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In our recent preaching trip to Sudbury, Canada, we had the occasion to cross the French River.

Wikipedia has this info:

The French River (Rivière des Français) is a river in Central Ontario, Canada. It flows 110 kilometres (68 mi) from Lake Nipissing west to Georgian Bay. The river largely follows the boundary between the Parry Sound District and the Sudbury District, and in most contexts is considered the dividing line between Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario.

The Wikipedia entry continues:

It was used as a transportation corridor by the Algonquian peoples of this region. The Ojibwa named this the “French River” because it became associated with French explorers of the 17th century, including Étienne Brûlé, Samuel de Champlain and Pierre-Esprit Radisson, and missionaries.

Other explorers who later followed this route included Simon Fraser, Alexander Mackenzie and David Thompson.

Together with the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers, the French River formed part of the water highway from Montreal to Lake Superior in the days of the fur trade. It remained a major canoe route until about 1820. It was later settled as a summer tourist and recreation area. For this reason, the French River was designated a Canadian Heritage River in 1986.

Near the end of the 19th century, logging became the primary activity in the area. Because of the rugged nature of the Canadian Shield country surrounding this river, large parts of this river remain relatively untouched and it is now a popular location for recreational canoeing, kayaking, fishing and boating.

Following bouts of overfishing in the 1990’s, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources placed a partial ban on fishing in the river.

At a rest stop near the river my wife and I saw a sign you don’t see every day:

French River Snake Sign. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

In a previous meeting in Sudbury we had flown from Toronto to Sudbury, but driving that stretch allows one to see more of the country and have a better “feel” for the area.

Click photos for larger view.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2011 at 6:56 PM and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.