MASSEY
Massey is a picturesque community situated at the mouth of the Sables River where it empties into the Spanish River.
Samuel de Champlain opened the area to Europeans making their way to the New World. A number of settlers reached this area via Fort LaCloche(the primary fur trading post in the Lake Huron district for almost a 100 years).
Intially farmers and loggers were drawn to the area due to the abundance of forests and fertile soils. At the height of the logging boom, there were seven lumber companies operating in the area. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed to Sault Ste Marie in the mid 1800s, the settlers were no longer solely dependant on the river for transportation. James Henry Massey (thought to be civil engineer working for CPR) fell in love with the beautiful and rugged countryside and decided to stay and make his home Massey.
The local farming community saw a need to support good farming practices in a friendly, yet competitive environment and the first Massey Fall Fair was held in 1906 as a result. Over the years, the Fair has grown to be the largest agricultural fair in Northern Ontario, with approximately 15,000 attending each year.
The settlement of the Massey area was directly connected with it's waterways. The first nations people were the first residents. Artifacts found along the banks of both Sable and Spanish Rivers near Massey and appraised by archeological experts have run the full gamut of archaelogical time. They have been estimated to date as far back as 4000 B.C. and predate the pottery of age on Indian culture, indicating an area much travelled by the First Nation people.
It is only since 1850, when the Spanish River Indian Reserve was established by the Robinson Treaty, south west of the present town, that Anishinabe have resided on a penninsula bordering on Lake Huron on the south and Spanish River on the north. Some of the early explorers evidently passed through the are via the French River and the north shore of Lake Huron. In 1761 Alexander Henry Sr. reported reaching "an island called La Cloche because there is a rock standing on the plain, which being struck rings like a bell". Roderick Mackenzie also visited here in 1789.
Source: virtualmuseum.ca
Samuel de Champlain opened the area to Europeans making their way to the New World. A number of settlers reached this area via Fort LaCloche(the primary fur trading post in the Lake Huron district for almost a 100 years).
Intially farmers and loggers were drawn to the area due to the abundance of forests and fertile soils. At the height of the logging boom, there were seven lumber companies operating in the area. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed to Sault Ste Marie in the mid 1800s, the settlers were no longer solely dependant on the river for transportation. James Henry Massey (thought to be civil engineer working for CPR) fell in love with the beautiful and rugged countryside and decided to stay and make his home Massey.
The local farming community saw a need to support good farming practices in a friendly, yet competitive environment and the first Massey Fall Fair was held in 1906 as a result. Over the years, the Fair has grown to be the largest agricultural fair in Northern Ontario, with approximately 15,000 attending each year.
The settlement of the Massey area was directly connected with it's waterways. The first nations people were the first residents. Artifacts found along the banks of both Sable and Spanish Rivers near Massey and appraised by archeological experts have run the full gamut of archaelogical time. They have been estimated to date as far back as 4000 B.C. and predate the pottery of age on Indian culture, indicating an area much travelled by the First Nation people.
It is only since 1850, when the Spanish River Indian Reserve was established by the Robinson Treaty, south west of the present town, that Anishinabe have resided on a penninsula bordering on Lake Huron on the south and Spanish River on the north. Some of the early explorers evidently passed through the are via the French River and the north shore of Lake Huron. In 1761 Alexander Henry Sr. reported reaching "an island called La Cloche because there is a rock standing on the plain, which being struck rings like a bell". Roderick Mackenzie also visited here in 1789.
Source: virtualmuseum.ca
