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Article: Northern exposure: spurred by recent polls calling to unite northern Ontario and Manitoba, Peter Unwin embarks on a trek from Kenora to Fort Frances to discover the history behind Ontario's oft-neglected region.(Getaway)(City overview)
- Article from:
- The Beaver: Exploring Canada's History
- Article date:
- December 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Canada's National History Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Officially opened in 1932, Highway 71 (then known as "Heenan's Highway") is a Depression works project linking Fort Frances and the Rainy River region with Kenora, Ontario. At the time it was built, local MP Peter Heenan boasted, in a hammy dinner speech joke, that with this road his constituents could now go to where "the hand of man has never set foot."
Today this highway is designated a "scenic byway" by the American Automobile Association. Its southern terminus links up with Highway 11, or, as it's known in Toronto, Yonge Street. Forty-three kilometres east of this intersection is the town of Fort Frances, where French fur trader La Verendrye made an early ...