadier Howard Douglas Graham’s 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade, Major-General Guy Simonds’ 1st Canadian Infantry Division, soon to be part of Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar’s I Canadian Corps, and fought its way through Italy. It helped to threaten the rear of the German paratroopers of the 1. Fallschirmjäger-Division in the Battle of Ortona in Ortona, Chieti, Abruzzo, on 20-28 December 1943, causing a German withdrawal from that section of the Gustav-Linie, a major defence line. Then the regiment pushed toward Rome in the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino in Cassino, Frosinone, Lazio, from 11-18 May 1944, also fighting in the Battle of Rimini in Rimini, Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, from 13-21 September 1944. On 10 March 1945 the I Canadian Corps was transferred to the First Canadian Army in the Netherlands, and after crossing the Nederrijn at Arnhem, Gelderland, the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment helped to capture Apeldoorn, Gelderland, and cut off the German forces in the northern Netherlands by reaching the Ijsselmeer near Harderwijk, Gelderland.

Meanwhile, using the War Measures Act that gave the government dictatorial emergency powers in wartime, large parts of Athol and South Marysburgh were expropriated for military use. The Point Petre Training Area or Army Reserve was used by the Artillery School during the war and the Royal Canadian School of Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) after the war. The Army Reserve was longer than it was in later years, and artillery guns fired at anchored floating targets off the entire south shore from a battery just west of Ostrander Point. The battery was located on the eastern lane going south from the east-west portion of Helmer Road, Milford, Ontario, to the south shore, right at the point where the lane curves slightly to the west about 400 m north of the beach. Traces of the battery line going east-west can still be seen. Avro Anson multirole aircraft, Fairey Battle light bombers, Bristol Bolingbroke maritime patrol aircraft, and Weston Lysander army co-operation and liaison aircraft of the British Commonwealth Air training Plan’s No. 31 Bombing and Gunnery School were stationed at Picton Aerodrome, now Picton Airport, 343 County Road 22, Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario, from 1941 to the end of 1944. Small metal practice bombs containing smoke-producing chemicals were dropped by aircraft from the Picton Aerodrome on land near Gull Pond at Charwell Point, Charwell Point Road, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, and on land west of Prince Edward Point and Traverse Lane, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario. The South Bay Training Area on Prince Edward Bay off Little Bluff Conservation Area, 3625 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, was also used by the bombers. Observers at a hut on the cliff at Little Bluff Conservation Area observed the accuracy of aircraft from Picton Aerodrome bombing targets offshore in Prince Edward Bay. The author Martin Nicolai found wartime newspapers in the hut in the 1970s before it was demolished. Machine gunners on aircraft would fire at targets towed by other aircraft, but this would probably have been done off the south shore rather than over Prince Edward Bay. During the war Halfmoon Point, 4045 County Road 13, Milford, Prince Edward County, was used for firing various weapons, and post-war mortar, recoilless rifle, and anti-tank rocket training, with projectiles fired into Prince Edward Bay.

The Velvet Glove Missile, Iroquois Engine, and Avro Arrow at Point Petre

The Military Aeronautical Communications System Transmitter Site Point Petre, controlled from Canadian Forces Base Trenton, is still operating at 275 Point Petre Road, Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario, adjoining the Monarch Point Conservation Area, and it was the location of a lot of military testing activity during the 1950s. The Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment at the Base de soutien de la 2e Division du Canada Valcartier, 1 Route de la Bravoure, Courcelette, Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Le-Jacques-Cartier, Capitale-Nationale, Québec, designed the Velvet Glove radar-guided air-to-air missile between 1948 and 1951, produced by Canadair (now Bombardier Aviation) in Montréal. It could potentially be mounted on the Montréal-built Canadair CL-13 Sabre of 1950-1958, which was a Canadian variant of the North American F-86 Sabre jet, or on the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck twinjet interceptor/fighter of 1950-1958, the latter manufactured by A.V. Roe Canada Limited at its plant at 6972 Airport Road, Malton, Mississauga, Peel Region, Ontario, on the northeastern edge of what is now the Toronto Pearson International Airport. The Velvet Glove was tested between 1952 and 1954. The ground tests were launched using a quad rocket booster powered by four Demon rockets on a pad on the south side of what is now the Military Aeronautical Communications System Transmitter Site Point Petre tower east of 275 Point Petre Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario, and aimed into Lake Ontario. The air tests involved Sabres and Canucks taking off from Canadian Forces Base Trenton, 6 Northstar Dr., Trenton, Quinte West, Hastings County, Ontario, and flying south over Point Petre, where the missiles were fired over Lake Ontario. Although 100 of the Velvet Glove missiles were manufactured, the project was cancelled because it was expected that the subsonic Sabre and Canuck were to be replaced by the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow supersonic interceptor jet, which was to be equipped with the new American Douglas Sparrow II active-radar air-to-air missile built by Canadair (Bombardier Aviation) in Montréal.

The Avro Arrow project was intended to produce Royal Canadian Air Force interceptors that could shoot down Soviet Tupolev Tu-95 strategic nuclear bombers coming over the Arctic Ocean, tundra, and boreal forest toward Canadian and American military and industrial targets. They were also meant to destroy any potential Soviet high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft in Canadian airspace. The conventional air-to-air missiles would hopefully cause the Tupolev Tu-95 and its nuclear payload to explode in the air, spreading the nuclear fallout over less inhabited areas. This was not particularly good news for Indigenous communities in the north, but would be a relief for the inhabitants of Canadian and American cities. A division of A.V. Roe Canada sharing the facility in Malton produced the Orenda PS.13 Iroquois turbojet engine of the Avro Arrow, made of titanium and titanium alloys for lightness. In 1953 and 1954 the Orenda Iroquois was tested at Point Petre just north of the lighthouse, with the burning gas thrusters pushing the engine on a wheeled cart that travelled on a circular paved asphalt track, the cart tethered to a metal pole in the centre of the circle. The site can still be seen today amid the eastern red cedars west of 301 Point Petre Road, Cherry Valley, Ontario. This light aircraft engine, capable of Mach 2.5 or 3 087 km/h, was the most powerful in the world, and the Avro Arrow airframe would not overheat at this speed because of its steel, magnesium, titanium, and nickel-chromium-based superalloy materials. Three Delta Test Vehicles, vaguely similar in shape to the Avro Arrow airframe, were launched from Point Petre in March, April, and October 1954, probably to test the new shape and the equipment. Then nine miniaturized 3 m by 2 m Avro Arrow stainless steel test models, one-eighth scale, four crude and five with the outer airframe fully replicated, were launched on Nike rocket boosters at the pad by what is now the Military Aeronautical Communications System Transmitter Site Point Petre tower between 1954 and 1957 to test aerodynamics. The models were shot 7 600 m into the air at speeds up to Mach 1.7 or 2 099 km/h, where they detached from their Nike launchers and descended to the lake surface. Sensor data was transmitted to the engineers on the ground by telemetry. Two more test models were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia. Modern searches of the lake bottom have resulted in a Delta Test Vehicle being raised in 2018 and placed in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, 11 Aviation Parkway, Ottawa, Ontario. These aerodynamic tests ensured that once the delta-winged turbojet was in the air, it performed with great efficiency, requiring no modifications of consequence. The Avro Arrow was the first aircraft with a powered flight control system, with the movement of the stick transmitting electronic signals to the hydraulics instead of requiring muscle power, an innovation copied by later military jets and the American space program. The completed Avro Arrow flew successfully at close to twice the speed of sound, Mach 1.96 or 2 420 km/h, at an altitude of 15 200 m, with the jet rising to 17 700 m, and this was with the American 105 kN (kilonewton thrust) Pratt & Whitney J75 engine, not the more powerful 130 kN and 177 kN Orenda Iroquois engines due to be installed. The aircraft’s range at subsonic speed was 1 200 km, and its radius of action at supersonic speed was 926 km. Aerial refuelling by tanker aircraft was capable of doubling or tripling that range, although this was not part of plans at the time. An expert has said that no military aircraft would exceed the Arrow until the development of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat of 1969-1991 and McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle of 1972-1997, not counting the experimental Lockheed Blackbird YF-12 of 1963. With routine technical upgrades, the Arrow would have probably served Canada into the 1980s. The flyaway (not counting research) cost of each aircraft of an order of 87 Arrows would have been $3.5 million, not counting sales tax, although this figure would have dropped to $2.6 million if an additional 100 were ordered. Of course, the income of Canadian workers building the Arrow and the profits of A.V. Roe Canada would have been taxed, bringing about 25% of that outlay back to the government. The project would also have sustained a Canadian technological edge, fuelling the Canadian economy with an array of economic spinoffs created by a large, highly-skilled workforce of engineers and technicians. For example, in 1949 A.V. Roe Canada had inaugurated the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner, a turbojet (gas-thrust) commercial airliner twice as fast as propeller-powered airliners, as well as being aerodynamically stable, with a quieter interior, less vibration, and safer circular windows. Unfortunately, a cautious Trans-Canada Airlines, now Air Canada, unwilling to be the first to order this radical new design, backed out of its deal, and the Canadian government ordered work to be stopped so that the company could concentrate on its contract for the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck interceptor/fighter. There were some delays with the Arrow because the Royal Canadian Air Force kept changing the armament and other specifications, requiring redesigns by the Avro team, but a group of excellent prototypes was produced.

The day the Avro Arrow was unveiled to the Canadian public, 4 October 1957, coincided with the Soviet rocket launch of the satellite Sputnik I, indicating that the Soviets were capable of sending missiles into space and hence military intercontinental ballistic missiles into North American airspace. From this point on a debate ensued about whether the Arrow, designed to intercept Soviet bombers, not Soviet missiles, would still be necessary in a few years time. Senior officers in the United States Air Force admired and expressed interest in purchasing some squadrons of Avro Arrows, realizing that they were superior to anything they had, but American politicians running the United States Department of Defence with their buy in the USA policies were dead set against this idea. Royal Canadian Air Force generals and senior Canadian politicans became convinced by a Central Intelligence Agency report and US officials that the Soviets would have 300 intercontinental ballistic missiles by 1961 and that military aircraft were essentially obsolete. Projected numbers of Arrows to be built were scaled back from over 500 to 100, then production of the Arrow was cancelled on 20 February 1959. The government felt that it had to free up funds for an array of radar stations, short-range Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc (Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center) missile sites in Ontario and Québec, and an associated SAGE Semi-Automatic Ground Environment computer system to collect radar data and transmit it to the Bomarc firing system. The Americans promised that sufficient North American XF-108 Rapier and McDonnell F-101 Voodoo supersonic jets, short-range Bomarc missiles, and long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles would be available for continental air defence. They also made vague promises that “components” or even “major components” of NORAD or North American Air Defence Command air and ground systems could be manufactured in Canada. A year after the cancellation, in 1960, top Canadian officials were kicking themselves about their decision to end the Arrow program because the Soviets would only launch their first successful R-17 intercontinental ballistic missile in 1961, meaning that bombers were still a major threat, and the Americans had only four less-than-ideal SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missiles, had begun cancelling or decommissioning their Bomarc installations along the 45th parallel, for the missile had turned out to be obsolete and a sitting duck for Soviet attacks, and the slower Mach 1.7 or 2 099 km/h Voodoo, prone to aerodynamic problems, was not available in sufficient numbers, leaving Canada virtually defenceless against Soviet Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers and potential high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. The Americans had begun designing the Mach 3 North American XF-108 Rapier, faster than the Avro Arrow, but only got as far as a wooden mock-up before cancelling it in 1959. Shutting down the Arrow program, a source of national pride, had enraged much of the Canadian public and embarrassed Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s government, and restarting the program, even if it was possible, would also be a major political embarassment.

The cancellation of the Avro Arrow was a devastating blow to the Canadian aviation industry, in particular A.V. Roe, the third largest company in Canada, established in 1945 to produce 430 four-engined Avro Lancaster bombers in Malton. The company would work on some other small projects, but was dissolved in 1962. About 14 000 A.V. Roe Canada employees were dismissed the day the announcement was made, since the company had been ordered to focus on defence contracts and nothing else. Some 640 subcontractors were also affected, making the total of the unemployed 25 000. Many skilled employees had emigrated with their families from Britain to Canada, and were in a difficult situation. The vanished purchasing power of these thousands of employees, the ones in Malton well-paid union members, hurt a wide array of businesses in the Toronto area. The government was also obliged to provide financial support for the many unemployed, a drain on the treasury. Engineers and technicians had to seek other jobs, with 25 of the engineers working for NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs and others on the Mach 2 Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner and projects at other foreign companies. The British Royal Air Force expressed interest in acquiring five Arrow prototypes for research purposes, but when the Canadians scrapped all the replacement parts, the British changed their minds. France had earlier expressed interest in the Iroquois engine for their Mirage jets, but had backed off when they heard rumours that the Arrow project might be terminated. After a few months, the Minister of National Defene authorized the Crown Assets Disposal Corporation to scrap all 31 of the prototypes and the engines, since storing and providing security for them was deemed too expensive. Only the nose and cockpit of one Arrow and three Orenda Iroquois engines survived, with the nose and an engine and a full-scale replica of the aircraft now displayed at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, 11 Aviation Parkway, Ottawa, Ontario. An engine can also be seen at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, 9280 Airport Road, Mount Hope, Hamilton, Ontario. The blueprints were government property, and the government, confident that the project was over, ordered A.V. Roe to incinerate them. It is true that an unnamed Irish-Canadian communist in Soviet KGB pay worked at the A.V. Roe plant in Malton, but he had been found early by the RCMP and turned into a double agent who forwarded falsified information to his KGB handler at a drop point in Toronto, so this was not an important factor in the destruction of the plane, engines, and blueprints. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker has been much criticized for the cancellation, but he had followed the advice of his most informed and trusted cabinet ministers and defence officials.

The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment from Korea to Afghanistan

In 1951 during the Korean War of 1950 to 1953 the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment was ordered to contribute a company to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion for service with United Nations Forces in Korea. When or if this company deployed and what its members did if they reached Korea is unclear. It is possible that soldiers of the company provided reinforcements for the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1st Commonwealth Division, and fought the Chinese north of Soeul. Officers of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment were stationed in South Korea after the war to enhance the country’s security and make sure that the ceasefire remained in force. Some 26 700 Canadian soldiers, sailors, and air force personnel served in the Korean War, the third largest United Nations contingent, with 7 000 stationed in South Korea after the ceasefire. Casualties included 516 dead, 1 200 wounded, 32 taken prisoner, and 16 missing in action, about 1 764 losses in total. In 1951 the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment also provided a company to the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade, for service with North Atlantic Treaty forces in the vicinity of Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany, facing communist forces in East Germany.

In 1953, at the end of the Korean War, Canada spent over 7% of its gross domestic product on the military, but a steady decline ensued until by 1971 expenditures had fallen under 2%. Expenditures rose to 2.1% in 1986, then fell again, being 1% in 2014. Our muscular armed forces of the 1950s and 1960s had 100 Royal Canadian Navy vessels, including two aircraft carriers, a well-equipped division of infantry supported by artillery and armour, 40 squadrons of Royal Canadian Air Force jets, and an assortment of nuclear weapons including up to 210 21 TJ (terajoule) to 6 067 TJ bombs (compared to the 75 TJ Hiroshima and 96 TJ Nagasaki bombs), 8 TJ MB-1 Genie air-to-air missiles, 42 TJ Bomarc surface-to-air missiles, and 8 TJ Honest John artillery rockets. The 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Hannover, Niedersachsen, and Soest, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, and 1 Air Division in Metz, Moselle, Grand Est, France, and nearby bases in Germany were fully prepared to take on the communist Warsaw Pact assault forces. However, in the 1970s our armed forces became more devoted to lightly-armed United Nations peacekeeping missions, and the end of the Cold War in 1991 resulted in further cuts to the military budget. The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment did not deploy as a unit, but provided personnel for missions in the Sinai Desert to separate the Egyptian and Israeli armies, the Golan Heights contested by Syria and Israel, Cyprus to separate ethnic Greeks and Turks, Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians and Serbs were in conflict, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Muslim Serbo-Croatian speakers and Eastern Orthodox Serbo-Croatian speakers were engaged in civil war, and Haiti, where an earthquake and disorder caused the government to request international assistance.

During the War in Afghanistan individual members of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment were among the over 40 000 Canadian personnel deployed there from 2001 to 2011. Canada lost 159 dead, 635 wounded, and 1 436 injured, a total of 2 230 casualties. Other soldiers suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, with high stress levels causing a biochemical alteration of neurotransmitters and a reduction in the volume and activity of parts of the brain, and this physical damage to the brain’s proper operation may have contributed to 155 suicides, almost equalling the number of soldiers who died in action. The Canadian military now considers personnel with operational stress injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorder, and substance-related disorder casualties, but they are not generally included in official casualty lists. No one in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment died on active service in Afghanistan. The regiment, with its headquarters at the Belleville Armoury, 187 Pinnacle St., Belleville, Ontario, and additional companies in Cobourg and Peterborough, is now a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the 33 Canadian Brigade Group, the latter headquartered in Ottawa, which in turn is part of the 4th Canadian Division, headquartered in Toronto.

The South Shore of Prince Edward County in the Late 20th Century

In the second half of the 20th century the south shore became somewhat quieter as agricultural activities diminished. In 1851 87% of Canadians lived in rural areas, in 1901 63%, in 1921 51%, in 1951 38%, in 1981 24%, and in 2001 20%. Aerial photos of the 1950s show a massive vista of open fields stretching from Point Petre to Prince Edward Point, with occasional groves and some rows of trees along fence lines, but the forest laboriously cleared by the Loyalists and their children and grandchildren would stage a gradual return. Eastern red cedars began to colonize the fields in huge numbers as beef and dairy farmers sold their milk quotas and stopped pasturing cattle and growing hay on the thin, rocky soil that had always been difficult to plow. By the 1990s cattle herds had almost disappeared, and shrubs began to proliferate. Eastern red cedars are vulnerable to fire and traditionally were kept in check by brush fires and other tree species, but with fast-responding fire departments and a maze of roads acting as fire breaks, forest and brush fires are rare in this part of the province. The south shore is characterized by dry alvar woodland and savannah dominated by eastern red cedar, bur oak, shagbark hickory, and some American elm, as well as open and closed alvar shrubland, meadow complexes, seasonal alvar marsh and pools, swampy woodland, and graminoid marshes filled with grass-like plants such as sedges, rushes, and grasses. Eastern white cedar also exists in areas with enough moisture, for example along the cliffs on the north shore of South Marysburgh and many areas close to the beach on the south shore. Black willow and other native willow species are also common within metres of the lake, their living and dead representatives creating an obstacle course for people walking along the stone beach. Army Reserve Road, Hill Top Road, Helmer Road, Babylon Road, and Gravelly Bay Road were once lined with huge open fields, farmsteads, and big families engaged in bustling activity as they went about their business by wagon, sled, or on foot. But the roads were never paved, and with the exodus of young people to the cities, schoolhouses, churches, and cheese factories closed and old farmhouses and barns fell into ruin. Unusual concentrations of lilac bushes and overgrown stone foundations might be the only sign that people once lived there. Wells, some filled and some open, are scattered along the south shore, creating a potential hazard for the unwary.

The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 allowed ocean-going ships to pass the south shore of Prince Edward County, but did not add much to the local economy, except perhaps for the cement industry active near Picton since the 1950s. The county has limestone, shale, gravel, sand, and clay for making cement’s key ingredients: calcium oxide (lime), silicon dioxide, aluminum dioxide, and iron dioxide. Easy access for cargo ships also allows the cement to be cheaply transported to ports around the periphery of Lake Ontario and beyond. Tourism became significant in many parts of the county, although on the south shore with its rock beaches and green algae and blue-green algae from phosphorus washing into Lake Ontario from fertilizers and urban runoff, there was little to no development compared to around Sandbanks Provincial Park, founded in 1970. Lake Ontario did not suffer from significant algal blooms like shallower Lake Erie, but by the 1960s the lack of environmental regulations made water pollution and floating garbage a visible problem. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1970, leading to more sewage treatment plants, industrial discharge controls, and nutrient management and vegetative buffer strips on farms, started a gradual improvement of phosphates and other pollutants in Lake Ontario. Climate change with warming water temperatures and river floods due to intense rainfall or rapid snowmelt can also affect the lake water, algae, phytoplankton, and fish. The banning of DDT insecticide in the 1970s has helped some bird species, but insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and two dozen other types of pesticide have reduced insect populations, including the number of caterpillars, which in turn reduces the populations of many bird species. New, more ecologically sensitive agricultural pest management may improve the situation. Dutch elm disease reached Ontario from Eurasia in 1967, and the fungus, carried by elm bark beetles, killed a large proportion of the American elms in the province, including Prince Edward County, although many specimens remain. The Asian emerald ash borer arrived in Ontario in 2002 and is having a similar devastating impact on ash species in the province. Invasive land species, some introduced on purpose like common buckthorn and glossy buckthorn from Afro-Eurasia for cattle hedges and windbreaks and others not on purpose like dog-strangling vine from Ukraine and Russia, are a serious problem, and the proliferation of buckthorn and dog-strangling vine, with nothing to check their population, is especially visible on the entire south shore. Birds readily eat the blue buckthorn berries and spread the seeds, and the dog-strangling vine has pods with numerous fluffy seeds that drift in the wind, rhizomes that spread underground, and a strong resistance to drought; its membership in the milkweed family also confuses monarch butterflies, which will lay eggs on its leaves even though any caterpillars that appear will starve. Garlic mustard was introduced by European gardeners, but now displaces native plants, for stands can produce 60 000 seeds per square metre and the seeds can remain dormant in the soil for 30 years before sprouting. In local marshes, the 4 m to 6 m tall, dense beds of Phragmites australis subspecies australis or the common reed is displacing the native Phragmites australis subspecies americanus, cattails, wild rice, and orchids, as well as hindering the movement of animals and boats. Invasive marine species such as sea lampreys, round goby, zebra mussels, and most recently four Asian carp species, have caused severe problems for native species, although luckily native fish will prey on the round goby. Returning the landscape to pre-contact “purity” is not a realistic option, but we must try our best to maintain the vitality of native animals and plants.

Stagnant and falling rural populations, the growth of cities, and the logic of providing more centralized and theoretically cheaper government operations provided much of the impetus for the provincial government’s push to amalgamate municipalities across Ontario. On 1 January 1998 the seven self-governing townships of Prince Edward County were transformed into wards of the Corporation of the County of Prince Edward, and Prince Edward County was now a single-tier municipality rather than a county, although everyone still continued to call it “The County”. The South Marysburgh Town Hall, a wooden structure built in 1862 at 3076 County Road 10, Milford, Ontario, is no longer a place for a reeve and councillors, but is still a location for community meetings and events. Athol Town Hall, built in red brick in 1873, is at 1685 County Road 10, Cherry Valley, Ontario, and serves a similar purpose for the community.

Tourism on the South Shore of Prince Edward County

The famous sand dunes and sand beaches by East Lake and West Lake in Athol and Hallowell wards launched tourism in the county in about 1870 when Lewis Mastin built Lakeshore House, expanded by John W. Hyatt and Daniel MacDonald into Lakeshore Lodge in 1893 with a hotel and nine cottages at 171 Lake Shore Lodge Road, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Other lodges and private homes around West Point also attracted visitors and contributed to the local economy. Tourism in the county has only grown since then, with over a million visits a year. There are large campgrounds at Sandbanks Provincial Park and and numerous recreational vehicle parks such as Smugglers Cove RV Resort at 3187 County Roard 13, Milford, Ontario, and Johnson’s RV Park at 3235 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, both adjacent to each other at the point where South Bay opens up into Prince Edward Bay. Artists found the county early on, and boaters, cyclists, and wine tourists are everywhere, including the south shore. Small sailing boats are commonly seen, and traditionally-rigged tall ships such as schooners, brigantines, brigs, and barques occasionally pass by the county’s south shore. Some of these tall ships are the Fair Jeanne, based in Ottawa, Ontario, the Empire Sandy, based in Toronto, Ontario, the Lettie G. Howard, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, and the Picton Castle, based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Professionals and retirees are buying or building so many homes and cottages that it has driven up real estate prices and made it difficult for young people in the county to buy or even rent a home. However, retirees and many cottagers spend their money in the county year round, supporting local businesses and keeping people employed even in wintertime. So many people from the Greater Toronto Area and Ottawa visit the county that new resorts, conference centres, and wedding venues have appeared. In recent decades large numbers of Québécois and Québécoises have discovered the county, and many find accommodations and visit Sandbanks Provincial Park, North Beach Provincial Park, and local vineyards and restaurants instead of going to Maine, Florida, the Caribbean, or Mexico. French is frequently heard around East Lake, Milford, Little Bluff Conservation Area, and Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area. Duck, turkey, and coyote hunters and people with all-terrain vehicles also enjoy visiting the south shore, and the latter use tractor roads and create their own trails.

Wineries of the South Shore in the 21st Century

German immigrant Eddie Neuser (1935-2012) and his wife Rita Kaimins began planting grapes in 1993 in the Waupoos clay loam and opened the Waupoos Estates Winery in 2001, the first winery in the county. The well-drained, rocky limestone soil in the county, resembling that of France’s Bourgogne, Chablis, and Alsace wine regions, proved perfect for many varieties of grapes, and wineries began to open all over, but particularly in the west and south of the county where prevailing winds from Lake Ontario carried cool breezes in summer and warm, moist air in autumn, moderating temperature extremes. But this is still Ontario, with very cold, snowy winters, so as the cold approaches, vintners in Prince Edward County need to prune the vines, and in the case of most varieties. remove the vines from their trellises and bury them at least 21 cm deep under a hillock of soil to keep them safe over the winter. The vines must also be dug up at the right time to avoid problems. Near the south shore Long Dog Vineyard & Winery opened in 1999 at 104 Brewer’s Road, Milford, Ontario, and Lighthall Vineyards followed suit in 2008, producing wine and sheep’s milk cheese at 308 Lighthall Road, Milford, Ontario. The Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Chardonnay grapes for Huff Estates South Bay wines are harvested at 1372 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, part of a crescent of South Bay clay and clay loam that is stone-free, as well as rockier Farmington loam. Every vineyard has its own terroir, or even several terroirs considering the 15 types of soil in the county, and dozens of factors play a part in how the wine will taste from a particular row of vines in a particular year.

Breweries have appeared in the county using locally-grown grain and hops. Distilleries are turning local grain, fruit, and blue juniper female seed cones or “berries” into gin, whisky, cassis, vodka, and absinthe. And cider producers are using local apples mixed with other fruit to generate sales. The County Cider Company, 657 Bongards Crossroad, Waupoos, Ontario, and Clafeld Cider House and Market, 3013 County Road 8, Waupoos, Ontario, both sell cider in North Marysburgh. Fisher and farmer John Rorabeck used his own traditional machinery to produce apple juice and cider in South Marysburgh at 3820 County Road 13, Milford, Ontario, but government inspectors told him he would have to purchase expensive, state-of-the-art equipment to meet their exacting standards, and not having the capital, he decided to shut down. All these beverages attract tourists to Prince Edward County, maintaining its economic vitality in the twenty-first century.

Nature and the South Shore Joint Initiative

Today the south shore is becoming more similar to what it was like before the arrival of Europeans. Due to the stone-filled, shallow soil, lack of natural harbours, rocky beaches, and strong currents, and government purchases of tracts for military use, the south shore is barely inhabited and remains undeveloped—in contrast to virtually the entire circumference of Lake Ontario. This has allowed native wildlife to flourish, including 39 rare and at-risk species such as Blanding’s turtle, the latter living in the shallow wetlands often found behind the 2 m tall beach ridge of flat limestone fragments, cobble, and sand, and the open beach of limestone bedrock slabs and pebbles.

Skunks and racoons, omnivores who do just fine near humans, are omnipresent and have never been endangered. Wolves have not been seen in the county since 1922, with most of their number hunted out much earlier, and deforestation allowed coyotes, native to western North America, to enter the county in about 1940. Coyotes can breed with wolves and dogs, making them more dangerous because they are more likely to either travel in packs or lose their fear of humans. Almost every night coyotes can be heard howling along the south shore. Beavers were probably hunted or trapped out in the county during the 18th century, but in the 21st century they returned to the county and now have their lodges in ponds by the south shore. Fishers, otters, and mink have also reappeared. North American porcupines have not yet returned to the woods of the county, probably because they cannot swim across the Bay of Quinte and the woodland is somewhat fragmented, but there is no reason why some could not live here. Virginia opossums, omniverous marsupials native to the United States and Mesoamerica, have started to appear in the county as a result of milder winters in the province.

Common fish species along the Bay of Quinte are walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass, yellow perch, northern pike, and gar. In West Lake you will find largemouth and smallmouth bass and northern pike; in East Lake there are perch, northern pike, and largemouth and smallmouth bass; and in Black Creek you can catch perch, northern pike, and bass. Along the open lake, including the south shore, you are more likely to find non-native chinook and soho salmon, native Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, lake trout, brown trout, and occasional muskellunge, as well as alewives, gizzard shad, rainbow smelt, and common carp.

Frogs include the easily recognizable northern leopard frog, as well as the American bullfrog, green frog, grey tree frog, western chorus frog, wood frog, northern spring peeper, and pickerel frog. The eastern American toad, like other toads, is part of the frog order Anura. Other interesting amphibians are the unisexual mole salamander, blue-spotted salamander, eastern red-backed salamander, common mudpuppy, and eastern newt.

Moving on to reptiles, native snakes of Prince Edward County include the northern water snake found in considerable numbers along the shoreline, the eastern garter snake, common ribbon snake, and the less common eastern milk snake, Dekay’s brown snake, smooth green snake, northern ring-neck snake, and northern red-belly snake. Turtles include the painted turtle, common snapping turtle, eastern musk turtle, spotted turtle, Blanding’s turtle, pond slider, and northern map turtle.

Native mussel species such as mapleleaf, round pigtoe, kidneyshell, eastern pondmussel, threeridge, purple wartyback, and pink heelsplitter have declined due to the arrival of invasive zebra mussels and quagga mussels that filter the same plankton, microorganisms, and decaying organic matter as the native mussels. Native species of crayfish also have competition from invasive crustacean species, but do not seem to be in danger.

The south shore is well known as a major migratory route for 750 000 birds per year as well as bats and massive numbers of monarch butterflies crossing Lake Ontario. Some species follow the islands of the Duck and Galloo Ridge, but most travel 50 km or even 90 km across the entire lake, and they feed on the south shore for energy to make the crossing or renew their travels. The Prince Edward Point Natural Wildlife Area is the arrival and departure point for 300 of the 351 bird species sighted in the county, and the entire south shore has been designated the Prince Edward County South Shore Important Bird Area. About 10 000 greater scaup overwinter on the south shore. The most commonly sighted bird species in the county are double-crested cormorants, blue jays, red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, common grackles, Canada geese, mallards, common mergansers, ring-billed gulls, mute swans, cedar waxwings, American herring gulls, and greater scaup. However, among the many species there are also golden eagles, bald eagles, sharp-shinned hawks, red-tailed hawks, broad-winged hawks, Cooper’s hawks, Swainson’s hawks, ferruginous hawks, rough-legged hawks, northern goshawks, northern harriers, ospreys, swallow-tailed kites, peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons, merlins, American kestrels, turkey vultures, black vultures, American barn owls, eastern screech-owls, great horned owls, snowy owls, northern hawk owls, barred owls, great grey owls, long-eared owls, short-eared owls, boreal owls, northern saw-whet owls, American trumpeter swans, tundra swans, wild turkeys, common loons, red-throated loons, Pacific loons, yellow-billed loons, and sandhill cranes.

Some 77 species of butterfly spend at least some of their time in Prince Edward County, the most famous of which is the monarch butterfly. The Danaus plexippus plexippus subspecies of monarchs depart their overwintering roosts on a 1.8 ha patch of oyamel fir trees in the mountains of central Mexico in March, and two or three insect generations later, between April and June, they arrive in Prince Edward County and other northern destinations. The fourth generation is born here, and in September and October this much longer-lived generation flies all the way to Mexico, arriving in November. In the county the monarchs often accumulate in large numbers in certain trees dubbed “butterfly trees” and lay their eggs on milkweed. The hatched caterpillars feast on the milkweed and then turn into pupae that become butterflies.

There were plans to take advantage of the strong winds on the south shore with over 400 onshore and offshore turbines, and in 2010 the Ostrander Point Wind Energy Park, White Pines Wind Farm, Royal Road Wind Farm, Loyalist Prince Edward County Project Phase 1 and 2, Gilead Offshore, and Timber Island Offshore were all in the works, with wind towers to cover virtually the entire south shore except for some private properties on Long Point. However, the danger to birds on this major migratory path and the construction of access roads threatening the endangered Blanding’s turtle population led to strong local opposition and the cancellation of the projects in July 2018 just after the first four White Pines Wind Farm turbines, with a hub height of 100 m, were installed south of Milford and ready to go, with five more partially built. The Ontario government was obliged to pay the company about $100 million in compensation for cancelling the 20-year contract, including the cost of constructing the turbines and then dismantling them in 2019-2020. Solar energy farms have encountered fewer concerns, and they started to be installed on marginal farmland in the northern part of the county in 2012.

The South Shore Joint Initiative (SSJI), a volunteer-run Canadian non-profit charitable organization, was founded in 2018, dedicated to permanently preserving the biodiversity of the south shore of Prince Edward County. It is a partnership of nine different environmental groups, including the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County, Birds Canada, Hastings Prince Edward County Land Trust, Kingston Field Naturalists, Nature Canada, Ontario Nature, Prince Edward County Field Naturalists, Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory, and Quinte Field Naturalists. It also works in cooperation with the municipal, provincial, and federal governments, in particular Sandbanks Provincial Park and its Ontario Parks personnel and Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area and its Canadian Wildlife Service personnel. The federal Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area, run by Environment and Climate Change Canada, is a key part of Prince Edward County’s South Shore Important Bird and Biodiversity Area. In 2023 the South Shore Joint Initiative succeeded in persuading the Province of Ontario to create the 16.07 km2 or 1 607 ha or 3 971 acre Monarch Point Conservation Reserve, with its northern boundary on Army Reserve Road, southern boundary on Lake Ontario, western boundary on the shoreline west of Point Petre Road, and eastern boundary south of Dainard Road and 8 Hill Top Road. Another section of the reserve is bounded by Helmer Road and Babylon Road in the north, Lake Ontario in the south, 516 Helmer Road, Milford, Ontario, in the west, and Ostrander Point Road in the east. This section is bounded by the Nature Conservancy of Canada Ostrander Point Nature Reserve on the west and east, with the Maple Cross Coastline Reserve section on the west and Hudgin-Rose Nature Reserve section on the east. The Hastings-Prince Edward Land Trust Miller Family Nature Reserve is a few hundred metres east of 436 Hilltop Road, Milford, Ontario, and Ducks Unlimited Canada borders the eastern end of Gravelly Bay Road; these organizations both have friendly relations with SSJI. SSJI is also working with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada to create a dark-sky preserve on Prince Edward County’s south shore, since this is the only relatively dark sky area left on the periphery of Lake Ontario, with the lights of Picton and other nearby communities getting brighter every year and threatening a further downgrade of the level of darkness. Not only do humans profit from being able to see our magnificent Milky Way galaxy and the nearby planets of our solar system, but a whole range of wildlife, especially birds, bats, frogs, toads, and insects, are confused, often fatally, by artificial light. Darkness is essential for nocturnal prey species to forage for food in relative safety. Dimming, focusing, shielding, or lowering the height of lamps can prevent wasteful upper light scattering as well as save energy. Beyond environmental issues, the SSJI has helped to preserve local heritage sites, most notably the Moses Hudgin Log House in the Nature Conservancy of Canada Ostrander Point Nature Reserve’s Hudgin-Rose Nature Reserve section at 191 Ostrander Point Road, Prince Edward, Ontario. The south shore of Prince Edward County is a geologically and biologically unique part of the world, and it would be wonderful if its human inhabitants could keep it that way.

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