Samuel de Champlain's Journeys Through Ontario

If you start walking north through Étienne Brûlé Park from the parking lot just east of the Old Mill bridge over the Humber River, you will come to the first dam across the river. Just there you will see this collection of three Ontario Heritage Foundation plaques. The centre plaque gives this introduction:

This park beside the Humber River commemorates Étienne Brûlé, one of Samuel de Champlain's protégés in the age of exploration. His story is part of the larger one of Champlain and the First Nations people they met in 17th-century North America. Samuel de Champlain (c.1570-1635) was an important explorer, cartographer, administrator and founder of New France. He arrived in Canada in 1603 and spent most of the rest of his life here, advancing French commercial and colonial interests. Although his work focused on the Saint Lawrence and Atlantic regions, he spent time in what is now Ontario searching for a route to the Orient and strengthening ties with the First Nations. A prolific writer, Champlain also published some of the best early descriptions of Ontario.

Location Co-ordinates: 43.652581 -79.495482

Photo by Alan L Brown - December 2006

Related pages from my 'Ontario's Historical Plaques' website:
Champlain's War Party 1605
Champlain's Journey of 1613

More 'Explorers' pages

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