Lake Nipigon

Lake Nipigon lies north of Lake Superior, its broad waters dotted with islands and surrounded by forest. The Nipigon River carries its outflow south to the great lake. Ojibwe communities lived and travelled around its shores, and the lake also offered refuge to Nipissing people displaced from their homeland during the warfare of 1649–50.

In 1667 the Jesuit Claude Allouez visited a Nipissing village on the lake after travelling up the river. In the 1680s Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, established a French trading post on the lake, seeking to draw the fur trade away from English posts on Hudson Bay. The surrounding country remained a source of furs for traders during the French period and after British merchants entered the region.