Little Hawk Portages
Background History
Canoe Routes, River Systems and Lakes have been supporting and supplying our
existence for many centuries. Man made portage trails around rapids and falls, impossible
to navigate, were the way to move goods and canoes on short and long journeys. Over the
last century, many of these land links have been forgotten and left to heal from human
activity. Portag
es were a critical part of an intricate water circuit connecting people and
places. The revival of the Little Hawks is a joint effort of a handful of passionate paddle
individuals concerned of losing this precious heritage that helped shape our country. These writings are about how this portage revival all came about. If my fading memory serves me right, back in 2005, I was invited to join a group of
concerned citizens from Smooth Rock Falls Ontario, to try to stop a new dam project
on the Mattagami River. The founding four Friends of the Mattagami River put extreme
pressure on the developer ‘Canadian Hydro Developers’ to vacate this spectacular
scenic site on the river. Many community activities were organized to create awareness
of the fact that this was one of the last pristine natural sites on the river and that it had
value beyond hydro energy development. Through the persistence and passion of the
individuals involved and the backing of community members, the proponent released the
portion of the project site closest to the community giving up almost 30% of potential
energy production. We are now in the year 2013 and the hydro project site has still not
yet been developed. I must say that the shared concerns that we all have is that, losing the pristine nature
of the few remaining scenic sites on our rivers, is the driving force behind our passion. The historical harnessing of rapids and falls has already changed drastically the nature
of our river systems. Today, because of safety reason and the drive to utilize our rivers
in a peaking power production scheme, we have limited to nearly no access to our most
precious water routes. The face of our precious natural environment is slowly being
invaded and rendered useless to avid outdoors enthusiasts. Friends of Temagami, a strong organization in the Temagami Lake region, got wind of
our river conflicts following one of our public awareness activities on the Mattagami
River. In 2007 the attack on our rivers continued with the announcement of another new
hydro dam project on the Grassy River at High Falls within the City of Timmins. Our
battles North of Temagami has helped develop a relationship between the newly formed
Friends of Grassy River and our neighbouring Friends of Temagami. In the later part of 2009, a member of the Friends of Temagami asked if I knew of a
height of land portage from the West Montreal to the Grassy River. As I usually do first,
I pulled out my maps and started looking for possibilities. A 7 km or so walk from Big Four to Upper Grassy Lake. This option did not seem to
satisfy Ed from Friends of Temagami. I kind of dropped my research for a few months
and one day while I was driving down the streets of Timmins, I remembered a document that one of our members had handed me. This 1900 mining surveyors report describe a
portage from the Grassy River to the West Montreal River. It was very difficult to follow
the route as the lake names were of Native origin and the map produced did not match
accurately the existing water bodies on the land. It was with Adobe reader on my lap
top that we managed to see the faint dotted lines connecting what somewhat matched
Ferris Lake and Pigeon Lake. With help from a couple internet savvy members of our
Friends of Grassy River, we located more recent maps that clearly showed the portage
location. This news of our discovery was to be the beginning of a long journey towards
the eventual application submission to re-habilitate and eventually revive the Little Hawk
Portages. Together, Friends of Grassy River and our partners Friends of Temagami, we
hold approvals from both the Ministry of Natural Resources and the nearby communities
of Mattagami and Matachewan First Nation. We are now on a passionate pursuit of a
mission that will recover a long lost route of our great country. Laurent “Larry” Robichaud
Friends of Grassy River
‘Save High Falls’
