Some Destinations of Pilon Voyageurs Kaministiquia and the Grand Portage

1755	1787

The Canadian West was reached by either ascending the Kaministiquia River which reaches Lake Superior at modern-day Thunder Bay or by following the rivers and lakes which today mark the Canada/U.S. border between Ontario and Minnesota (the Pigeon and Rainy Rivers).

The 1755 map section shows the richness of place names that the voyageurs had all along the south shore of Lake Superior, undoubtedly because they frequently travelled there. In fact, in the mid-XIXth century, the German travellor Hans Georg Kohl made many observations which show that French-Canadian voyageurs not only influenced the First Nations who lived there, but in several instances, some of these voyageurs settled there.