Pre-European settlement

The earliest human settlement in the area occurred after the retreat of the waters following the last "ice age," namely, the Wisconsin glaciation. According to geologists, it seems that islands in the Champlain sea began to make their appearance around 11,000 B.C. (here we speak of the shoulders of Rigaud Mountain [the summit of Rigaud was always above the waters of the Champlain Sea], and possibly the shoulders of Mont Bleu, and by c. 9,000 B.C., after the waters had receded to a considerable extent, although by no means to the degree that we know today, small bands of nomadic hunters (paleo-indians) were in the general area, having come here from the south or south-west. It should be noted that to date, there is no evidence that there were paleo-indians in the immediate area, although there is some evidence that they were in the Trent-Severn water-ways in eastern Ontario.