Management Statement

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, represented by the President and Chief Executive Officer of Parks Canada, 2025.

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Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte National Historic Site of Canada

Approval

Approved by:

Parks Canada manages one of the finest and most extensive systems of protected natural and historic areas in the world. The Agency’s mandate is to protect and present these places for the benefit and enjoyment of current and future generations. This management statement outlines Parks Canada’s management approach and objectives for Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte National Historic Site of Canada.

Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte National Historic Site of Canada is located on the isthmus at the west end of the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario (https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/on/carryingplace). The site is at the intersection of County Road 64 and the Loyalist Parkway (County Road 33) and is comprised of a small plot of land owned by Parks Canada containing a solitary Historic Sites and Monuments Board cairn and plaque. It was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1929 because it marks the location where Sir John Johnson and the Chiefs of the Mississauga negotiated a treaty in 1787 to cede the lands enclosing a river and portage route between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron.

Plaque text:
Following the peace settlement of 1783, the British sought alternative trade routes north of the new boundary. Among these was the communication, via river and portage, between Lakes Ontario and Huron. Here, at the Bay of Quinte carrying place, on 23 September 1787, preliminary negotiations for cession of lands enclosing the route were held between some Mississauga chiefs and Sir John Johnson. The purchase of a tract at Toronto and one at Matchedash Bay was completed the next year and reaffirmed in 1805. While the route was never developed, the purchase did facilitate settlement at Toronto.

Management objectives

Objective: Parks Canada will work with the Mississauga of Alderville to review the reasons for designation as a national historic site to ensure the commemoration reflects Indigenous knowledge, history and stories.

Objective: A continued relationship between Parks Canada and the Mississauga of Alderville enhances public understanding of the significance of the site and supports the conservation and ongoing monitoring of the cairn and plaque.

Objective: Parks Canada will work with the Mississauga of Alderville and the City of Quinte West to ensure that interventions or activities contiguous to the designated place respect the significance of the site and the integrity of any surviving or as yet unidentified archaeological remains which may be found within the site in their original placement and extent.