Watersheds
A watershed is an area that drains all precipitation received as a runoff or base flow (groundwater sources) into a particular river or set of rivers. The easiest way to describe the network of rivers and lakes on a small-scale map is to show the watersheds. In Canada, there is a detailed hierarchy of watersheds, ranging from the largest (drainage into oceans and their equivalents), down to the smallest ramification. Canada’s ocean watersheds are the Atlantic Ocean, Hudson Bay, Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
There are personal and physical boundary lines some are well demarcated, some are invisible. Sometimes these lines indicate physical features or reflect the social limits of peoples.
A “height of land” is a region of high ground that may act as a watershed boundary. Heights of land were important in the historic fur trade for their influence on the determination of routes and portages and they have affected many transportation routes since then. Drainage boundaries were important to Native peoples in defining territoriality, as they were later to European colonists.
Driving along our northern highways you have seen the signs and plaques identifying the height of land between the Arctic and Great Lakes watersheds. It is a line that traverses Northern Ontario. As the northern wilderness came under development, the erratic line of the watershed defined territorial boundaries. The height of land follows an irregular course of some 2250 kilometres (km) across Ontario, ranging from 32 to 280 km north of Lakes Huron and Superior. But it is more than a place to stop for a photo opportunity.
This watershed was declared the inland boundary of the tract surrendered to the Crown by Ojibwa Indians in the Robinson Superior-Huron Treaties of 1850. It was also widely considered to be the southern limit of Rupert’s Land, the vast, ill-defined Hudson’s Bay Company territory transferred to Canada in 1870, and it figured prominently in the Ontario-Manitoba boundary dispute of 1883-4. At the same time when you are standing on the ground it is almost possible to see which way the water is flowing, but the map helps.
Let’s Get Physical
The Laurentian Divide or Northern Divide is a continental divide in North America dividing the direction of water flow in eastern and southern Canada and the northern Midwestern United States. Water, north of the height of land, flow by rivers to Hudson Bay or directly to the Arctic. Water south of the divide makes its way to the Atlantic Ocean by a variety of streams, including the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River to the east, and the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico to the south.
Larry Dyke is a Professor Emeritus, from Queen’s University, Department of Geology and has retired to the Talon Lake area. He explained the most rugged and fragmented surfaces occur in a band extending from the north shore of Lake Superior, across the Algoma highlands, through the Sudbury region and north of Manitoulin Island.
It is here we find the two of the highest points of elevation in Ontario, Ishpatina Ridge at an estimated 693 m (2,274’) above sea level within Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park. It is often mistaken as being the highest mountain in Ontario, however Maple Mountain is actually lower on the list, but has the highest vertical rise in the province; 351 m (1,152’) on the landscape.
“At a close-up scale there are so many subtle influences on the shape of those lines, especially in flat country. Thinking of the grain in a piece of wood, a slightly different cut may give a very different pattern. A slight bevelling of the landscape will move a drainage boundary kilometers.”
He said, “Most of the rest of the country is controlled by the Canadian Shield as an overall high area with Hudson Bay as a low spot, still rebounding from the last ice age. What we have today is quite different prior to the most recent glaciers. Much meltwater drainage flowed off into the United States but as rebound occurred, this flow turned towards Hudson Bay.”
Treaties and Boundaries
This oscillating line is very important to Canadian history. Initially it marked the southern limit of Rupert’s Land, the vast territory granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670. Two centuries later, it formed the northern boundary of lands ceded to the Crown by the First Nation Ojibwa in the Robinson-Superior –Huron Treaties of 1850 with the Crown. Most of today’s First Nations’ land claims are based on watershed boundaries.
In 1986 Nipissing University (then college) Professor Robert J. Surtees of North Bay (now deceased; the new physical education complex is named in his honour) in a Treaty Research Report for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada wrote, “…in 1791 the boundaries of Upper Canada were set and the new colony received jurisdiction over the territory west of the Ottawa River between the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes waterway and the lands that had been granted to the Hudson Bay Company. Therefore the Upper Canadian boundary was demarcated by the height of land….This is significant for it meant that virtually the entire province was within Indian land as defined by the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763 which decreed therein were reserved “for the Use of the… Indians as their Hunting Grounds (sic).” In essence further land purchases and treaties were developed to alienate Indian title to the land.
The Robinson Treaty for the Lake Superior region, commonly called Robinson Superior Treaty, was entered into agreement on September 7, 1850, at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario between Ojibwa Chiefs inhabiting the Northern Shore of Lake Superior from Pigeon River to Batchawana Bay. It is registered as the Crown Treaty Number 60. Under its terms the Ojibwa surrendered territory extending some 640 km northward to the height of land delimiting the Great Lakes drainage area.
The first Robinson Treaty for the Lake Huron region, commonly called Robinson Huron Treaty, was signed on September 9, 1850, at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario between Ojibwa Chiefs inhabiting the Northern Shore of Lake Superior from Batchawana Bay to Sault Ste. Marie and the Ojibwa Chiefs inhabiting the eastern and northern shores of Lake Huron from Sault Ste. Marie to Penetanguishene to the height of land. It is registered as the Crown Treaty Number 61.
North/South of the Sign
Take a drive on Highway 144 from Sudbury to Timmins. You will come across one of five signs/plaques in Northern Ontario denoting the height of land. (Another is just north of Kirkland Lake on Highway 11.)
There are two hiking trails near the height of land. South of the divide is the Osprey Heights Trail at the northern boundary of Halfway Lake Provincial Park; north of Cartier. The trailhead is just off the east side of the highway; it is a looped 7 km trail with an elevated view of the Boreal forest and Antrim Lake to the south. You can be at the viewing platform within 45-60 minutes. Look for the large erratic.
North of the divide and 2 km north of Gogama is the Gogama Unit Road (west side of 144), a primary forest access road. Drive nine km to the trailhead on the east side. It is a young jack pine forest planted after a micro bust. Within 20-30 minutes you are at the top of the Bald Rock Scenic Lookout Trail with a truly expansive view to the horizon line.
It is now easier to understand which way the water flows. The direction is related to a set of personal values and physical features, one connected to the other by time and place, a little more complex to comprehend.
To Log this EarthCache, please send me the answers to the following questions. Please do not post them in your log
1) What is the posted elevation at this location?
2) What is the elevation on your GPS device?
3) From here all streams flow North into the _______________?
4) From here all streams flow South into the _______________?
5) In your opinion, why do watersheds happen?
6) To prove you were here, how many picnic tables are at this location?