A 9,000-year-old archaeological site is now ready to become a new stretch of four-lane highway in Northwestern Ontario.
After two years of work, the McKenzie 1 site, located behind the McKenzie Inn on Highway 11/17, is officially closed after a traditional ceremony held by the Anishinabek Nation Northern Superior Chiefs Thursday afternoon.
The ceremony was led by Rocky Bay First Nation’s James Mishquart, who said the ceremony is a way to show thanks to the archaeological team and to pay respect to the people that once lived there.
“This site here is very significant in that a people existed here some 9,000 years ago; it’s always customary amongst our people to show our appreciation especially in terms of what has happened here at this particular site,” said Mishquart.
The four-lane highway currently under construction in that area will be built right through the dig site, which project archaeologist Dave Norris said is one of the largest in Northern Ontario.
About 416 projectile point fragments were found along with other tools made from material found in places like Dryden and Wisconsin.
“It really plays into the significance of the site in the sense that I think this was a gathering area for people that were travelling, coming into Ontario for the first time,” Norris said. “People knew about this area for some reason or another, whether it was the location or the animals they hunted.”
“They met here and they lived here for quite some time. That’s seen by the size of the site and the amount of tools we found … They stayed here. They lived here and they came back year after year,” Norris added. “It was pretty incredible overall.”
