Birth of Barrie

The War of 1812 transformed the nine mile portage between Kempenfelt Bay and the Nottawasaga River into a vital supply route after the Americans took control of Lake Erie in September 1813, cutting off British posts on the Upper Great Lakes and western fur trade shipping. The North West Company began using the portage as the fastest and safest route away from American control, and storehouses were built at Willow Creek to hold goods in transit. In 1814 workmen from Kingston improved the trail and built boats, while a British relief expedition under Lt. Colonel Robert McDouall crossed frozen Lake Simcoe, widened the portage as it advanced, and built storehouses at the head of the bay. After the war ended in December 1814, the route remained advantageous because it was shorter than the Lake Erie and Ottawa River routes and allowed a longer transport season, with goods reaching Toronto late in the year, crossing by sleigh and frozen lake in winter, and moving earlier in spring along the Nottawasaga. When the naval depot at Schoonertown was established in late 1815 and later moved to Penetanguishene harbour two years afterward, the portage carried men, equipment, gun powder, sails, and provisions to the new base. Development of Penetanguishene Road continued after the war, settlement lots opened in 1819, the North West Company used the portage until 1820, and by 1824 Alexander Walker was hauling three ox-drawn wagons across it as the first settler at Barrie, marking the city's beginnings. British use of the route ended after the road between Orillia and Coldwater opened in 1830, though the crossing had long connected Indigenous travelers and others moving people and goods across the region.

Ontario · Canada