This small community is about 65 km south of Sudbury on Highway 69 towards Toronto,
where the roadway crosses the French River. The French River flows 125 kilometres from
Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay (on Lake Huron), dropping a total of 20 metres (60 feet).
It was an important link for the Montreal-based North West Company fur traders on their
way to the Great Lakes and Canada’s west. This town was a stopping-off point for early fur traders.
It was known as the Riveire des Francais under the Frnch, and beame anglicized in 1759
as Frenchman's River on the first English maps. By 1847, the current French River became the accepted usage.
Most of the French River and the land along its shores is now parkland, including a 25
km wide estuary into Georgian Bay where the river winds a path between glacier-scoured
Canadian Shield. The area is renowned for its fishing for species as diverse as walleye,
muskie, northern pike, large and small mouth bass, trout, perch, sunfish, rock bass, sturgeon,
channel catfish, and whitefish.
