First Nations Inhabitants of Willowbank



 


 


 


 

Front view of Willowbank in 1913 (Watercolour by Owen Staples, 1866-1949)


 
 

As you walk along Dee Road, look up the hill to your right, and see Willowbank,…Thousands of years of history surround this magnificent property.

Multiple archaeological excavations have been conducted on the Willowbank property and these provide us with the information outlined below. The Niagara Region has long been a gathering place for people. Willowbank is located at the top of a hill above the lower Niagara river in one of the oldest settled areas in the province, a location with strategic advantage, which attracted settlement and land use through time, both as the head of navigation on the lower Niagara River and as a point where a native trail following the base of the Niagara Escarpment crossed the Niagara River. The property has archaeological components representing over 9,000 years of human habitation.

To date, two archaeological sites separated into seven clusters or site areas have been located at Willowbank and they comprise about one third of the property. These various sites represent the successive generations of Willowbank inhabitants and display the transition in the use of the land from early native fishers/hunters, to native settlers who may have subsisted as early farmers, to the arrival of the Europeans and the War of 1812 and all of the activities at the once bustling wharf at Queenston.

Here is a brief description of what we know of the two registered archaeological sites outlining what their possible function was or 'site type' and the date, where possible, associated with each cluster (source: Stage 3-4 Archaeological Assessment of the Willowbank Estate site (AhGs-34), Bright Urban Component, Part of Lot 6, Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Village of Queenston, Regional Municipality of Niagara 2009):

Willowbank Estates site – AhGs-34

Cluster A – Campsite dating to roughly 9,000 years ago. This cluster of material appears to be an Early Archaic period temporary campsite identified by a Side Notched Horizon projectile point. Over 1,100 pieces of chipped stone tool materials were located here. Virtually all of the specimens are Onondaga chert likely quarried in the Fort Erie area. Seven musket balls and one gunflint were also recovered.

Cluster B – Ritual use site dating between 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. This site location represents a Terminal Archaic or Early Woodland occupation. It is a location with a large concentration of burnt biface or knife fragments suggesting an area of ritual activities. In addition three musket balls were recovered here.

Reference

Regional Municipality of Niagara. 2009. Stage 3-4 Archaeological Assessment of the Willowbank Estate site (AhGs-34), Bright Urban Component, Part of Lot 6, Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Village of Queenston, Regional Municipality of Niagara.


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