Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Samuel de Champlain's Journeys Through Ontario

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted December, 2006

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 set of three Ontario Heritage Trust plaques. The centre plaque gives this introduction:

Coordinates: 43.65258 -79.49548

Click here for a larger map

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.

Here are photos of the other two plaques in the set.

Photo Source - Unknown

Related Ontario plaque
Samuel de Champlain

Other Humber River plaques south of Dundas Street
Discovery Point
Discovery Walks - The Shared Path
Étienne Brûlé
The Humber River
Lambton House
The Old Mill
Sir William Pearce Howland (1811-1907)

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Explorers

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

> Posted December 1, 2010
Years ago, I was in the Kente area and saw a plaque dedicated to Champlain where he was carred by an Indian ally to the shore of "New France/Canada" after an attach on the Seneca and Cayugas at which time he was shot by an arrow. Does anyone know where this plaque is?
[email protected]

> Posted October 27, 2008
Beautiful information seen here! Love it!

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