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The Kaministikwia Route

and

The Mountain Portage

There are two plaques at this location.
The second one can be seen further down this page.

Photos by contributor Albert Joseph - August, 2011

Plaque Location

The District of Thunder Bay
The Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge
At Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park
on the south side of the falls near the viewing platform
30 km west of Thunder Bay via Highway 11

Coordinates: N 48 24.145 W 89 37.550

Plaque Text

This chain of rivers, lakes and portages linking the St. Lawrence system with the waterways of the prairies had been known to the Indians for centuries when Jacques de Noyon first travelled it in 1688. After 1800, when the boundary settlement had placed the more southerly Grand Portage in the United States, the North West Company re-opened Kaministikwia route, which for almost 25 years was the main highway to the west. From Fort William at the mouth of the river canoes were tracked upriver to this point, the first major obstacle on the route.

Photo by contributor Dave Fernie - October, 2005

Plaque Text

This portage around Kakabeka Falls formed a link in the historic Kaministiquia canoe route connecting Lake Superior with Lake of the Woods and the West. First recorded in 1688 by the French explorer Jacques de Noyon, it was later abandoned in favour of the shorter Grand Portage-Pigeon River route. The latter came under American control following the treaty of 1783, and in 1798 the older route was rediscovered by Roderick McKenzie. From 1803 onward, the Mountain Portage was used by fur traders, explorers, soldiers, and surveyors including Simon McGillivray, David Thompson, Sir George Simpson, Sir John Richardson, Simon J. Dawson, and Col. Garnet Wolseley.

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