ONTARIO'S WRITTEN HISTORY began in Wendake, the land of Huron farmers and traders. French Jesuits and their lay assistants (donnes) following the St. Lawrence/French River route, paddled to Georgian Bay and in 1639 established the mission headquarters of Sainte-Marie near present-day Midland. They built a residence, church, stables, a hospital (Ontario's first) and accommodations for visiting native people.

The Hurons gained the benefit of European Iron Age technologies and trade goods but they suffered terribly from European diseases. Epidemics, famine and fur trade rivalries took a terrible toll. Iroquois incursions destroyed surrounding Huron villages and threatened Sainte-Marie itself.

Within a decade the Huron nation was devastated. The eight Frenchmen (six of them priests) who perished were later canonized as North America's first martyred saints.

In 1649 the Jesuits put Sainte-Marie to the torch and, with a small band of Huron followers, abandoned it. Wilderness reclaimed the ruins of Ontario's first European community. Today, near Midland, Ontario, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons has been reconstructed on its 17th century site.
 

1. Two 17th century cultures met at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons ( 639-1649), the first European community in what is now Ontario; 2. Tall ships in a historic 19th century setting draw visitors to the Historic Naval and Military Establishments in Penetanguishene, Ontario

Medard Chouart des Groseilliers, once a donne at Sainte-Marie, was one of the first Europeans to reach the mouth of the Kaministikwia River which flows westward from Lake Superior. In 1784, a group of Scottish traders formed the North West Company and after a brief stay at Grand Portage, Minnesota, chose the Kaministikwia River mouth for their inland capital. In 1801 they began construction of a base which they named Fort William in 1807. There Nor'westers, Indians, Scottish clerks and voyageurs held their colourful Great Rendezvous, an annual tradition which began in 1803.

The new fort was plagued with difficulties. The Hudson's Bay Company provided fierce competition and Lord Selkirk's Red River colony interfered with food supplies and trade routes. In 1821 the North West Company merged with its Hudson's Bay rivals and Fort William evolved into a supply depot and fishing establishment. With the advent of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the rise of the western provinces, Fort William's importance dwindled. The Hudson's Bay post at Ontario's lakehead closed in 1881. Today the fort bustles again, in a lively reconstruction established in a wooded setting on the shores of the Kaministikwia River.

While Scottish entrepreneurs directed the development of the northwest, thousands of Americans loyal to the Crown fled post-revolutionary America and settled what are now Ontario's eastern counties.

When flooding for the St. Lawrence Seaway threatened several communities that dated from Loyalist times as well as the 1813 battleground at Crysler Farm, the Ontario-St. Lawrence Develop, ment Commission created the Crysler Farm Battlefield Park and an adjacent living history community, Upper Canada Village.

Some historic buildings were transported to the site; others were constructed as historic representations of the 1860 period. Every supporting detail from wallpaper to wagon wheels was carefully researched before becoming part of the village. Today, costumed historical interpreters add a warm personal presence this lively community on the shores of the Seaway.

Loyalists founded Cataraqui, soon to be known as Kingston, in 1784. The British, recognizing the strategic value of the area, established the Royal Naval Dockyard on Lake Ontario. The first Fort Henry became the chief defence of the dockyard.

At the end of the War of 1812 the British, wary of another American attack, followed the advice of the Duke of Wellington who had recommended "a good fort at Point Henry." The first fort was torn down and replaced by the existing structure. By 1848, the new Fort Henry, on the high ground surrounding Kingston, was one of Canada's strongest fortifications Never used for active defence, for more than a century Fort Henry played a major role in Canadian history as an army base and internment centre.

Fort Henry opened to the public in 1938 as Canada's first major historical restoration. Today this magnificent complex holds one of Canada's largest collections of military arms and uniforms. Some barrack and officer rooms have been furnished as they appeared in 1867 and the Fort Henry Guard provides colourful military drills of the British Army in Canada.
 

1.Drums presentation by Guard, Fort Henry, Ontario; 2.The stagecoach at Upper Canada Village transports passengers and delivers mail

Britannia, bound to rule the waves on the Great Lakes as well as those on the high seas, established another naval base in 1817 on Georgian Bay at Penetanguishene on a site shrewdly chosen by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1793. After the War of 1812, the warships Tecumseth and Newash anchored at Penetanguishene, stripped of their rigging and armaments.

Penetanguishene was more than a dockyard. The deep harbour provided a secluded base for the protection of northwestern supply routes and general surveil, lance of the Upper Lakes. During a two-year posting at Penetanguishene, Admiralty surveyor Henry Bayfield charted much of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron.

As relations with the Americans improved, Penetanguishene's naval commitment diminished and the navy finally withdrew in 1834. The base became a military establishment, augmented by the 1828 transfer of a detachment from Drummond Island.

The soaring costs of maintaining colonial garrisons and the heavy drain of the Crimean War motivated the closing of the military establishments in 1856. The property was given to the government of Upper Canada, and used for a boys' reformatory.

Today the Historic Naval Establishment is a centre for tall ships and sail mining on Lake Huron. The reconstructed naval storehouse now houses The King's Wharf theatre.

Ontario's past still lives today in historic reconstructions operated by the Ministry of Tourism and Recreation. In meticulously researched settings, costumed historical interpreters tell the stories of Ontario's heritage. Visitors listen to longhouse lore at SainteMarie; join a joyous Paddle Dance at Old Fort William; glide down the canal in a horse-powered bateau at Upper Canada Village; get mustered into Queen Victoria's army at Fort Henry; hoist sail on replica 19th century schooners at Penetanguishene.

Ontario cherishes its colourful heritage and invites the world to share the adventure.