Surveyed by the Northwest (Fur) Company in 1797; in use, with wooden lock for canoes and bateaux, in or before 1802. Nearby in 17th and 18th centuries were an Ojibwa village, canoe landing, portage and for a time a French trading post and Jesuit Mission; in 18th and 19th centuries, British trading posts, wharf and portage road. The buildings, wharf and lock were destroyed by U. S. troops in 1814. The lock was rebuilt in stone in 1896. The fur companies were merged in the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821

The French explorers who first reached this favoured Ojibway hunting and fishing ground were soon followed by fur traders and missionaries who built a post and mission. By 1762 the region had come under British control and the trade eventually fell into the hands of the North West Company. Canoes and larger boats were towed through the rapids, sometimes by oxen, until 1797-8 when the Company built a canal with a wooden lock sufficiently large to admit a Montréal canoe. The lock was destroyed by American troops in 1814.