Kaministiquia River - Voyageur Route

Voyageur Route

Since the Grand Portage route was better the Kaministiquia route was soon forgotten. The problem was that it was on the US side. In 1784 the North West Company sent Edward Umfreville to find a route on the British side. He failed. In the summer of 1798 Roderick McKenzie, the cousin of Alexander Mackenzie (explorer), met a group of Indians on the Height of Land Portage who showed him the Kaministiquia route. The new route was approved by Simon McTavish in 1799.

This section covers the voyageur route from Fort William 135 miles west to the juncture of the Grand Portage route at Lac La Croix. For the other route see Grand Portage. For the whole route to Lake Winnipeg see Winnipeg River and for all routes see Canadian canoe routes (early). The Kaministiquia and Grand Portage were the two main routes used by Canadian fur traders travel to western Canada from the Great Lakes. The Kaministiquia route was first used in 1688 by Jacques de Noyon. About 1731 La Vérendrye used Grand Portage which became the preferred route. Since it was impractical for western traders to make a round trip to Montreal in one season, they would go to Grand Portage and exchange goods with boats that had come up from Montreal. By 1803 it was found that Grand Portage was on the US side of the border and the route was moved 40 miles northeast to Fort William.

The canoe route ran west from Fort William with only one decharge to Kakabeka Falls, which was passed by the Mountain Portage. The Northwest Company soon built a road to a depot above the falls. From here north up a swift stretch with at least seven portages, and then some more portages and significant altitude gain to Dog Lake (Ontario) about 25 miles northwest of Fort William. Then an easy 50 miles northwest up the twisting Dog River (Ontario), Jordain Creek and Cold Water Creek to Cold Water Lake. Then began a difficult boggy stretch west through the 3-mile Prairie Portage, Height of Land Lake, the half-mile De Milieu Portage, Lac de Milieu, the mile-and-a-half Savanne Portage to the Savanne River in the Lake Winnipeg drainage. Then west down the Savanne to Lac des Mille Lacs. Since the Seine River (Ontario) is too rough for freight canoes, the route went over the quarter-mile Baril Portage to the Pickerel River and Pickerel Lake, the Pickerel and Deux Rivières Portages to Sturgeon Lake and down the Maligne River to Lac La Croix where the route from Grand Portage came in from the southeast. For the route west from Lac La Croix see Canadian canoe routes (early).