The Mnjikaning Fish Weirs were built by the First Nations peoples around 3300 B.C. The weirs are the oldest man-made structure in all of north america (created since time immemorial). Land-hungry colonizers have nearly destroyed them.
according to carbon dating done on some of the wooden remnants. The weirs were built in the narrows between
Lake Couchiching
Lake Couchiching ( ), from the Ojibwe ''gojijiing'' meaning "inlet", is a medium-sized lake in Central Ontario, Canada, separated from Lake Simcoe by a narrow channel.
Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching are popular spots for fishing in summer and ice ...
and
Lake Simcoe
Lake Simcoe is a lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth-largest lake wholly in the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century the lake was called ''Ouentironk' ...
, now known as Atherley Narrows, over which
Ontario Highway 12
King's Highway 12, commonly referred to as Highway 12 and historically known as the Whitby and Sturgeon Bay Road, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The highway connects the eastern end of the Greater Toron ...
passes today. They were preserved by the water and layers of protective silt.
The weirs were built as fences using local wood species, including
eastern white cedar
''Thuja occidentalis'', also known as northern white-cedar, eastern white-cedar, or arborvitae, is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is native to eastern Canada and much of the north-central and northeastern ...
,
sugar maple
''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prim ...
, and
white birch for the stakes. The weirs were used to trap the various fish species swimming through them. The early fishermen wove brush and vegetation among the weirs to make net-like fencing where the fish were guided to be speared, netted or kept for later use, particularly for consumption during the winter.
The weirs – historically called ''ouentaronk'' (
Huron
Huron may refer to:
People
* Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America
* Wyandot language, spoken by them
* Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec
* Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawato ...
) and ''tkaronto'' (
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
* Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
* Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...
) – are believed to have provided the
City of Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
with its name, following a series of copy errors. They were in use for about 5,000 years, until about the early 1700s.
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fr ...
recorded their existence on September 1, 1615, when he passed the weirs with the
Huron
Huron may refer to:
People
* Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America
* Wyandot language, spoken by them
* Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec
* Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawato ...
en route to the battle with the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
on the south east side of Lake Ontario.
The Mnjikaning Fish Weirs was officially recognized as a
National Historic Site of Canada
National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...
on 12 June 1982. It is managed by the
Rama First Nation, who created the Mnjikaning Fish Fence Circle to protect and promote the site.
See also
*
List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Ontario
This is a list of National Historic Sites (french: Lieux historiques nationaux) in the province of Ontario. As of July 2021, there were 274 sites designated in Ontario, 39 of which are administered by Parks Canada (identified below and on the cl ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{refend
External links
Mnjikaning Fish Weirs National Historic Site of Canadaat HistoricPlaces.ca (
Parks Canada
Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...
)
Buildings and structures in Simcoe County
First Nations history in Ontario
National Historic Sites in Ontario
History of Simcoe County