Penetang has long been a destination for all sorts of visitors. Way back in the day of the nomadic aboriginal peoples they would portage from the Nottawasaga to the Head of Penetang Bay. There at the head of the bay they would set up a seasonal fishing village. This practice of fishing at the head of the bay continues to this day in the winter months as ice shacks can be seen there every winter.
I would love to tell you I travelled this road, but despite much looking nothing obvious seems to remain. So we need to imagine travelling it with Sir Richard Bonneycastle as he recounts in his work, the Canadas in 1841.
We know that the British surveyed a road and ran a road called the Communication road to Penetanguishene, but despite this road being run, it was not the only road used to get to and from Penetanguishene. The portage route was still used for many years...
Sir Richard Bonneycastle writes in his work the Canadas in 1841:
Nottawassaga Bay is approached from Penetangueshene by a portage, or carryingplace ; and, as it may be interesting to the reader at home to know the mode in which travelling in the bush is performed, I shall give an abstract of my route,...The portages are generally through the unbroken forest, and of course are not perfectly straight, as, to avoid swamps, fallen timber, and other obstacles, the path winds considerably from the due compass direction. To a stranger this path is not visible, as it is only to be distinguished from the rest of the forest by small blazes, or belizes, as they are styled, made on the trees, by one chop downwards, at about four feet from the ground, on the back of the tree, which is most frequently a sapling ; and as the mark soon loses its fresh colour, and becomes dull, even the Indian eye requires sometimes to be exercised to find it, or the traces of feet on the path itself.
This being July one must wonder if indeed the trail was this hard to see at other times of the year. I also wonder if the path wandered so as to visit native villages for the past. Archeologically there is some sites that would seem to sit close to the path.
Bonneycastle continues:
...A party from the garrison, consisting of the commandant, Mr. Fielde, of the commissariat, Dr. Nevinson, the staff-surgeon, and myself, set out on the22nd of July to cross this portage, which is ten miles inlength from the village, and seven at the nearest place, the King's Mills, to which a canoe can be brought. Equipped in shooting-jackets with large pockets, stout shoes and coarse trowsers, (the best dress for a Canadian traveller), we commenced our march ; and as all the party, excepting myself, had frequently traversed it before, we did not wait for our guide, or for the voyageurs who followed.
Interesting phrase here, the portage was 10 miles from the village, and seven from the nearest place. This recognizes the half-breed (metis ) community as the beginning of the trail. Also what confusing is that there is a King's mill at Nottawasaga Bay. Was the lumber brought in along this trail to the establishments? Although the Penetanguishene road had been built to LAke Simcoe, it was built in a straight line, some areas, like the section covered by modern day Orr Lake became seasonably quite swampy. So many people continued to use the portage to Wasaga beach and across the Nine Mile portage.
Back to the narrative:
Two of these bore the canoe, which they place on their shoulders, bottom upwards, with their heads under its cover; and then commencing in a sort of half run, with the knees much bent, they continue for the hour together, winding their way in places where, from the length of the canoe, it is frequently difficult to pass without striking against the trees. But practice makes them so dexterous, that accidents seldom occur. The pace they go at resembles that used by sedan-chairmen, but is quicker. Two others followed the canoemen with a light tent, two blankets, a camp kettle, axe, and a basket containing provisions for the party for four days.
The early settlers of Penetanguishene had been voyageurs, here we see that the skills and stamina, was not lost. Going from Penetang bay to Nottawasaga bay in two hours is quite the pace.
The opening of the portage being occupied by an Indian encampment, and there being no good water near it, we resolved to proceed south-easterly along the beach, for about a mile, where we found a clear little runnel of ice-cold water tumbling out of the wood ; and here we waited until the voyageurs came up, which they did in less than a quarter of an hour afterwards, and pitched our tent, when the doctor, with a Mr. Jeffry, an inhabitant of the village, who had provided the voyageurs, returned, but, as we afterwards heard, did not reach Penetangueshene until very late at night. In fact, walking in the dusk of a July evening, and with a new moon only, is not very easy in the forest, where the tangled roots and the little stumps of brushwood are obstacles that check the progress at every step.
So the question I would like to pose would be was this a semi-permanent encampment, or just a one time thing? One thing we need to realize is that they were not in anyway disturbed by the prospect of coming upon an encampment, this was not the wild west. Could the ICE cold tumble of water be Balm Beach and the small creek that still runs today? Could Mr. Jeffry be Stephen Jeffrey who had lot 115 on the Penetanguishene Road, and was an Inn Keeper?
A side note here is a personal one, the indian encampment, did it include my ancestor Hypolite Brisette? He would have been in the area around that time and AF Hunter mentions his name associated with the King's mill. He was a miller in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company in far off Fort Collyer...alas like many things associated with Brisette, we will never know...He did however travel amongst the cree in the area of what would become Edmonton. I am sure he would walk among them as brothers in this time as well.
HE continues:
Next morning, we proceeded along the desolate uninhabited shore for many miles, the woods being marshy and almost impervious, and at night we set up our tent at the mouth of the Nottawassaga River, Lake Huron.
This completes the trip to the Nottawasaga river. The "trail" running along the beach. In this case probably by canoe, but would others walk the beach? Goessman the surveyor did, and I believe many others did as well. Wind conditions often whip up waves that would make small vessel travel difficult. So the oft contested beach was once a pathway, makes ya wonder...
Here he recounts a previous trip:
I encamped with the commandant of the British post of Penetangueshene, Dr. Ingall, at the mouth of the Nottawassaga River, on the 23rd of June, 1835, in order to examine the estuary, and the site of a former naval establishment, with a view to observe if an artificial harbour could be formed. A more solemn or a more desolate abiding place can scarcely be imagined, as it cannot always be approached from the bay, on account of the terrible violence with which the sea sets in on this long line of shallow and exposed shore. An unhappy wreck had happened just before we were there, and a pole with a board placed on the sands, showed us as we passed, the place where it had occurred.
This wreck was no doubt the Nancy, the famous ship burnt during the war of 1812. It was still visible above water for a number of years and legend has it the figure head was in a shed in a house by Midland Ontario. Alas it was lost in a fire...
This next part doesn't have to do with the portage road as much as it does the people in the area, but I would be remiss not to include it as he makes a return to the encampment found at Kings Mill and delves farther and wider into some of the customs of the land.
A march of about ten miles from Penetangueshene, the most distant British military post (at present) in Upper Canada, led us by the portage, or Indian carrying-place, across the ridge which divides the Penetangueshene harbour from bay, to an Indian encampment on the edge of the forest, where we found wigwams, canoes, and every article of Indian domestic economy, left to the protection of two old dogs, one having very recently added to the stock several others.
The Indians themselves scrupulously avoid, except when pressed by extreme necessity, to touch any property, either of the white man or their own brethren, thus exposed in the woods, and place the utmost faith in the sacred nature of the trust they thus repose in others. The half-breed and the Canadian voyageur religiously abide by the terms of this tacit compact ; and if their necessities oblige them to use any article they thus find, it is scrupulously returned, and something left for the temporary use of it.
The trust and understanding of the people of Penetang, half-breed(metis) and Voyageur alike is on record here. At times different perspectives are written about and depictions are that these two groups could not be trusted. Here we see they were to be trusted, and trusted one another. This I could expound on exponentially but alas for another time.
The road began at the Head of Penetang Bay. Goessman who was the first surveyor of Tiny and Tay places the road pretty close to Copeland's Creek. Located between the 13th and 14th concession does the current 13th concession with it curved road passing by Copeland Hill cemetery keep partially the original route? Which makes the cemetery not in the middle of nowhere anymore, but actually draws it into the cemetery along the portage road. It also explains the placement of the Metis settlement along Penetanguishene Bay. They were placed there according to one old reference to protect the Establishments from being sieged.
I believe we can assume that the 13th concession is built on top of the old trail. Concession roads, particularly those done by Goessman run straight, but the 13th runs on a slight arching that converges towards the 14th. This runs very close to what Goessman has drawn on his map.
From there it runs kind of diagonally across the 13th, to the creek by Cawaja Beach, or possibly Balm Beach. This now makes the cemetery, known then as Gidley farm, now known as the Copeland hill cemetery into focus. Many early settlers were buried on this property as it ran along the portage route.
As for the Cawaja Bay side, there exist a small creek that seems to be the power for the sawmills. Although the creek is currently very small. A nearby creek may have powered one of the mills as well. Archeology also follows the road, as a site called the LeCaron falls close to the old route and near Copelands creek there is both a mill in disrepair and an archeological site.
Once this route reached Nottawasaga Bay, the travellers would follow the beach to Wasaga Beach then up the river to Willow Depot area and the Nine Mile Portage. Trravelers in the 18 hundreds would travel by Horse and wagon for part of this part of the Nine Mile Portage.
AF Hunter in his work History of Simcoe County says of the King's Mill
King's Mill:A trail or portage led across from the head of Penetanguishene Bay to the Nottawasaga Bay from the earliest times. At the westerly end of this Indian path on Nottawasaga Bay, at what has been known as "Tiny Beach," a sawmill was erected in the first years of this county's settlement, about 1832, and was known as the "King's Mills." When Sir Richard Bonnycastle visited the locality soon afterward, he passed this way, and speaks of the place in his "Travels in Canada."
At a later time (about 1858), the mill, or its successor, passed into the hands of a company of shareholders, consisting of John Mc Watt, — Sutherland, John Dewe, and H. P. Savigny, the surveyor, the firm being known as John McWatt & Co. Subsequently, as it is said, Mr. Dewe acquired all the shares of these partners and conducted the sawmill for a short time with Riley Randolph as manager, but a depression in the lumber market resulted in the failure of the undertaking. Mr. Dewe subsequently became Chief Post Office Inspector for the Dominion, and held the office for several years. Members of the Randolph family afterward were mill owners in the Township of Nottawasaga at the Batteau River and Stayner.
The sawmill in Tiny was about half a mile from Nottawasaga Bay. An early occupant of the north half of lot 18, concession 12, near the mill, was Hypolite Brissette, whose son, John Brissette, became well known as a voyageur.
John Vent & Co., of a neighbouring lot, were also mill owners at a later time.
There doesn't seem to be much remaining of the trail or the mill. They all seem to be lost to the pipesmoke.
Art Duval
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