Thousand-Year Path

The path of European history in Canada begins ten centuries ago with the first ventures of Norsemen to the northeastern coasts. It winds westward across the continent and through time, following the rise of the cod fishery, the fur trade, the early farms of Acadia and those of the Loyalists who retreated to Canada after the American Revolution. In decades, the Prairies were transformed from buffalo country to wheat farms, and British Columbia from a fur trading colony to a complex society of many peoples. The scenes of the past glimpsed along this historical trail allow travelers to build their own sense of the country's history and of the immense labor undertaken by previous generations.