Page created on : March 1, 2003
Last updated : March 23, 2004

Ontario's French River flows in an east-to-west direction, south of Sudbury and west of North Bay, linking Lake Nipissing with Georgian Bay, the northeast arm of Lake Huron.

Since this river brought the French to the area, the Ojiwas called it Wemitigoj-Sibi a name similar to that used by Champlain in 1616, La Rivière des Français, the River of the French.

Hurons and Algonquians served as middlemen, preventing French access to the more westerly tribes across the Great Lakes. In 1649 the Iroquois destroyed the Huron nation and routed the Algonquians. This forced the French River playing an important link in the expansion of the French fur trade.

Whatever the destination, the French River became the "highway" to the Great Lakes part of the "Trans-Canada Highway No.1". It was the path for the North West Company, a group of Montreal-based Scottish and English merchants. The company sent large canoes (canot de maître) from Lachine to Grand Portage at the west end of Lake Superior. With a crew of 8-10 men and capable of carrying 3 tonnes, they departed in May and returned in September, usually travelling in brigades of 10 to 20.

The Montreal men (called mangeurs de lard or "porkeaters") met the "winterers" at Grand Portage to exchange cargoes. Normally the spring dOWnstream voyage was a day's journey, following the River's south channel with two portages. Since the voyageurs wanted a route that protected them from the open waters of Lake Huron, they utilized the westernmost of the four mouths of the French maked on maps as Old Voyageur Channel.