The Early Woodland period (Figure 4) is distinguished from the Archaic by the appearance of ceramics or pottery, and is subdivided into the Meadowood Complex (ca. 900 - 400 B.C.) and the Middlesex Complex (ca. 450 - 0 B.C.). Two distinctive features of the Meadowood Complex are thick, relatively crude ceramics or pottery made by coil construction and "Trapezoidal" gorgets (Figure 2). Other notable features include the liberal use of red ochre in burials, tubular ceramic pipes, fire making kits utilizing iron pyrites, and copper ornaments. There was still a strong reliance on deer hunting, fishing and nut gathering (Spence et al. 1990).
The Middle Woodland period from ca. 300 B.C. to A.D. 700 is distinguished by the appearance of decorated ceramics (Figure 2). The period is subdivided into the Saugeen Complex and the Couture Complex (Spence et al. 1990). The Saugeen Complex gives the first archaeological evidence for human occupation of the Long Point peninsula. Various Middle Woodland seasonal campsites and fishing stations were located in the shallow bays opening up to Long Point Bay, perhaps to exploit spawning fish (Figure 5). Due to the rapidly changing geomorphology of the Point, many of these sites are being eroded or inundated by water.
The Woodland Complex known as Princess Point is well represented in the central Grand River Valley (Figure 2). It is represented at Long Point by the Varden Site near the tip of the peninsula (Figure 6), and by the remains of a shaman and his "medicine bag" including bone tubes and small mammal skulls (Fox and Molto 1994).
The key feature of the Early Iroquoian period (ca A.D. 900-1300) is the gradual development of agriculture centered around corn, squash and beans. This change is thought to have been gradual rather than rapid because there is evidence of a continued strong reliance on gathering wild food. The Reid site near Port Rowan features a number of burials. On the Reid Site was located a small, double-palisaded village containing six longhouses covering an area of 0.4 hectares. Buried here were two groups of seven and two persons. Wright (1978) suggests that one of the groups may have been a family unit. Fish remains dominate the animal bones found at the site. Remains of other animals include bear, deer, turtle and numerous small mammals. Floral remains include corn, sumac, hawthorn, butternut, wild cherry, walnut, and acorn (Wright 1978).
From the 1630's onward, the New York Iroquois, armed with Dutch muskets, became the dominant Native power in the area. French-Huron trade routes were increasingly disrupted by Iroquois raiding parties and Huron settlements were periodically raided, with many prisoners being taken back to Iroquois lands. Between 1647 and 1651, the Iroquois were at war with the Neutrals.
The earliest settlers arrived by boat, and soon cleared land and made their homes near the Lake Erie shore and along accessible creeks and rivers (Howes 1985). Arriving from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and the New England states, Loyalists chose the western part of Norfolk County, bordering Long Point Bay, to clear and cultivate land for agriculture (Howes 1985) (Figure 8).
The land in Norfolk was ideally suited for settlement, "owing to the large proportion of plains which is found to be easily brought into a state of cultivation, and other parts ... with excellent timber for fencing, building etc."(land surveyor Thomas Welch 1797, in Howes 1985, 14). The natural hay meadows, plains interspersed with woodland, adjacent sheltered anchorages, accessible even to large vessels of the day, and a mild climate created favourable local conditions. These led eager newcomers to settle the area before it was surveyed and while it was still isolated from even the nearest settlements (Department of Lands and Forests 1963).
In 1866, 6044 hectares of land on the peninsula were sold by the province to the private Long Point Company. The Company introduced private policing and protection of its natural resources. The Company members, initially seven in number, were avid hunters and outdoorsmen. Through its Charter, the Company controlled issuance of licenses to hunt, trap and fish on its property. Spring duck hunting was banned and fall hunting could not start before September 1 of each year. Other properties on the peninsula, such as Ryerson's Island, were soon purchased by the Company so that by 1871 only the tip of Long Point and much of the Anderson Property (Figure 9) were exempt from its jurisdiction (Barrett 1977).
Today, the Long Point Company properties encompass critical marshland habitat on the Point. The long history of private ownership and regulated use of the area for outdoor activities, including limited access, has done much to preserve Long Point in its natural state (Skibicki 1993). In 1979 the Company arranged for transfer of large blocks of its holdings to the Canadian Wildlife Service for protection and sustainable use of waterfowl habitat in particular and the environment or ecosystem more generally.
In order to allow for more direct access for lake-going traffic into Inner Long Point Bay, plans were drawn up in the early 1830's to build a canal near the base of Long Point. The canal project was abandoned in 1833, when a strong storm, possibly acting on a small existing dredged canal, opened up a large natural channel in the same location (Figure 9). With higher than average water levels on Lake Erie, the channel served for a number of years as a throughway to the Inner Bay before eventually being filled and closed off by another storm in 1895. To the east, a second channel was opened by a storm in 1865 and lasted until 1906. The wooden lighthouse which was built near this channel in 1879 still stands near the entrance to the present Long Point Provincial Park (Figure 9) (Barrett 1977).
By 1804, the government had allocated money for improving public roads in the province, including a "highway" across the district. Towards the end of the first decade of the 19th century, surveys were undertaken to develop even more roads, although many could not be maintained as passable routes (Department of Lands and Forests 1963).
While roads continued to develop throughout the region, it was not until 1835 that improvements in roadbuilding technology began. At first planks, and later gravel were applied to main roads, so that by 1850 fairly wide and relatively smooth all-weather roads carried people and goods around the region. Tolls were frequently imposed on travelers to pay for the costs of road maintenance. Almost all the improved roads of the 1850's exist today as paved Provincial Highways or County Roads. Throughout this time, direct access to much of the Point was still by boat. It was not until the next century that a permanent link between the peninsula and the mainland was in place. This causeway or road was built from the mainland across the marsh to Long Point in 1928.
By the end of the 1800's, the landscape of the Long Point region was radically different from that of a century before. Increasing industrialization and improvements in technology throughout the nineteenth century allowed settlers to exploit the area's vast natural resources and change the face of the land. Forests were cut to provide timber, fuel and clear land for cultivation, homesteading and ore extraction. Rivers and steams were fished and harnessed for transport and power. Technological advancements in agriculture ensured improved production.
Transportation improvements provided for increased mobility and communication in the once isolated hinterland. Much of the Long Point peninsula, however, remained as it had been for previous centuries. Limited transportation access and the efforts of the Long Point Company ensured that Long Point retained its relatively undisturbed and wild qualities.
Perhaps the major industrial development in the region has been the establishment of three major industries at nearby Nanticoke, east of Long Point and Port Dover in the 1970's. Ontario Hydro constructed a large, coal powered generating station there. Shortly afterwards, a steel processing plant and a fuel refinery were established in the same general location. Not all of the substantial economic benefits envisioned to result from these industries have developed as yet, but the industries do employ thousands of people, many of whom commute from Hamilton and other nearby places.
Beazley, K. 1993. Forested Areas of Long Point: Landscape History and Strategic Planning MA Thesis. Department of Geography. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
Beazley, K. and Nelson, J.G. 1993. Forested Areas of Long Point Region: Landscape History and Strategic Planning Long Point Environmental Folio Publication Series. (Nelson, J.G. and Lawrence, P.L. eds). Technical Paper 3. Heritage Resources Centre, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
Craig, B.E. 1993. Fisheries of Lake Erie and the Long Point Area: Past and Present Long Point Environmental Folio Publication Series. (Nelson, J.G. and Lawrence, P.L. eds). Technical Paper 4. Heritage Resources Centre, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
Dakin, S. and Skibicki, A. 1994. Human History of the Long Point Area Long Point Environmental Folio Series. (Nelson, J.G. and Lawrence, P.L. eds). Working Paper 6. Heritage Resources Centre, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
Department of Lands and Forests. 1963. Big Creek Valley Conservation Report Department of Lands and Forests. Conservation Authorities Branch. Toronto, Ontario.
Dodd, C.F., Poulton, D.R., Lennox, P.A., Smith, D.G., and Warrick, G.A. 1990. "The Middle Ontario Iroquoian Stage" In (Ellis, C.J. and Ferris, N. eds). The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society Inc., No.5. London, Ontario: 321-359.
Ellis, C.J., and Deller, D.B. 1990. "Paleo-Indians" In (Ellis, C.J. and Ferris, N. eds). The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeologiccal Society Inc., No.5. London, Ontario: 37-63.
Ellis, C.J., Kenyon, I.T., and Spence, M.W. 1990. "The Archaic" In (Ellis, C.J. and Ferris, N. eds). The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society, No. 5. London, Ontario.
Fox, W.A. 1990. "The Middle Woodland to Late Woodland Transition" In (Ellis, C.J. and Ferris, N. eds). The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society, No.5. London, Ontario: 171-188.
Fox, W.A. and Molto, J.E. 1994. "The Shaman of Long Point" Ontario Archaeology 57: 23-44.
Fox, W.M. 1985. "The Cultural History of Long Point: An Interim Report" Kewa 85(2): 9-22.
Heidenreich, C.E. 1990. "History of the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes Area to A.D. 1650". (Ellis, C.J. and Ferris, N. eds). The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society, No.5. London, Ontario: 475-492.
Howes, H. 1985. Heritage Buildings of Norfolk Boston Mills Press, Erin Mills, Ontario
Lennox, P.A. and Fitzgerald, W.R. 1990. "The Cultural History and Archaeology of the Neutral Iroquoians" (Ellis, C.J. and Ferris, N. eds). The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society, No.5. London, Ontario: 405-456.
MacDonald, J.D.A. 1986. The Varden Site: A Multi-Component Fishing Station on Long Point, Lake Erie A report prepared for the Ontario Heritage Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Communications under Archaeological Licence No. 83-22. MCTR Cultural Programmes Branch, Toronto, Ontario.
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation. 1994. Cultural Programmes Branch Update Archaeological Site Listing, London, Ontario.
Skibicki, A.J. 1993. The Long Point Region: An Institutional and Land Tenure History and Examination of Management Needs Long Point Environmental Folio Publication Series. (Nelson, J.G. and Lawrence, P.L. eds). Working Paper 3. Heritage Resources Centre, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
Spence, M.W., R.H. Pihl and Murphy, C.R. 1990. "Cultural Complexes of the Early and Middle Woodland Periods" In (Ellis, C.J. and Ferris, N. eds). The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society, No.5. London, Ontario: 125-169.
Wilcox, S. 1993. The Historical Economies of the Long Point Area Long Point Environmental Folio Publication Series. (Nelson, J.G. and Lawrence, P.L. eds). Working Paper 1. Heritage Resources Centre, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
Wright, M.J. 1978. "Excavation at the Glen Meyer Reid Site Long Point, Lake Erie" Ontario Archaeology 29: 25-32.
Heritage Buildings (Figure 12)
(from Dakin and Skibicki, 1994; source: Heritage Buildings of Norfolk, Howes, 1985)
Walsingham Townhship
Backus Conservation Area - Port Rowan
1. Backhouse Mill (later Backus Mill)
In 1798 a grist mill was built near an existing sawmill, of Norfolk pine. The mill was overlooked by American troops when they were on a mill-burning raid in the area in 1814. The mill remained in the possession of the Backhouse family until the Big Creek Conservation Authority purchased the property in 1956; today the mill is owned by the Long Point Region Conservation Authority where demonstrations of pioneer milling are giver. Nearby is the largest tract of Carolinian forest (651 acres or 260 hectares) in Canada, the Backus Woods.
2. John Backhouse Home
The grandson of John Backhouse, who established the mill, built this home in ca. 1853 when he ran the mill and did lumbering in the area.
3. Cherry Valley School
An octagonal brick school built before approximately1866, this building was originally in Townsend Township and was used until 1929. A common practice at the time was to build a schoolhouse on land with a farmer? consent and transfer the land legally at a later date. The school was moved to the Conservation Area in 1982 and reconstructed.
Charlotteville Township
4. St. Williams Anglican Church, St. Williams
A few outer changes have been made to this approximately 1866 church which was added to in 1930. It is maintained completely by the congregation.
5. Daniel Abile McCall House, St. Williams
Local timbers and bricks were used in the construction of this typical Gothic Revival farmhouse, ca. 1865. McCall was grandson to Loyalist settlers Duncan McCall and Hannah Shearer. The business they established here continued for four generations (until the 1960s) and was known for fine furniture and boat building.
6. Romaine Van Norman House, Normandale
Romaine ran the family furnace from 1840-1852, when it ceased to operate, and built this house, ca. 1842, an example of a Regency cottage, with Classical Revival front.
7. Union Hotel, Normandale
Photo 3.1 Union Hotel, Normandale
This authentic 19th century hotel, ca. 1833, was built about 12 years after the establishment of the Van Norman Foundry. It served as the social centre of the community and provided a ballroom for gala events. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by Twp. of Delhi Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC).
8. Rebecca Anderson House, Vittoria
This house was constructed ca. 1852 by the daughter of Loyalists Walter and Mary Anderson.
9. Christ Church, Vittoria
This church was built ca. 1852 by the second Baptist congregation in Ontario. It was the first Baptist Congregation in Norfolk County.
10. Vittoria Baptist Church
11. St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Vittoria
This church was built ca. 1845 on one acre of land donated by Rebecca Anderson. In 1925 it became a United Church
Woodhouse Township
12. Edward Ryerse House, Port Ryerse
Edward owned the first brickyard in Port Ryerse in 1835, and is credited with making the first harbour improvement and building the first pier and warehouses in Port Ryerse. He built this house ca. 1849 on land granted to Samuel Ryerse in 1796.
13. Issac Vail House, near Port Ryerse
This rural house was built in approximately 1852 by the son of Loyalist Issac Vail Sr. William Pope lived here from 1869 to 1902 and it remained with his family until 1922. A keen naturalist, some of Pope's best paintings were done here in the 1860s.
14. Isaac Gilbert House, near Port Dover
This late Neoclassical home was built in ca. 1843 by the son of Isaac Gilbert Sr., a Loyalist who arrived in 1799. It remains in the family (granddaughters), and was restored in 1962.
15. Clark and Street House, Port Dover
This Regency style house was built in ca. 1828 on land purchased soon after 1814 raid on Dover. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by Nanticoke LACAC.
16. Lewis Bowlby House, Port Dover
The grandson of Loyalist Thomas Bowlby built this house in ca. 1857 on land granted to Bowlby in the early 1800s. It was used as a girls's boarding school for some years in the late 1800s.
17. William Shand House, near Port Dover
William Shand built this house in ca. 1843 after arriving from Aberdeen Scotland. It remains in the family to this day.
18. James Walker House, near Simcoe
James Walker, one of the first white children born in the Long Point Settlement, had this house built in approximately 1825.
19. Joseph B. Culver House, Gore (near Simcoe)
This house built in about 1840, is currently occupied by the great, great grandson of its original owner. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by Simcoe LACAC
20. Hiram Bowlby House, Gore
This house was built in ca. 1848 for the grandson of Thomas Bowlby, an early settler. Five generations of descendants have lived in the house.
21. Alfred Ades House
This house was built in ca. 1858 by a local miller. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by Simcoe LACAC
22. Thomas Mulkins Residence, Simcoe
This house was built in about 1845 and is one of the earliest brick buildings. Thomas Mulkins was a merchant and later postmaster, and the building operated as post office from 1848 to 1878. It is now the Eva Brook Donly Museum, donated by Eva, a local artist, in 1941. Designated under the Ontario Heritage act by Simcoe LACAC.
23. & 24. Norfolk Count Courthouse, Simcoe
Almost demolished in the mid-1970's, this grouping of buildings (courthouse, jail, crown attorney's office and registry office) forms an exceptional example of county town buildings. The courthouse was built in ca. 1864. The jail built in ca. 1847 served as the town jail until 1978. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by Simcoe LACAC.
25. Duncan Campbell House, "Lynnwood" Simcoe
This Classical Revival style house built in ca. 1851-1858 now houses the Lynnwood Arts Centre. It is also a National Historic Site. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by the Simcoe LACAC.
Townsend Township
26. Bloomsburg Baptist Church, Bloomsburg
This church was built in ca. 1850 on land donated by William Kitchen.
27. James L. Green House, Waterford
This house was built in ca. 1847 for Green, a prominent businessman and owner of Waterford's first foundry, which manufactured various farm implements, including the Royal Royce Reaper which replaced the scythe. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by the Nanticoke LACAC.
28 Joseph Merritt House, Waterford
Built in ca. 1850 by Dr. J. Merritt, a prominent local doctor, who sold it by 1861. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by the Nanticoke LACAC.
29. Leonard Sovereign House, Waterford
This house was built in ca. 1842 for Sovereign, who influenced much of the early settlement and gradual development of Waterford
30. David Duncombe House, near Waterford
Built in ca. 1867 for Dr. Duncombe this typical fieldstone house was where he practiced medicine until 1887, after moving from Waterford to farm.
Work Cited
Barrett, H.B. 1977. Lore and Legends of Long Point Burns and MacEachern Ltd. Don Mills, Ontario.