An artist's perceptions of the layout of Barbican Heights in the 1600s.  Photo: [http://www.tbhs.ca/hughes/pics/hughes.jpg].

 

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The Barbican Heights Neutral Indian Village in St. Catharines is a long extinct community. The area is now a subdivision on St. David’s Road east. Since First Nation people’s history is often more difficult to obtain than European history many of the “facts” we have about this village and native populations in general are very vague. Stories or events may not have been recorded or had been destroyed during a time of war, even lost.

 

Barbican Heights, called the Thorold Site by archaeologists, dates back to the year 1615 AD. Native artifacts were found here as early as 1895, chiefly due to the efforts of two local collectors named McComb and Case.

 

In 1979 a formal excavation was done, prior to building the subdivision visible today. Researchers theorized that the village spanned about 10 acres, located east of Highway 406 and North of St. David’s Rd at the headwaters of a small creek. It was protected by a palisade and might have had over 25 long houses with somewhere around 1,200 people. Five longhouses were excavated inside the village, measuring between 20 and 50 metres in length and about 7 metres wide. Two of these were examined more closely for artifacts and other information about the people who had lived in the village. Several refuse dumps were also examined. Some of the artifacts unearthed from the site include ceramic vessels, pieces of flint, wampum beads, and European trade goods like iron axes, knives and hooks, many of French origin.

 

William Nobel, a researcher from McMaster University, said that the village served as the regional capital for the Onguiarahronnon nation of the Neutral Confederacy from about 1615 to 1630 AD. The village gained this status because its held an important defensive position, overlooking Now the Barbican Heights subdivision, the village occupied a defensive position that overlooked the Ontario plain. A string of these semi permanent villages were located at the edge of the Niagara Escarpment.

 

Although they were far from peace-loving the Neutral Indians were so named because they had refused to become involved in the hostilities between the Huron and Iroquois. They, however, were involved in many years of warfare with the Mascouten Indians of present-day Michigan. The Neutral Indians were not separate from the League of Six Nations which joined forces at the end of the 16th Century even though they were of the same linguistic group.

 

Archaeologists reason that there were very few human remains at the Thorold Site because of the burial practices of these groups. Bodies were often kept for long periods of time before being buried communally after extended ceremonies. Villages like the one at Barbican Heights were mobile, moving to different areas as resources became scarcer or fields had been exhausted of nutrients. It is thought that the Thorold Indians abandoned the site in about 1630, perhaps moving to St. David’s, although some sources say that the group was virtually wiped out by Iroquois around that time period. It is thought that French explorer Étienne Brûlé may have visited on his journeys through the Peninsula, although there is no solid proof of this. A few of the lasting contributions of the ancient First Nations peoples are the names we have for landmarks including Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the former Chippawa Creek.

 

Open access

1. Follow the QEW toward Niagara/East Hamilton/Fort Erie

2. After 51.5 km take the exit onto ON-406 S toward Thorold/Welland/Port Colborne 

3. Drive 11.7 km then take the Saint David's Road E exit 

4. Merge onto St David's Rd 

5. Turn left onto Barbican Gate 

6. Turn right onto Barbican Trail

1. Head north on the QEW towards Toronto

2. Take exit 32 for Thorold Stone Road/Regional Road 57 toward Thorold

3. Turn left onto Thorold Stone Road

4. After 5.5 km continue onto ON-58 N (signs for Thorold/Ontario 406)

5. Take the Collier Road N exit

6. Merge onto Collier Rd S/Regional Rd 56

7. Turn left onto St David's Rd

8. Take the 3rd right onto Barbican Gate

9. Turn right onto Barbican Trail

 

This subdivision is the former location of Barbican Heights Neutral Indian encampment