The Humber River (, ) is a river in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin, is a tributary of Lake Ontario and is one of two major rivers on either side of the city of Toronto, the other being the Don River to the east. It was designated a Canadian Heritage River on September 24, 1999. The river mouth is flanked by Sir Casimir Gzowski Park and Humber Bay Park East.

Name

There are two indigenous names attributed to the Humber. One is "Cobechenonk", for "leave the canoes and go back", attributed to the area's most recent native inhabitants, the Anishinaabe. A second is “Niwa’ah Onega’gaih’ih,” “Little Thundering Waters.” A French map from 1688 called the river "passage de taronto", while Popple's map of 1733 shows the "Tanaovate River" beside the native settlement of Tejajagon. Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe named it the Humber River, likely after the Humber estuary in England.

History

The Humber has a long history of human settlement along its banks. Native settlement of the area is well documented archaeologically and occurred in three waves. The first settlers were the Palaeo-Indians who lived in the area from 10,000 to 7000 BC. The second wave, people of the Archaic period, settled the area between 7000 and 1000 BC and began to adopt seasonal migration patterns to take advantage of available plants, fish, and game. The third wave of native settlement was the Woodland period, which saw the introduction of the bow and arrow and the growing of crops which allowed for larger, more permanent villages. The Woodland period was also characterized by movement of native groups along what is known today as the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, running from Lake Ontario up the Humber to Lake Simcoe and eventually to the northern Great Lakes.

In an attempt to secure the trade route from the British, the French established Magasin Royal, a trading post along the Humber River, near Baby Point. Completed in 1720, the trading post was abandoned shortly after the British fort in Oswego, New York was completed, as it diverted trade away from Magasin Royal.

In 1750, the French built another fort near the mouth of the Humber River, with the intention of diverting aboriginals using it as a passage from proceeding to the British in Fort Oswego. Known as Fort Toronto, the fort saw immediate success, with demand outstripping the supply of goods the Fort was able to provide. The success of the fort persuaded the Governor General of New France, the Marquis de la Jonquière to order the construction of a larger fort, with more trading capacity and military potential, in an effort to consolidate its hold of the region. Fort Rouillé, located in present-day Exhibition Place (east of the Humber River), was completed in the spring of 1751. The fort continued to operate until 1759, during the Seven Years' War. Instructed to evacuate and raze the fort should Fort Niagara be captured, the garrison would vacate the area for Montreal after they were defeated at Fort Niagara in July 1759.

The area was later secured by British forces in September 1760, when the British Army dispatched its chief scout and intelligence officer, Robert Rogers, along with 200 men and fifteen whale boats to take control of the former French fort. In 1772, Jean-Bonaventure Rousseau received a license to trade with the First Nations living within the vicinity of the mouth of the Humber River. His license was later inherited by his son, Jean Baptiste Rousseau, after his death in 1774. Rousseau maintained several contacts in the area, although did not permanently relocate there until 1792; when he established a trading post near the mouth of the Humber River.

Rousseau piloted John Graves Simcoe's ship into Toronto Bay to officially commence the settlement of York in 1793. Most of the British attention was focused to the east of the Humber, around the protected Toronto Bay closer to the Don River. Settlement was scattered until after the War of 1812 when many loyalists moved to the area, who were joined by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland who chose to remain in British lands. Despite repeated efforts into the 1890's (including petitioning for a grant of land to begin raising stock for the construction in 1862) the idea gained no traction.

By 1860, the Humber Valley was extensively deforested. This decreased the stability of the river banks and increased damages done by periodic flooding. In 1878, a disastrous flood destroyed the remaining water-powered mills. As the Toronto area grew, the lands around the Humber became important farming areas; in addition, some areas of the river's flood plain were developed as residential. This led to serious runoff problems in the 1940s, which the Humber Valley Conservation Authority was established to address. But in 1954, Hurricane Hazel raised the river to devastating flood levels, destroying buildings and bridges; on Raymore Drive, 60 homes were destroyed and 35 people were killed. In the aftermath, preventative flood control efforts were taken including building channels, dams, reservoirs, and purchasing land around the Humber to establish flood plains, in a effort to prevent development on adjacent low-lying lands prone to flooding.

The Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (MTRCA later TRCA) succeeded the Humber Valley authority in 1957 (the word "Metropolitan" was dropped in 1998). The watershed is bounded on the west by the Credit River, Etobicoke Creek and Mimico Creek watersheds, and on the east by the Garrison Creek, Don River and Rouge River watersheds, all six of which empty into Lake Ontario; on the north by the Nottawasaga River which empties into Lake Huron; and on the northeast by the Holland River, which empties into Lake Simcoe. The Atlas of Canada.

See also

  • Etienne Brule Park
  • Etobicoke
  • Humber Bay Arch Bridge
  • Humber Valley Village
  • Lambton Mills
  • List of Ontario rivers
  • Weston

References

Other map sources:

Further reading

  • The Humber Watershed at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
  • Flooding events in Canada - Ontario, an Environment Canada page