Chaudière falls, the Boiling Kettle, Asticou… for centuries the subject of Indian legend and voyageur lore, an awesome obstacle, a major landmark along the formidable canoe route across Canada…

The earliest evidence of human presence in the Ottawa Valley dates from about 8,500 years ago. From the earliest ice age and the emergence, then disappearance, of the Champlain Sea, the Paleo-Indian period was characterized by people who hunted large game with stone-pointed javelins. Over the next 6,000 years (to 2,500 years ago), the Archaic period saw the development of mixed forests over the land, yielded as the Ottawa River (KichiSibi or “great river” in the Algonquin language) gradually dropped to its current level. During the Woodland period (from 2,500 years ago until the arrival of the Europeans about 400 years ago), the inhabitants of the Valley began making and using pottery, refining weapons and tools, and advancing agriculture and cooking. The Algonquin peoples roamed this part of the river and its environs, designing and perfecting the birch bark canoe and snowshoes. Through these ages, the Chaudière was an awesome natural phenomenon of great significance to all who passed by.