Carrying Place is a small town (hamlet maybe) close to Trenton. People pass through it on their way into Prince Edward County (from the highway 401, there's only 2 ways into the county), and as the expression goes "blink and you will miss it". There's a few houses, a Post Office and a small diner. The general store closed down some years ago. It is little more than a bedroom community for the larger towns of Trenton and Belleville. Certainly most people in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) would never have heard of this small place, but it is one of Ontario's oldest settled areas and it had a huge impact on the history of Ontario some years ago.

After the American Revolutionary War, refugees who remained loyal to the Crown were streaming into this area after having left the new nation of America. At the time, the Quinte area was under the signeurial system of Quebec, and the Loyalists objected to this, even though there were no French settlements. The land was inhabited by the Mississauga Peoples, and conflicts were beginning to arise between the new Loyalist settlers (squatters?) and the original inhabitants.

On October 9 1783, in the small settlement of Carrying Place, an agreement was reached between Captain William Crawford on behalf of the Crown and the Mississauga chiefs. In exchange for guns, gunpowder, 12 laced hats and some red cloth the Mississauga people would give up some land to the Crown and allow for peaceful settlement of the Loyalists.

This treaty was known as the Gunshot Treaty. The Aboriginals gave up their land rights extending north of the Great Lake within the sound of a gunshot - which came to be almost 20 kilometers. This parcel of land stretched from the Trent River (which flows into the Bay of Quinte) on the east all the way to the Humber River on the west side of what is now known as the city of Toronto.

Imagine that. The land that became the heartland of Ontario's economy was sold for a pittance. The land that Toronto grew upon and became such a huge city upon was bought for some guns and 12 lace hats in the small community of Carrying Place, Ontario. Next time you happen to be driving to Prince Edward County, don't blink when you drive through Carrying Place. It played a significant role in the history of Ontario