Methye Portage - The Portage Trail

The Portage Trail

Names were given to different locations on the Portage trail by the fur brigades. On the table starting from the south end are some of the names in French and their translation.

These resting places were measured in paces wrote Sir John Richardson in 1848. From the Tail of La Loche to Little Old Man the distance was 2557 paces. Another 3171 paces led to Fountain of Sand and so on. The total number of paces from the Tail of La Loche to The Meadow is 24,593 or 1294 paces per kilometer. Most of these resting places on the Portage have not yet been identified. Under ideal conditions 19 kilometers is walked at an easy pace in about 4 hours.

Along the Portage Trail there were marked graves from the fur trade era according to the following Oblate account written in 1933 by Father Louis Moraud (translation).

“We started walking the trail hoping to find a few traces of the past. But this place like the vast oceans keep their secrets. Nature and the elements soon erase every trace of man. Our guide showed us a place of burial. The cross had been razed by fire. Other crosses had marked the graves of a few more adventurers. These too had disappeared."