Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Janet Turner, "The Fish Fence: Orillia's Greatest Archaeological Treasure"

Hello Everyone!

I have a last minute event to share with you. I have listened to Janet Turner speak about the Mnjikaning Fish Weirs, and it is very interesting and I encourage you to attend. Janet is a past President of the Mnjikaning Fish Circle. If you missed her visit to see us in September 2011, this is something that I was told about this morning, and I wanted to share it. (See below for details)




A local history group in Orillia has a guest speaker coming this Wednesday, March 21st 7:30pm. Janet Turner is a member of the "Rama Fish Fence Circle", a group from the area around the Chippewas of Rama First Nations reserve outside Orillia. Her group promotes educating the public about, and helping to preserve, the "Rama fish fence" - which was built underwater in the silt bottom of the "Narrows" area, between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, some time around 5000 B.C.E. to catch fish travelling between the two lakes. It is a significant heritage site. The title of Janet's talk is "The Fish Fence: Orillia's Greatest Archaeological Treasure".

If anybody is interested in attending, the talk takes place at St. Paul's United Church in Orillia, beginning at 7:30 p.m. this Wednesday evening (March 21). If people are travelling from Barrie, on Highway 11 northbound, they can get to the church by taking the "Coldwater Road" exit and heading into Orillia, and then when they get downtown the church is on the corner of Coldwater Road and Peter Street (if one is travelling down Coldwater Road from Highway 11, then they'll see St. Paul's to their left, on the opposite side of the intersection (the north-east corner of the intersection). The talk takes place in the basement of the church, and is free to the public, as part of the activities of the Orillia Museum of Art and History.

1 comment:

John Raynor said...

Thanks for posting this Leslie. Janet is a life member of the OAS and a member of our chapter. Her presentation on the fish weirs (first written about by Champlain in 1615)is quite informative and highlights both the features and the history of this National Historic site. The Circle is also involved with an exciting project to build a bridge over the Narrows that will include and interpretive centre that will include both the natural history of the Narrows and that of first contact. Robert Browne represents our chapter at many of their meetings. Well worth attending for those who can.