View topic - Traditional Naskapi/ Montagnais Portage Routes/ AP Low, etc.

Hey Everybody,

I am looking for a resource that might show traditoinal portage/ paddling routes in the Quebec/ Labrador region. I keep reading reports of traditional routes moving people from the St. Lawerance up into the Churchill System of Labrador and beyond but cannot really find any specific information about them.

Certainly somebody has compiled this information? Further, how would one find the maps created by A.P. Low, William Cabot, J.B. Tyrrell in their travels? I would have assumed with the number of history buffs out there this information would be more readily available now.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kindly,
Dave Greene

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You may be able to find the maps at the University of Toronto Library.

I paddled with a guy in 2014 in that area (Natashquan starting from the QNSL rail line), he was in the process of covering much of the original Montagnais routes.

I'll try to contact him and give him a link to this thread. He lives near St John's NL.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/geoscan-index.html

The geoscan index maintained by Natural Resources Canada contains a wealth of historical information about available maps and technical reports (Geological Survey of Canada) produced when the areas you are interested in were originally explored in the late 1800 and early 1900s. Before the internet, many of these publications were distributed to major university libraries across North America, and now much of this information is available for download through the geoscan index – in case you don't have ready access to a large university library where copies might be available.

I was part of a group that explored the Eastmain River area years ago. We found that A. P. Low's reports and maps contained amazingly accurate and detailed canoe route information, since before the advent of travel by air, travel by canoe was the only way people could traverse the North.

I would suggest using the advanced search feature at the link above. You can narrow down the search by several different criteria to get the most useful results. Anything produced after 1950 probably won't offer much information in terms of canoe routes, but maps and reports produced before that time might provide a motherlode of information. Good luck!

Great resources can be found at the Archives of Quebec. I have attached the links to maps from the 1930s which show portages on rivers, before they were dammed. But other routes still are unflooded. Good luck

http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/ ... ext=moisie

http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/ ... ote%20nord

http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/ ... ote%20nord