THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY CLEVELAND, OHIO 1903 COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY The Arthur H. Clark Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...

The little portage pathways which connected the heads of our rivers and lakes or offered the voyageur a thoroughfare around the cataracts and rapids of our rivers were, as the subtitle of this volume suggests, the “Keys of the Continent” a century or so ago. The forts, chapels, trading stations, treaty houses, council fires, boundary stones, camp grounds, and villages located at these strategic points all prove this. The study of these routes brings one at once face to face with old-time problem

There may be no better way to introduce the subject of the famous old portages of America, than to ask the reader to walk, in fancy, along what may be called a “Backbone of America”—that watershed which runs from the North Atlantic seaboard to the valley of the Mississippi River. It will prove a long, rough, circuitous journey, but at the end the traveler will realize the meaning of the word “portage,” which in our day has almost been forgotten in common parlance, and will understand what it mea

From every point of view the portages of America, considered historically, were most important, because by reason of their strategic position they were coigns of vantage for military operations. Picture the continent at the opening of the culminating phases of the Old French War in 1740-1760. For nearly two centuries military and civil officials, missionaries and traders had been passing to and fro on the Ottawa, St. Lawrence, and Richelieu, through Canada, Illinois, and Louisiana, erecting fort

As introductory to the description of the more noted American portages, it will be advantageous to present them at a bird’s-eye view in the form of a comparative chart stating the names and termini of each, with a remark concerning its specific function:...

The territory lying between the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic seaboard offers an unexcelled field for the study of portage paths and their part in the history of the continent. The student of this branch of archæology finds at his disposal the admirable studies of Dr. William F. Ganong, which cover an important portion of this field. [35] From these studies (the best published account) the following general statements concerning Indian routes of travel are very enlightening: “The Indians o

The strategic value of the “Great Pass” from New York by way of the Hudson, Lakes George and Champlain, and the Richelieu River has already been emphasized. The important military points on the route were the portages from the Hudson to Lake George, from Lake George to Lake Champlain, the narrows at Crown Point, and the portage from Chambly to La Prairie on the St. Lawrence. These portages are marked on numerous early maps; the Hudson-Lake George portage is quite accurately drawn on Colonel Rome

The portage paths from the Great Lakes, or streams entering them, to the tributaries of the Mississippi River were of great importance during the era when that river was the goal of explorers, conquerors and pioneers. So numerous were they, it is only possible to describe the most important briefly in this catalogue. The greater are worthy, each, of an exhaustive monograph, and even those of least prominence were of importance far beyond our ability to understand in these days. Of them all only