A renaissance of interest

At the end of October, I had the pleasure of speaking briefly to the Société d’Histoire de Toronto. The SHT is a petite, dynamic community organization that punches well above its weight. Over the last few years, it has realized the Sentier Partagé/Shared Pathway project along the lower reaches of the Humber; organized a regular series of talks on various historical topics; and conducted scores of guided tours of sites in and around Toronto. Next year, as part of the celebration of 400 years of francophone presence in Ontario, the SHT is re-enacting Étienne Brûlé’s 1615 trip down the Toronto Carrying Place (an expedition which the Société has kindly invited me to join). Ils sont débrouillards, ces amateurs d’histoire! They know how to get things done!

The SHT can take credit for this Shared Path/Sentier Partagé display focusing on Toronto's French heritage. The plaque in the centre of the grove is dedicated to Jean Baptiste Rousseau, Toronto's first European settler, whose house was located near this site.

The SHT is just one of the players behind the growing fascination with Ontario’s early history. The Mississaugas of the New Credit are the host aboriginal nation of the 2015 Pan-Am Games, and plan to highlight Toronto’s Native heritage next summer. The Town of Penetanguishene is restaging Samuel de Champlain’s 1615 visit to Huronia, and the Ontario400 project (run by the provincial government and several other organizations) is happily encouraging and promoting events to commemorate Ontario’s 400 French years...

Then there are the books. Just to mention a few of the most recent and readable:

• Before Ontario: the archaeology of a province ed. by Marit K. Munson & Susan M. Jamieson (2013)
• Along the shore, by Jane Fairburn (2013)
• Dispersed but not destroyed: a history of the seventeenth-century Wendat people by Kathryn Magee Labelle (2013)
• Toronto: biography of a city by Allan Levine (2014)

I am delighted to find my own book in such distinguished company and to play a small part in this renaissance of interest in the history of Southern Ontario.

Welcome to the Toronto Carrying Place!

part of the Pine Valley Drive trail, north of Langstaff Road

Thank you for joining me today on the trail. 

One of my deepest interests -- and a prime reason for me writing a book -- is exploring how the past seeps into the present. The Carrying Place never had an imposing physical presence. It was, after all, a simple footpath through the woods; easily overgrown by bush or erased by anyone clearing forest. But it was an important part of life for people in Ontario for thousands of years, and it created ripples in Ontario's history that we can still see today. In this blog I hope to discuss some of those consequences and look at how the Carrying Place still flashes into our awareness from time to time.

Other issues that may well come up:

• Southern Ontario's missing Native heritage
• (the horror of) development in the Greater Toronto Area
• les 400 ans de présence francophone en Ontario
• Étienne Brûlé -- Carrying Place commuter or not?
• the complicated business of archaeology in Ontario

And I'm hoping that readers will be able to help clear up some of the stickier technical details that stumped me during my trip and during the writing of the book. Was Emery Creek really "Drunken Creek"? How many horses did Lt-Gov Simcoe take with him up the Carrying Place in 1793? I'm sure that we'll be able to figure it out together.

Let me know about your interest in the Toronto Carrying Place. I'm looking forward to talking with you over the next few months.

With best regards,

Glenn