(Source: Long Point Environmental Folio 1996)

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Long Point area was inhabited by the Neutral Indian Nation or the Attiwanderons, as the Hurons to the north named them, meaning ‘people whose speech is different’. They traded with the Hurons and the Iroquis peoples, as they were skilled at working with flint. For three hundred years they sustained this way of life until 1650 when the Iroquois defeated them (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). For many years afterward the area was known as “the beaver hunting grounds of the Iroquois”, but gradually tribes from the north migrated into the area. One of these tribes, the Mississaugas, eventually occupied the Long Point area. Although they were a semi-nomadic people, fairly permanent villages apparently existed at Port Dover and Turkey Point (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). The Neutrals and Mississaugas relied entirely upon natural resources (fishing and hunting) and agriculture for their survival. Important crops were corn, squash, beans and tobacco (Chanaysk, 1970). These agricultural activities allowed large numbers of individuals to occupy villages. For example, when Jesuit Priests first visited south western Ontario they reported about 40 villages and estimated that they contained at least 12,000 individuals.

The Long Point region was within a tract of land purchased May 22, 1784, by the British Crown from the Mississauga Indians (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). Irregular settlement occurred from 1789 to 1794, with systematic settlement beginning after townships were surveyed in the late 1790′s and early 1800′s. As part of these pioneering activities, the United Empire Loyalists established what they called “the Long Point Settlement” between 1791 and 1794 (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). Between 1791 and 1812, over 3000 immigrants took up land in the Long Point area, bringing United Empire Loyalists from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and the New England states. This was the beginning of a period of intense human impact in the area around Long Point, through lumbering, repeated wildfire after logging, clearing for agriculture and grazing of livestock in the forests, plains, and marshes (Heffernan, 1978). Saw mills and grist mills played an important role in the early settlement and economy of the region, and provided a focal point around which villages grew (Department of Lands and Forests 1963, Barrett 1977, Howes 1985). As settlers cleared the land for agriculture, the large hardwood trees they removed were floated down Big Creek and local tributaries for commercial production. The location of the first local mill is uncertain; family accounts in both the Ryerse-Ryerson and Backhouse families lay claim to being the first. The Backhouse grist mill, still in operation at Backus Heritage Conservation Area outside of Port Rowan, remains a superb example of grist mills of the time.

Initially, economic activities of the Long Point settlers were based primarily on agriculture and lumber. Wheat continued to be the dominant crop throughout the 1800′s. By the 1880′s, however, competition from western prairie wheat growers increased, and barley, oats, and corn became the major crops in Norfolk County (Wilcox 1993). A small fruit farming industry was set up in the area before 1866. Vineyards and peach orchards were scattered along Long Point, but when the Long Point Company purchased land on the peninsula in 1866, further cultivation ceased (Wilcox 1993). Livestock continued to range at large on the peninsula until 1870. By the closing decade of the nineteenth century, mixed farming was the dominant agricultural activity in the area near the peninsula, and agriculture continued to be the primary economic activity.

The economy of the Long Point area appears to have experienced a substantial decline toward the end of the 19th century. This decline is most explicitly suggested by population trends for the townships of the area. The reasons for this decline are not clear, but may be linked to large scale removal of forest, declining soil fertility, increased competition from agricultural commodities produced in other areas, and possibly the absence of a lake shore railway which would have provided an economic stimulus.

Except as a by-product of settlers clearing land, commercial lumbering was limited in the Long Point region before 1840 (Barrett 1977). Big Creek and its tributaries were the primary transportation route for most of the logs and sawn lumber (Barrett 1977). By 1845, the first lumber was exported from Norfolk County. Port Royal, at the mouth of Big Creek became an important timber shipping centre (Barrett 1977). The logging of the substantial pine and oak forests was so intense that by the mid-1860′s the best timbers were gone, and by 1880, even local demand could not be met. When forests on the mainland began to dwindle by 1860, Long Point peninsula itself began to be cleared. The damage there was apparently quite profound. Miles of shoreline disappeared and large blowouts resulted when ridges were cleared (Barrett 1977). By 1900, forested lands in the Long Point region generally had been reduced to 11 percent (Beazley and Nelson 1993).

During the period of decline and change, commercial fishery operations remained very active. Whillans (1979) indicated that seine operations peaked between 1896 and 1905, with 15-17 seines being licensed in 1894, and 27 in 1906. Lake Trout and Whitefish continued to be important species for the fishing industry, while Herring, Blue Pike and Walleye increased in importance. In addition, the importance of the Lake Sturgeon to the commercial fishing industry increased dramatically. Whillans argued that the construction of the Long Point causeway in 1928 interfered with fish movement and habitat and contributed substantially to the disappearance of Muskellunge and to decreased populations of Northern Pike, since there were no other apparent stresses at the time of their population declines. Northern Pike apparently shifted their spawning grounds from the now blocked Big Creek marsh eastward along the south shore. Whillans also indicated that there is evidence that the construction of a dam in Big Creek between 1889 and 1894 probably had a negative effect on Walleye and Yellow Perch populations in the Inner Bay.

The Long Point area apparently was first used for recreational activities, in the larger sense of the term, during the late 1850′s and early 1860′s (Barrett, 1977). One of the first visitors to frequent Long Point was Egerton Ryerson. He had inherited Ryerson Island from his father in 1854 and first visited the Point in 1859. Although his initial use of the Long Point area was for sport hunting he eventually began to spend his summers there as well.

During the 1870′s summer vacations and summer cottages were becoming common in Ontario (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). No longer were hunting and fishing the only recreational activities in the Long Point area. Bathing and boating were becoming popular and beach sites were in demand. As the pioneer period ended, Port Dover and Port Rowan began to benefit substantially from tourism and the “cottage trade” as commercial and service industries increased (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963).

The south end or “neck” of the Long Point sandpit or peninsula was designated as Long Point Park in 1921. (Heffernan, 1978) In 1923, the Ontario government commissioned “A Plan of Subdivision of Part of the Long Point Park” (Speight and VanNostrand, 1923). In 1928, a causeway was constructed from the mainland to Long Point. The causeway provided better access to the new park and cottage development was initiated. Heffermen (1978) found little information on the early development of the park except for a 1938 London Free Press article that reported roads being built throughout the park.

In 1940, Wilson (1974) reported less that 100 summer cottages and one permanent residence within the Long Point Park. Cottage development increased in 1944 however, when the provincial government began to supply new cottage lots on a 21 year lease.