This article is about the river in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Links to other rivers of the same name can be found here. There are several rivers in the world called the Humber River: Humber River (estuary England on the eastern coast Humber River (Newfoundland For the two colleges named after this particular river, visit Humber College. Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning (generally referred to as Humber) is a College in Toronto, Ontario,

The Humber, as seen from a point near the northern border of Toronto.

The Humber River is one of two major rivers on either side of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the other being the Don River to the east. Toronto (təˈrɒntoʊ colloquially pronounced or) is the largest city in Canada and is the provincial capital of Ontario This article is about the river in Toronto Canada For other rivers with the same name see Don River (disambiguation. It was designated a Canadian Heritage River on September 24, 1999. The Canadian Heritage Rivers System (CHRS was established in 1984 by the federal provincial and territorial governments to conserve and protect the best examples of Canada Events 622 - Prophet Muhammad completes his hegira from Mecca to Medina. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The Humber collects from about 750 creeks and tributaries in a fan-shaped area north of the city. One main branch runs for about 100 km from the Niagara Escarpment to the northwest, while the other major branch starts in the Lake St. The Niagara Escarpment is a long Escarpment, or Cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs westward from New York State, through George in the Oak Ridges Moraine near Aurora, Ontario to the northeast. The Oak Ridges Moraine is an ecologically sensitive geological landform in the Mixedwood Plains of south central Ontario, Canada. Aurora ( 2006 Population 47629 is an affluent Canadian town in York Region, approximately 40 km north of Toronto They join north of Toronto and then flow in a generally southeasterly direction into Lake Ontario at what was once the far western portions of the city. Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America.

The Humber has a long history of human settlement along its banks. Native settlement of the area is well documented archaeologically and occurred in three waves. Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos The first settlers were the Palaeo-Indians who lived in the area from 10,000 to 7000 BC. The second wave, people of the Archaic period, settled the area between 7000 and 1000 BC and began to adopt seasonal migration patterns to take advantage of available plants, fish, and game. The third wave of native settlement was the Woodland period, which saw the introduction of the bow and arrow and the growing of crops which allowed for larger, more permanent villages. Archery is the practice of using a bow or Crossbow to shoot Arrows Archery has historically been used in Hunting and Combat and has The Woodland period was also characterized by movement of native groups along what is known today as the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, running from Lake Ontario up the Humber to Lake Simcoe and eventually to the northern Great Lakes. The Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, also known as the Humber Portage and the Toronto Passage, was a major Portage route in Ontario, Canada linking Lake Simcoe is a Lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the twelfth-largest lake in the province The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border.

The Humber during a mild winter (February, 2006)

Étienne Brûlé was the first European to encounter the Humber while travelling the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail. Étienne Brûlé ( c 1592 ( Champigny-sur-Marne, France) &ndash c Brûlé passed through the watershed in 1615 on a mission from Samuel de Champlain to build alliances with native peoples. Samuel de Champlain (c 1575 - 25 December 1635) "The Father of New France " was a French navigator geographer cartographer The Trail became a convenient shortcut to the upper Great Lakes for traders, explorers, and missionaries. A major landmark on the northern end of the trail in Lake Simcoe was used to describe the trail as a whole, and eventually the southern end became known simply as "Toronto" to the Europeans.

A fort, Fort Toronto, was constructed about 1 km inland from the mouth of the Humber to protect the Trail, which eventually became the modern city of Toronto. During the 1660s this was the site of Teiaiagon, a permanent settlement of the Seneca used for trading with the Europeans. Teiaiagon was a Seneca and Mohawk Nations {Fact|date=July 2008}} village on the east bank of the Humber River in Toronto, Ontario The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. Popple's map of 1733 shows a prominent river beside "Tejajagon" which we can only assume was the Humber. Its name is given as the Tanaovate River. French missionaries used the area for many years, including Jean de Brébeuf and Joseph Chaumonot in 1641, Louis Hennepin in 1678, and Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle in 1680. Saint Jean de Brébeuf ( 25 March 1593 &ndash 16 March 1649) was a Jesuit Missionary, Martyred in Father Louis Hennepin, OFM baptized Antoine, ( 12 May, 1626 &ndash c René Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle ( November 22, 1643 &ndash March 19, 1687) was a French

However, no permanent European settlement occurred until the arrival of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (not the famous author) in the late 1700s. Rousseau piloted John Graves Simcoe's ship into Toronto Bay to officially begin the British era of control in 1793. Lieutenant-General John Graves Simcoe ( February 25, 1752 &ndash October 26, 1806) was the first Lieutenant governor of Upper Most of the British attention was focussed to the east of the Humber, around the protected Toronto Bay closer to the Don River. Settlement was scattered until after the War of 1812 when many loyalists moved to the area, who were joined by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland who chose to remain in British lands. The War of 1812 was fought between the United States of America and the British Empire, particularly Great Britain and her North American colonies Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain.

By the 1840s, agriculture had developed suffiently to support a grist mill and a sawmill, both built by Joseph Rowntree. Joseph Rowntree was pioneer in north Etobicoke village of Thistletown and established two mills on the banks of the Humber River.

As the Toronto area grew, the lands around the Humber became important farming areas and were extensively deforested; in addition, some areas of the river's flood plain were developed as residential. ||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||}A floodplain, or flood plain, is flat or nearly flat land adjacent to a Stream or River that experiences occasional or periodic This led to serious runoff problems in the 1940s, which the Humber Valley Conservation Authority was established to address. But in 1954, Hurricane Hazel raised the river to devastating flood levels, destroying buildings and bridges; on one street, Raymore Drive, 60 homes were destroyed and 32 people killed. Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) Hurricane Hazel was the worst Hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the worst hurricanes of the 20th century A bridge is a Structure built to span a Gorge, Valley, Road, railroad track, River, Body of water

The Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority succeeded the Humber Valley authority in 1957 (the word "Metropolitan" was dropped in 1998). Toronto and Region Conservation Authority ( TRCA) or Office de protection de la nature de Toronto et de la région is one of 36 conservation authorities More recently, a task force within the TRCA was formed to further clear the Humber as a part of the Great Lakes 2000 Cleanup Fund.

The Humber as it exits into Lake Ontario. The bridge carries a cycling path over the river, and is the same path as in the image above, some 20k to the north.

Unlike the Don to the east, the Humber remained relatively free from industrialization as Toronto grew, mainly because it is much flatter and does not provide a large river valley to build in. Since Hurricane Hazel showed the land to be unsuitable for housing, it has been largely developed or redeveloped as parkland, with the extensive and important wetlands on its southern end remaining unmolested. Hurricane Hazel was the worst Hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the worst hurricanes of the 20th century Whereas the mouth of the Don is often clogged with flotsam and is obstructed by low bridges, the Humber is navigable and a major sporting and fishing area.

Today the majority of the Toronto portion of the Humber is parkland, with paved trails running from the lakeshore all the way to the northern border of the city some 30 km away. Trails following the various branches of the river form some 50 km of bicycling trails, much of which are excellent. Cycling is the use of Bicycles or - less commonly - Unicycles Tricycles Quadricycles and other similar wheeled Human powered vehicles Similar trails on the Don tend to be narrower and in somewhat worse condition, but the complete set of trails is connected along the lakeshore, for some 100 km of off-road paved trails.

Tributaries

• Albion Creek
• Black Creek
• Humber Creek
• Humber River West Branch
• Cold Creek
• Centreville Creek
• Salt Creek
• Silver Creek

See also

• List of Ontario rivers
• List of rivers of Canada
• Humber Bay Arch Bridge
• Etobicoke
• Humber Valley Village
• Bolton, Ontario

External links

• The Humber Watershed, the TRCA's site for the Humber Watershed Task Force
• Flooding events in Canada - Ontario, an Environment Canada page