Friday, May 07, 2010

view from possible site of Cahiague Huron village

looking ESE towards "The Narrows" at Orillia, the water is Lake Couchiching. Taken on a research drive with members of the Huronia Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society on April 30, 2010.


We were exploring based on map references and descriptions some from work done in 1900. Cahiague is a village site that Champlain visited in 1615, he describes it as having 200 long houses. There is a lot of dispute about where it was situated. This stretch of land has never been excavated, but it was described in 1900 as the site of a large village. There are some other hints as to Cahiague's location from Champlain's accounts. By the time the Jesuits began working in Huronia (1630s and 40s), Cahiague had been abandoned.

Standing behind me where I took this photograph, the 21st century has deposited a microwave relay tower.

Bill Gibson

3 comments:

John Raynor said...

On a previous visit to this site Marg and I drove to Orchard Point on the western shore of the Narrows at Orillia and recorded a distance of 13.5 km.
Thanks for posting the photo Bill.

Unknown said...

Where is the location? Do you know about the history of the area?

John Raynor said...

Sorry for the delay in responding to you comment but I haven't been monitoring this blog for a while.
The site referenced here is on a ridge overlooking Lake Couchiching about 12 km north of Orillia. This area was occupied by the Rock Nation of the Wendat Confederacy in the early 1600s.