Ancient Footprints Commemorative plaque (mainland), 2021.
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Resource ID
8689
Access
Open
Address
HTO Park, 339 Queens Quay West, Toronto, ON M5V 1A2
Credit Line
Heritage Toronto
Date of Creation
2021
Historical Themes
Archaeological Heritage, Indigenous Heritage, Toronto Island
Program Category
Plaques
Time Period
Pre-colonization
Caption
Ancient Footprints Commemorative plaque (mainland), 2021.
Description
Between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago, Indigenous people walking in this area left footprints that were preserved in clay and later covered by Lake Ontario. In 1908, workers building a tunnel under the Toronto Bay located the footprints by accident.
The land now within Toronto has been near a major body of water for thousands of years. Small bands of nomadic hunters moved into the Great Lakes region about 13,000 years ago. These people hunted caribou, mammoths, mastodons, and other game. At this time, the shoreline of Lake Ontario was more than a kilometre (3,281 feet) south of its present location.
In 1908, workers building a waterworks tunnel near Hanlan’s Point found more than 100 individual human footprints in a layer of clay 21 metres (70 feet) below the water. They indicated that people were moving north in the direction of today’s downtown Toronto, possibly from a waterfront camp.
The prints were not preserved. The workers continued building the tunnel and destroyed the footprints in the process. Because the prints were lost, it is impossible to say if they were genuine, but experts believe them to have been authentic.
Marker lat / long: 43.637541, -79.387629 (WGS84)