Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben - History

History

The depressions formed by the graben across the rugged Canadian Shield were a spillway for the Great Lakes after the last Ice Age. Later they became a thoroughfare for exploration and trade. These depressions now contain the Ottawa River and its tributary the Mattawa, which rises at Trout Lake near Lake Nipissing. The latter is the source of the French River, which drains into Lake Huron. This water route, with few portages, connected Lake Huron and the Saint Lawrence River by a much shorter route than through the lower Great Lakes. It was the mainline of the French-Canadian voyageurs engaged in the fur trade; they took canoes on the waterways along this route from Montreal to the upper Great Lakes and the pays d'en haut—the "upper country" in the old Northwest. The valley of the Ottawa and Montreal Rivers and Lake Timiskaming was also part of a branch route to James Bay in the days of the fur brigades. The valleys are now used by more modern forms of transportation, including the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Trans-Canada Highway.

After the arrival of European settlers in North America, the Mattawa River was an important transportation corridor for native peoples of the region and formed part of the water route leading west to Lake Superior in the days of the fur trade. Canoes travelling north up the Ottawa turned left to enter the Mattawa, reaching Lake Nipissing by way of "La Vase Portage", an 11 km (7 mi) stretch of water and portages. In the 19th century, the river provided access to large untouched stands of white pine. The river was also used to transport logs to sawmills. While logging is still an important industry in this region, almost the full length of the river has been designated as a Canadian Heritage River, and as such, its shores are now protected from further development and logging. Today, the river and lakes are mainly used for recreation.