A Meeting Place

A Meeting Place. First Nations, French Explorers and Fur Traders. , People have been meeting at the site of Fort Willow for thousands of years. The first people in the area fished along the shorelines of Lake Nipissing 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. Evidence of their fishing camps has been found around the edge of what is today the Minesing Wetlands. , By the 1600s the Wendat people, later called Hurons by French explorers, had a series of well-established villages in northern Simcoe County, some of them home to 3,500 people. They were a nation of skilled traders and farmers. The route of the Nine Mile Portage between Barrie and Fort Willow was well-used as a travel and trade route between the villages. Pottery, stone tools and weapons found in and around the fort give a glimpse into their daily lives. , French explorers and Jesuit missionaries arrived in the area in the early 1600s. First among them was famed explorer Étienne Brûlé, a scout for Samuel de Champlain. Brûlé is believed to be the first European to travel beyond the St. Lawrence River and to visit Georgian Bay and the Great Lakes. , During the late 1600s and the 1700s, wandering groups of Ojibways and Mississaugas from the north arrived in the area. Local fur traders used the portage during the late 1700s and early 1800s, and the North West Company adopted the route in 1812.