Excavations at Ste. Marie Among the Hurons

Ste. Marie Among the Hurons is one of Tay Township’s most important historic sites.  The village of Ste. Marie was founded in 1639 as a Jesuit mission.  The community had a hospital, church, houses and workshops, and was used as a base for the Jesuit priests in the area.  In 1644, the village became a place of pilgrimage, recognized in a Papel Bull from Rome.                   The Jesuits lived peacefully amongst the Huron people in the area, although it is not entirely clear how successful their conversion attempts were.  Meanwhile, tension between the Huron and Iroquois increased over fur-trade power struggles and in 1648 the Iroquois, backed by English and Dutch traders, attacked the Huron nation.  Already weakened by famine and European diseases, hundreds of Huron were killed, and their villages burned.  In 1649, Jesuit priests Brebeuf and Lalement were martyred at St. Ignace (near present-day Victoria Harbour).  Ste. Marie had yet to be attacked, but due to its vulnerability, the remaining Jesuits and Huron survivors abandoned the village, setting fire to it as they left. In 1941, the Martyr’s Shrine contracted the Royal Ontario Museum to conduct an archeological dig at the Ste. Marie site.  The crew consisted of Kenneth Kidd and five other ROM employees, as well as eight volunteer workmen from Victoria Harbour.  This photo shows them at work on the first major test trench across what was thought to be the centre of the site. Today, the village of Ste. Marie has been recreated on the site, and is one of Canada’s leading historical attractions.