HISTORY OF FORT LARONDE
AND THE LAVASE RIVER

North Bay's Champlain Park, at the mouth of the LaVase River on beautiful Lake Nipissing, is not just another pretty face in Northern Ontario--it's a plot of land that holds many key pieces to the understanding of our past.

These pieces are not only found on the many historical plaques in the park; but also within the ground on which this park is built. Let's start our story 18 000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age.

Imagine a sheet of ice 2 kilometres thick covering most of Canada and extending a far south as Wisconsin. Its immense weight caused the earth's crust to sag beneath it by as much as 300 metres!
Imagine our country at the time - ice and snow as far as the eye could see - bleak, cold, and uninhabitable.

Fortunately, the Ice Age came to an end in this area so that 11 000 years ago the land was no longer under ice. Instead, the entire area was at the bottom of a large post-glacial lake called Lake Algonquin.

At this time, Lake Nipissing was submerged beneath the Northern Great Lakes which were more than 200 metres deep. With the glaciers still melting nearby, the land was much wetter and the climate much cooler than it is today.

About 8400 years ago, much of the melt-water from the glaciers had drained away and Lake Nipissing, while still considerably larger than it is today, was now a smaller bay on Lake Stanley-Nipissing. The glaciers retreated further northward, allowing temperatures to rise and water levels to fall.

In response to the disappearance of the glaciers, the earth's crust began to rise in a process called isostatic rebound. This process is still at work today, raising the crust of the earth in the Nipissing area half a centimetre per year. This isostatic rebound of the earth's crust has lead to many changes in the waterways of this area over the millennia. As the crust rose and land emerged from the waters, ancient drainage patterns were altered.

Here you can see the shoreline of Lake Nipissing 5000 years ago. The bottom left corner is Lake Nipissing - the top right is Trout Lake. Years ago the shoreline extended across Hwy 11. Unlike today, where Lake Nipissing drains into the French River and out to Georgian Bay, 5000 years ago the Northern Great Lakes drained down the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers to the Atlantic Ocean. A number of the higher elevations in the area appeared as islands; but, for the most part, the southern part of North Bay remained under water.

Time went on and the shoreline receded. The water body between Lake Nipissing and Trout Lake narrowed to a river following Parks Creek. At that time the river flowed in the direction opposite to its current flow. As the land continued to rise, two distinct watersheds developed, divided by the height of land. Water in this area began to flow either into Trout Lake and the Ottawa River watershed, or into Lake Nipissing and the Lake Huron watershed. The watershed divide separating Trout Lake and Lake Nipissing, as we know it today, was "born" only 3,800 years ago. But, let's get back to our story...

As the land re-emerged following the glacier's retreat, animals and people moved into the area. The last of the large Ice Age mammals may have been hunted in the surrounding area. As the climate changed, water receded and more familiar, ecologically-advanced species like elk and caribou came to dominate throughout our area 8000 to 11 000 years ago.

These prehistoric people were skilful hunters. Using only weapons and tools of wood and stone, they were able to hunt even the largest of beasts successfully. As their technology advanced, they became less dependent on larger game.

Trees for firewood and dwelling frames were chopped down using stone axes; even their birchbark and dugout canoes were fashioned using stone tools. Cooking vessels were made from clay or birchbark.

About 2000 years ago, Lake Nipissing emerged from the Northern Great Lakes and the changes occurring in the shoreline's position substantially slowed down. In Champlain Park, a large enough area emerged for inhabitation. The native people or "Nipissings", who occupied this area, were named after the lake around which they settled. Nipissing means "people of the little water" which was a reference to the size of Lake Nipissing compared to Lake Huron.

The Nipissings, still dependent on hunting and gathering food, wandered the area and traded with neighbouring tribes. This is what the French explorers such as Brulé and Champlain observed when they ventured through the area searching for a route to China in the early 17th century. Here then starts a new chapter in our story...

Along with the French explorers, Jesuit and Recollet fathers came determined to bring their religion to the inhabitants of the new world. Other Europeans followed with a different motive in mind. In Europe, the supply of furs to make fashionable felt hats was dwindling. New France thus became the supplier of beaver pelts needed to satisfy the European market.

Native people anxious to have muskets, kettles, metal axes, and blankets eagerly engaged in trade with the white men and quickly embraced the new technology.

Waterways and portages that had been used by the natives as transport routes for thousands of years became the highways for the white traders. For over 200 years, the voyageurs used the waterways to transport trade goods to the natives in the interior and furs back out to Montreal.

From spring thaw to winter freeze up, from well before daybreak until way after dark, the wilderness rang with the sounds of their "joli chansons" as they paddled in time with the beat of their music.

Eventually, trading posts were established in the wilderness to increase trade with the native peoples. Eustache de LaRonde, an independent fur trader loosely affiliated with the North West Company, established one at the mouth of the LaVase River on Lake Nipissing after 1810. It became known as Fort LaRonde; although, it was no more than a simple log cabin with a potato patch.

The LaVase River and its three portages connecting Trout Lake and Lake Nipissing became part of the Trans-Canada Canoe Route. Other portages through North Bay, such as Parks Creek, were abandoned and the LaVase, with its deeper and more navigable system for the Voyageur canoes, became the travel route of the Fur Trade.

But, it was not an easy portage. J.J. Bigsby, a traveller through the LaVase in 1816, wrote this of the notorious mosquito-infested swamps of the portage:

"...I shall only say of the intervening carrying places that they are rocky and swampy by turns especially the last - an abominable marsh which we traversed ... knee-deep in mud and tree-roots. We only found a sleeping place at its west end by first laying poles down on some very tall grass (which was over six or eight inches of water) and then spreading a large tarp over them. The portages are well named the 'Vaz' or 'Mud Portages'."

What rejoicing there must have been when the men rounded the last bend in the LaVase River and Lake Nipissing and Fort LaRonde came into view. In 1910, a dam was built on the French River raising the level of Lake Nipissing by 1.5 metres, and made the point of land on which Fort LaRonde stood into an island.

Time passed and the history of Champlain Park was forgotten until 1961, when workers digging holes for a new swing set accidentally unearthed artifacts from the past. Prominent Archaeologist, J. V. Wright, vacationing in the area, had the site registered as the LaVase North Bank Archaeological Site. As such, the site remained undisturbed for over 3 decades. Then, in August of 1995, the site was partially excavated by an archaeological team as part of the Heritage North Project.

To determine the extent of the site, test pits were dug systematically at 5 metre intervals throughout Champlain Park. In test pitting, the archaeologists dug cores of soil the width of their shovels, down to the sandy soil of the old lake bottom. All of the soil was screened through a sifter and if any artifacts were found, the pit was considered positive, marked with a red flag, and noted on a grid of the area. Positive test pits were concentrated around the historical plaque in the park. This area, therefore, became the site for a detailed excavation.

Unlike the small test pits which were dug using shovels, the one metre square excavation units were excavated using trowels. But, in excavating the units, hundreds or even thousands of years of history were disturbed and destroyed. Therefore, careful steps have been taken to ensure that the history of the site is preserved in written form.

When an artifact was uncovered its location was carefully measured using a north-south and an east-west axis. The depth of the artifact was measured and the location was plotted on graph paper before the artifacts were..."bagged and tagged". Even the colour and depths of the different soil layers of each unit were recorded before the holes were filled in. The entire site area was not fully excavated so, in years to come, archaeologists with more sophisticated technology can return to the site and shed more light on the history of our area.

Following the '95 excavation, the artifacts were cleaned, processed and shipped to Toronto for analysis. When the analysis was completed, a comprehensive archeological report was completed and sent back to North Bay. Since the 1995 excavation, two more digs have taken place.

In May and June of 1996, Dr. Pat Julig of Laurentian University conducted an archeaological field school that located timbers from Fort Laronde.

A third excavation, sponsored by the City of North Bay, took place in Champlain Park from August to October of 1996.

Back to the Lavase River/Fort Laronde