1.
Algonquin Provincial Park
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Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Southern Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canada, additions since its creation have increased the park to its current size of about 7,653 square kilometres. For comparison purposes, this is one and a half times the size of Prince Edward Island or about a quarter of the size of Belgium. The park is contiguous with several smaller, administratively separate provincial parks that protect important rivers in the area, resulting in a larger total protected area. Its size, combined with its proximity to the urban centres of Toronto and Ottawa, makes Algonquin one of the most popular provincial parks in the province. Highway 60 runs through the south of the park, while the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north, over 2,400 lakes and 1,200 kilometres of streams and rivers are located within the park. Some notable examples include Canoe Lake and the Petawawa, Nipissing, Amable du Fond, Madawaska and these were formed by the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age. The park is considered part of the border between Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario, the park is in an area of transition between northern coniferous forest and southern deciduous forest. This unique mixture of forest types, and the variety of environments in the park, allows the park to support an uncommon diversity of plant. It is also an important site for wildlife research, Algonquin Park is the only designated park within the province of Ontario to allow industrial logging to take place within its borders. In the 19th century, the industry harvested the large white pine and red pine trees to produce lumber for domestic and American markets. The loggers were followed by numbers of homesteaders and farmers. Even at that time, however, the beauty was recognized by nature preservationists. To manage these conflicting interests, the Ontario Government appointed a commission to inquire into and report on the matter. The act to establish Algonquin Park was drawn up in 1892 by this five member Royal Commission, made up of Alexander Kirkwood, James Dickson, Archibald Blue, Robert Phipps, and Aubrey White. The commissioners remarked in their report, the experience of older countries had shown that the wholesale. Only licenses to cut pine would be issued, the commissioners had recommended that when the hardwood was mature, it too should be cut. Researchers believe that smoke from a forest fire in Algonquin Park was responsible for New Englands Dark Day of May 19,1780 and this is based on investigations into scar marks which are left in the growth rings of trees that survive forest fires
2.
New France
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The territory was divided into five colonies, each with its own administration, Canada, Hudsons Bay, Acadia, Newfoundland, and Louisiana. Acadia had a history, with the Great Upheaval, remembered on July 28 each year since 2003. The descendants are dispersed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, in Maine and Louisiana in the United States, with populations in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia. In the sixteenth century, the lands were used primarily to draw from the wealth of natural resources, in the seventeenth century, successful settlements began in Acadia, and in Quebec by the efforts of Champlain. By 1765, the population of the new Province of Quebec reached approximately 70,000 settlers. In 1763 France had ceded the rest of New France, except the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, to Great Britain and Spain at the Treaty of Paris, in 1800, Spain returned its portion of Louisiana to France under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. However, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in turn sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New France eventually became part of the United States and Canada, with the only vestige remaining under French rule being the tiny islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon. In the United States, the legacy of New France includes numerous placenames as well as pockets of French-speaking communities. In Canada, institutional bilingualism and strong Francophone identities are arguably the most enduring legacy of New France, the Conquest is viewed differently among Francophone Canadians, and between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians. Around 1523, the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano convinced King Francis I, late that year, Verrazzano set sail in Dieppe, crossing the Atlantic on a small caravel with 50 men. After exploring the coast of the present-day Carolinas early the year, he headed north along the coast. The first European to discover the site of present-day New York, he named it Nouvelle-Angoulême in honour of the king, verrazzanos voyage convinced the king to seek to establish a colony in the newly discovered land. Verrazzano gave the names Francesca and Nova Gallia to that land between New Spain and English Newfoundland, in 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I. It was the first province of New France, however, initial French attempts at settling the region met with failure. French fishing fleets continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, French merchants soon realized the St. Lawrence region was full of valuable fur-bearing animals, especially the beaver, which were becoming rare in Europe. Eventually, the French crown decided to colonize the territory to secure, another early French attempt at settlement in North America took place in 1564 at Fort Caroline, now Jacksonville, Florida. Intended as a haven for Huguenots, Caroline was founded under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière and it was sacked by the Spanish led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who then established the settlement of St. Augustine on 20 September 1565. Acadia and Canada were inhabited by indigenous nomadic Algonquian peoples and sedentary Iroquoian peoples and these lands were full of unexploited and valuable natural riches, which attracted all of Europe
3.
Louisiana (New France)
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Louisiana or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control 1682 to 1762 and 1802 to 1803, the area was named in honor of King Louis XIV, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Louisiana was divided into two regions, known as Upper Louisiana, which began north of the Arkansas River, and Lower Louisiana. The U. S. state of Louisiana is named for the historical region, although French exploration of the area began during the reign of Louis XIV, French Louisiana was not greatly developed, due to a lack of human and financial resources. France regained sovereignty of the territory in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800. But strained by obligations in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to sell the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States ceded part of the Louisiana Purchase to the United Kingdom in the Treaty of 1818. This section lies above the 49th parallel north in a portion of present-day Alberta, in the 18th century, Louisiana included most of the Mississippi River Valley, from what is now the Midwestern United States south to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Both areas were dominated numerically by Native American tribal populations, at times, fewer than two hundred soldiers were assigned to all of the colony, on both sides of the Mississippi. In the mid-1720s, Louisiana Indians numbered well over 35,000, to the east was territory disputed with the British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, the French claim extended to the Appalachian Mountains. The Rocky Mountains marked the extent of the French claim. The general flatness of the land aided movement through the territory, the topography becomes more mountainous towards the west, with the notable exception of the Ozark Mountains, which are located in the mid-south. A colonial government soon emerged, with its capital originally at Mobile, later at Biloxi, the government was led by a Governor-general, and Louisiana became an increasingly important colony in the early 18th century. French exploration of the area began with the 1673 expedition of Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette, as noted above, Upper Louisiana was primarily settled by colonists from French Canada. There was further substantial intermarriage and integration with the local Illinois peoples, French settlers were attracted by the availability of arable farmland as well as by the forests, abundant with animals suitable for hunting and trapping. Genevieve across the river in todays Missouri, the region was initially governed as part of Canada, but was declared to be part of Louisiana in 1712, with the grant of the Louisiana country to Antoine Crozat. Thus, Vincennes and Peoria were the limit of Louisianas reach, the outposts at Ouiatenon, Chicago, Fort Miamis, and Prairie du Chien operated as dependencies of Canada. Those fleeing British control founded outposts such as the important settlement of St. Louis and this became a French fur-trading center, connected to trading posts on the Missouri and Upper Mississippi rivers, leading to later French settlement in that area. In the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, France ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain, its ally in the war, even after France had lost its claim to Louisiana, settlement of Upper Louisiana by French-speakers continued for the next four decades. French explorers and frontiersmen, such as Pedro Vial, were employed as guides and interpreters by the Spanish
4.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age
5.
Canoe
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A canoe is a lightweight narrow boat, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel using a single-bladed paddle. In International Canoe Federation nomenclature used in some European countries such as the United Kingdom the term refers to kayaks. Canoes are used for racing, whitewater canoeing, touring and camping, freestyle, the intended use of the canoe dictates its hull shape and length and construction material. Historically, canoes were dugouts or made of bark on a wood frame, most modern canoes are made of molded plastic or composites such as fiberglass. Until the mid-1800s the canoe was an important means of transport for exploration and trade, canoeing has been part of the Olympics since 1936. In places where the played a key role in history, such as the northern United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Canoes can be adapted to many purposes, for example with the addition of sails, outboard motors, the word canoe comes from the Carib kenu, via the Spanish canoa. Constructed between 8200 and 7600 BC, and found in the Netherlands, the Pesse canoe may be the oldest known canoe, excavations in Denmark reveal the use of dugouts and paddles during the Ertebølle period. Australian Aboriginal people made canoes using a variety of materials, including bark, the indigenous people of the Amazon commonly used Hymenaea trees. Many indigenous peoples of the Americas built bark canoes and they were usually skinned with birch bark over a light wooden frame, but other types could be used if birch was scarce. At a typical length of 4.3 m and weight of 23 kg, although susceptible to damage from rocks, they are easily repaired. When you reach them you load canoe and baggage upon your shoulders and go overland until the navigation is good, and then you put your canoe back into the water, and embark again. American painter, author and traveler George Catlin wrote that the canoe was the most beautiful. Native American groups of the north Pacific coast made dugout canoes in a number of styles for different purposes, from western red-cedar or yellow-cedar, different styles were required for ocean-going vessels versus river boats, and for whale-hunting versus seal-hunting versus salmon-fishing. The Quinault of Washington State built shovel-nose canoes, with double bows, the Kootenai of British Columbia province made sturgeon-nosed canoes from pine bark, designed to be stable in windy conditions on Kootenay Lake. The first explorer to cross the North American continent, Alexander Mackenzie, used extensively, as did David Thompson. Its dimensions were, length approximately 11 m, beam 1.2 to 1.8 m and it could carry 60 packs weighing 41 kg, and 910 kg of provisions. With a crew of eight or ten, they could make three knots over calm waters, four to six men could portage it, bottom up
6.
Canal
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Canals and navigations are human-made channels for water conveyance, or to service water transport vehicles. In the vernacular, both are referred to as canals, and in most cases, the works will have a series of dams. These areas are referred to as water levels, often just called levels. In contrast, a canal cuts across a drainage divide atop a ridge, many canals have been built at elevations towering over valleys and others water ways crossing far below. Cities need a lot of water and many canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination where there is a lack of water. The Roman Empires Aqueducts were such water supply canals, a navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river, a vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, and divide crossing canals in others. This is true for many canals still in use, there are two broad types of canal, Waterways, canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people. These can be subdivided into two kinds, Those connecting existing lakes, rivers, other canals or seas and oceans and those connected in a city network, such as the Canal Grande and others of Venice Italy, the gracht of Amsterdam, and the waterways of Bangkok. Aqueducts, water canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water for human consumption, municipal uses, hydro power canals. Historically canals were of importance to commerce and the development, growth. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of burning anthracite coal, by the 1930s the company which built. By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path, Human made streams A canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, stone, the water for the canal must be provided from an external source, like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise, examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal
7.
Lock (water navigation)
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A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. Locks are used to make a more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Later canals used more and larger locks to allow a direct route to be taken. Since 2016 the largest lock worldwide is the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp, a pound lock is a type of lock that is used almost exclusively nowadays on canals and rivers. A pound lock has a chamber with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound, in contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a flash lock. Pound locks were first used in medieval China during the Song Dynasty, having been pioneered by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyue in 984. The gates were hanging gates, when they were closed the water accumulated like a tide until the level was reached. The water level could differ by 4 feet or 5 feet at each lock, in medieval Europe a sort of pound lock was built in 1373 at Vreeswijk, Netherlands. This pound lock serviced many ships at once in a large basin, yet the first true pound lock was built in 1396 at Damme near Bruges, Belgium. A famous civil engineer of pound locks in Europe was the Italian Bertola da Novate, who constructed 18 of them on the Naviglio di Bereguardo between the years 1452 and 1458. When a stretch of river is navigable, a lock is sometimes required to bypass an obstruction such as a rapid, dam. In large scale river navigation improvements, weirs and locks are used together, a river improved by these means is often called a Waterway or River Navigation. Sometimes a river is made entirely non-tidal by constructing a sea lock directly into the estuary, in more advanced river navigations, more locks are required. Where a longer cut bypasses a stretch of river, the upstream end of the cut will often be protected by a flood lock. The longer the cut, the greater the difference in level between start and end of the cut, so that a very long cut will need additional locks along its length. At this point, the cut is, in effect, a canal, Early completely artificial canals, across fairly flat countryside, would get round a small hill or depression by simply detouring around it. However, locks continued to be built to supplement these solutions, all pound locks have three elements, A watertight chamber connecting the upper and lower canals, and large enough to enclose one or more boats. The position of the chamber is fixed, but its level can vary
8.
Yoke
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There are several types of yoke, used in different cultures, and for different types of oxen. A pair of oxen may be called a yoke of oxen, other animals that may be yoked include horses, mules, donkeys, and water buffalo. The word yoke is believed to derive from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm, from verb *yeug-, the verb to subjugate derives from the Latin form. A bow yoke /ˈboʊ/ is a shaped wooden crosspiece bound to the necks of a pair of oxen and it is held on the animals necks by an oxbow, from which it gets its name. The oxbow is usually U-shaped and also transmits force from the animals shoulders, a swivel between the animals, beneath the centre of the yoke, attaches to the pole of a vehicle or to chains used to drag a load. Bow yokes are traditional in Europe, and in the United States, Australia, a head yoke fits onto the head of the oxen. It usually fits behind the horns, and has carved-out sections into which the fit, it may be a single beam attached to both oxen, or each ox may have a separate short beam. The yoke is then strapped to the horns of the oxen with yoke straps, some types fit instead onto the front of the head, again strapped to the horns, and ox pads are then used for cushioning the forehead of the ox. A tug pole is held to the bottom of the yoke using yoke irons and chains, the tug pole can either be a short pole with a chain attached for hauling, or a long pole with a hook on the end that has no chain at all. Head yokes are used in southern Europe, much of South America. A withers yoke is a yoke that fits just in front of the withers, or the shoulder blades, of the oxen. The yoke is held in position by straps, either alone or with a pair of wooden staves either side of the oxs withers, withers yokes particularly suit zebu cattle, which have high humps on their withers. Withers yokes are used in Africa and India, where zebu cattle are common. Although all three types are effective, each has its advantages and disadvantages. As mentioned above, withers yokes suit zebu cattle, and head yokes can of course only be used for animals with suitable horns. A single-beam head yoke may offer better braking ability on downhill grades and appears to be preferred in rugged areas such as Switzerland, Spain. Bow yokes need to be the size for the animal, and new ones are often made as the animal grows. Whichever type is used, various lengths of yoke may be required for different agricultural implements or to adjust to different crop-row spacings, a yoke may be used with a single animal
9.
Voyageurs
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The voyageurs were French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs by canoe during the fur trade years. Voyageur is a French word, meaning traveler, the emblematic meaning of the term applies to places and times where transportation of materials was mainly over long distances. This major and challenging task of the fur trading business was done by canoe, the term in its fur trade context also applied, at a lesser extent, to other fur trading activities. Being a voyageur also included being a part of a licensed, organized effort, additionally, they were set apart from engagés, who were much smaller merchants and general laborers. Mostly immigrants, engagés were men who were obliged to go anywhere, until their contract expired, engagés were at the full servitude of their master, which was most often a voyageur. Less than fifty percent of engagés whose contracts ended chose to remain in New France, the voyageurs were regarded as legendary, especially in French Canada. They were heroes celebrated in folklore and music, for reasons of promised celebrity status and wealth, this position was very coveted. James H. Baker was once told by an unnamed retired voyageur, I could carry, paddle, walk, I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service, no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives, I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageurs life, despite the fame surrounding the voyageur, their life was one of toil and not nearly as glorious as folk tales make it out to be. For example, they had to be able to carry two 90-pound bundles of fur over portage, some carried up to four or five, and there is a report of a voyageur carrying seven for half of a mile. Hernias were common and frequently caused death, most voyageurs would start working when they were twenty two and they would continue working until they were in their sixties. They never made enough money to consider an early retirement from what was a physically grueling lifestyle, Europeans mainly traded alongside the coast of North America with Native Americans. The early fur trade with Native Americans, which developed alongside the coasts of North America, was not limited to the beaver, beavers were not particularly valued and people preferred fancy fur or fur that is used with or on the pelt. The fur trade was viewed as secondary to fishing during this era, soon, coureurs des bois achieved business advantages by travelling deeper into the wilderness and trading there. By 1681, the King of France decided to control the traders by publishing an edict that banned fur, also, as the trading process moved deeper into the wilderness, transportation of the furs became a larger part of the fur trading business process. The authorities began a process of issuing permits and those travellers associated with the canoe transportation part of the licensed endeavour became known as voyageurs, a term which literally means traveler in French
10.
Methye Portage
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The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche in northwestern Saskatchewan was one of the most important portages in the old fur trade route across Canada. The 19 km portage connected the Mackenzie River basin to rivers that ran east to the Atlantic and it was reached by Peter Pond in 1778 and abandoned in 1883 when steamboats began running on the Athabasca River with links to the railroad. It ranks with Grand Portage as one of the two most important and difficult portages used during the fur trade era, Methye is Cree and La Loche is French for a fish that is called burbot in English. Although Methye Portage is often used the name since 1957 is Portage La Loche. Both names are used in documents, books and journals. Alexander Mackenzie in his book Voyages from Montreal used both Portage la Loche and Mithy-Ouinigam Portage, the Methye Portage had been in use by indigenous peoples as a trade route for generations. They introduced it to Peter Pond in 1778, the portage was in constant use until 1883 when the Canadian Pacific Railway reached Calgary ending more than 100 years as the main access to the north. From the winter of 1822, York boats came into use on route in addition to canoes. Furs were transported up the Clearwater River by crews who would bring them to the centre of the portage and it also allowed for the spread of smallpox to previously untouched aboriginal populations, decimating them in a matter of years. From 1826 to the early 1870s the Portage La Loche Brigade from Fort Garry arrived at the Portage in July and this famous brigade of York boats would then return via Norway House and York Factory to the Red River Settlement, a 4,000 mi round trip. For a number of years this brigade was under the leadership of Alexis Bonami, after the first Oblates opened a mission in Île-à-la-Crosse in 1846 a Catholic priest was usually present when the brigades arrived at the portage. They were well received by the French Métis from the Red River Colony, Father Petitot describes his reception in 1862. We stayed at this mission, R. P. Grouard and myself until the departure of the Mackenzie brigade, I took advantage of the time to raise a conical chapel which I covered with white covers and colored decorations. An altar surrounded in white cloth stood the time we were there. In July 1845 Louis Laferte dit Schmidt, who was born on December 4,1844 at Old Fort near Fort Chipewyan, was baptised at Methye Portage by Father Jean-Baptiste Thibault, another noted baptism at Methye Portage was Francois Beaulieu who was baptised in 1848 by Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché. The portage proper, which is 19 km long, began at Wallis Bay on the side of Lac La Loche. The path ascends slowly for 8 mi to the small Rendezvous Lake, here, crews coming from the north and south would exchange their loads. Different boats were used on the two sides of the portage and were carried across it
