Heritage: Simcoe Walk 2009

Walk leader Madeleine McDowell (at left) and a local resident portraying Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe (at right) introduced the re-enactment of the first day of Simcoe's 1793 walk up the Toronto Carrying Place on 26-September-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - On 25-September-1793, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, started a trip up the Toronto Carrying Place, the main route from Lake Ontario northward to the Georgian Bay and a longtime aboriginal trading roue. On 26-September-2009, more than two hundred years later, a re-enactment of that first day, following as closely as possible to the original, was led by historian Madeleine McDowell. McDowell grew up and currently lives right on the route of the Toronto Carrying Place.


The marshes of the Humber River, which was named by Simcoe, was observed near the beginning of the Toronto Carrying Place in what is now the Swansea neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario on 26-September-2009

The walk began at the "Rousseaux site," which is the surprisingly little-known location of the 1750 French Fort Toronto and the also site of the first permanent settlement in what is today Toronto, built by Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux in the late 1780's. Located not far from Lake Ontario and overlooking the Humber River in what today is the Swansea neighbourhood of Toronto, it marked the southern end of the Toronto Carrying Place, which headed up the eastern side of the river.


A private monument to the poet Robert Burns was found along the route of the Toronto Carrying Place in the Swansea neighbourhood of Toronto on 26-September-2009

I had never traveled the Toronto Carrying Place before, and did not know exactly where it had been in most locations. While the path starts out along the Humber River, it pretty rapidly takes to the highlands above the ravine farther to the east, crossing Bloor Street (for example) at what today is Armadale Avenue. Quite a number of interesting sights--most of them not there in 1793--exist today along the route, including the former home of author Lucy Maud Montgomery, a private monument to poet Robert Burns, a street named after hockey star Phil Esposito, and many oak trees that were standing when Simcoe took his walk. Small detours led to historical locations like the Iroquian village of Teiaiagon or modern overlooks of the Humber River.


During a small detour, the Simcoe walk visited the former site of the Iroquian village of Teiaiagon on 26-September-2009

The location where Simcoe stopped for lunch is today in Smythe Park north of St. Clair Avenue west, right along Black Creek. From there, it was a surprisingly short walk to where the party stopped for the day, near what today is Eglinton Avenue. By the time we arrived there, only five of us remained to contemplate the exact location of the campground and discuss the relative imbalance of Simcoe's day.


The most dedicated participants in the Simcoe walk discussed the location of the first camp site near the Humber River at Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, Ontario on 26-September-2009

The Simcoe Walk re-enactment took about five hours to re-trace what had taken Simcoe a day, easily the longest organized walk I had taken in Toronto this year. Connecting most of the historical locations within walking distance of my residence, it was a learning experience that really meant something to me.