#2195 "Silver Falls Wawa"

I was scouting around Michipicoten looking for the location where Lawrence Nickle painted my treasure of his that he named "Michipcoten Harbour". I did not know where I was going and had no specific directions from Lawrence. Customers and tourists have a propendency to turn right if given a choice. Maybe it is the Coriolis force at work. I took the High Falls Road exit from the Trans Canada Highway. Turned right on to Queen Street and then followed Michipicoten Harbour Road because of the name. On the way I found beautiful Silver Falls and took some pictures in the light rain. This view was looking northward to the falls. The landscape was inspiring. All of the road names sounded like there would be a terrific painting subject along them somewhere. Looking back I think that Lawrence Nickle would have set up his easel south of where the Michipictoen River flows into Lake Superior.

Michipicoten is a word in the Ojibwe language that means "big bluffs". The Michipicoten River is a river in the Algoma District which flows from Dog Lake and joins with the Magpie River to then empty into Michipicoten Bay on Lake Superior south of the town of Wawa. In the days of the fur trade, this river provided access to James Bay by way of the Missinaibi and Moose rivers.

Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers are believed to be the first non-natives to travel this route. A French fur trading post was built at the river's mouth in the early 18th century. The Hudson's Bay Company started building trading posts along the route in the 1770s. The HBC post at Michipicoten River was operated until abandoned in 1904. A lot of journeys to anywhere in the world can begin at Silver Falls.

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