The Toronto Forest That Brought Down Napoleon

A forest with a story that spans the Atlantic, pitting lumberjacks against an emperor, during one of the most pivotal moments in Europe’s history. Napoleon, meet Toronto’s Rouge Valley. Explore Canada's only Urban Park: Rouge National Urban Park.

Clarification:

In no way are we suggesting that the masts made from pine trees in Eastern Ontario were the be-all and end-all in the multi-decade battle between much of Europe and Napoleon--far from it. Without diving too deeply into the subject, we tried to generate some context. The trees shipped to England from the Rouge Valley undermined Napoleon's hopes, and produced the naval firepower the British needed to keep him off the island. But the wars were complex, alliances strengthened and fell, Napoleon was defeated and returned.

Note:

To be clear, for simplicity sake, we used “Toronto” to refer to that muddy early settlement, even though it was originally named York. We try not to go on expository tangents, in order to keep the pacing up.

White Pines:

To all those with a strong knowledge of tree species, you may have only glanced a couple of White Pines in this episode. Fact is, we had a horrible time trying to hunt down actual White Pines in Rouge Park—the lumberjacks did a number on them. They are all over the rest of Ontario, but along the trails of the Rouge Valley, there seem to be far more Red Pines. We only had two days to film the minisode, and given how much walking was involved to get from lookout-to-lookout, we couldn’t spend ages looking for White Pines in cinematic spots.

On that note, White Pines are pretty easy to identify. Each nub on a branch sprouts five soft and long needles. They are the pine trees that look a little gentler than their counterparts, with needles that flow like feathers in a breeze. And boy can they grow tall.

White Pines aren’t just perfect for ship masts; they are great for any situation that calls for a strong, relatively knot-free, water-resistant wood. So sought after that many Ontario property deeds state that one must get permission before cutting a White Pine down—the Crown might call for lumber at any time. And for much of Toronto’s history, they were used in a peculiar way.

If you're ever in downtown Toronto and there’s a condo tower being built nearby, you might notice crews nearer to the lake pulling gigantic white pine logs out of the earth. That’s because, for the decades that Toronto’s leadership allowed it, White Pine logs were used to make ‘baskets’ that would be placed into the lake, filled with garbage and dirt, and built on top of. Toronto’s shoreline used to be much further inland (as far North as Queen Street in places), and the ‘baskets’ were the standard method for building out into Lake Ontario. And when construction crews pull those White Pine artifacts out of the ground, they are often in pristine condition, and resold nearly 100 years after they’d been cut down.

Lord Nelson:

The famous naval commander, Lord Nelson, died fighting in the Battle of Trafalgar, becoming a national hero in England. They named the public square in the heart of London "Trafalgar Square" and built a giant column to honour Nelson's memory. It's one of the most iconic landmarks in Britain. But he was also a hero over here. Defeating Napoleon's navy meant the trade route between Canada and England stayed open. People in Montreal were so happy about that they built their own column to honour Nelson in their own public square more than 30 years BEFORE the Londoners built theirs. It's still there in Old Montreal at the top of Place Jacques-Cartier. Though it just as likely could have been built as a provocation to francophones.

Nelson had also played an important role when it came to those Baltic masts. Before Napoleon's embargo, some of the other most powerful countries in Europe wanted to keep England from being able to trade with the Baltics. So they shut down the narrow channel between Sweden and Denmark — the only way into the Baltic Sea. Nelson was the hero of that episode too. He led the British fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. When his commander gave him permission to retreat, Nelson famously lifted his telescope to his blind eye so that he couldn't see the signal. He kept fighting and won. It meant that the British got to keep trading with the Baltics right up until Napoleon's embargo.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

This is Rouge Park, on the very edge of Toronto. Every day, countless hikers and joggers escape the bustle of the big city to explore these peaceful forests.

Most of them have no clue this is no ordinary hiking trail. This trail is more than 200 years old, and it’s connected to some of the most dramatic events in history — born in a time of bloody war to bring down an emperor half a world away.

This is Canadiana.

The Rouge Valley has been an important place since long before Toronto was founded. The first people to blaze trails through its forests were the ancestors of today’s First Nations, prehistoric hunters who stalked its slopes thousands of years ago.

And in the 1600s, the Seneca village of Ganatsekwyagon sat high on a hill overlooking the valley. The river below was a vital trade route, attracting famous French explorers, fur traders and missionaries.

It wasn’t until the late 1700s that the British showed up. They came to build a new city along that old trade route — a tiny, muddy frontier town that would eventually grow into the biggest metropolis in Canada.

Toronto was founded in 1793 — a notorious year in European history. At the same time the British were laying out the settlement’s first roads here on the shores of Lake Ontario, far on the other side of the Atlantic, the streets of Paris were soaked in blood — the French Revolution was at its terrifying height.

And that meant war.

The revolutionaries who were guillotining aristocrats in Paris were also fighting with nearly every monarchy in Europe. And by 1796, they'd started winning their battles thanks to a popular new general who led the French army to one victory after another.

His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. And it seemed as if no one could beat him. Before long, he had seized power in France, crowned himself Emperor, and built a network of conquests and alliances that stretched from one end of Europe to the other. By the winter of 1806, there was only one country standing in the way: Britain. So, an invasion of Britain was next on Napoleon's list.

There was just one big, floating, wooden problem: The Royal Navy. The British fleet had ruled the waves for the last 100 years. Napoleon’s fleet was no match for it. When they clashed at the Battle of Trafalgar, the French navy was left in tatters.

But Napoleon still had another way of dealing with the Royal Navy: he could take away their wood.

It took thousands of trees to build a single ship. But England was running out of forests — they’d been chopping them down since the Stone Age. The trees they needed to make masts for their ships were especially hard to find: They were made of big, strong, old-growth pines.

The British didn’t have any of those left. They shipped them in from the far side of Europe: from the towering forests on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Shores that were now controlled by Napoleon.

In fact, he controlled just about all of Europe — which meant he could declare an embargo. No one was allowed to trade with England. And just like that, Napoleon had robbed the Royal Navy of their Baltic masts.

The future of Europe hung in the balance. Without masts, there would be no navy. And without a navy, there would be no stopping Napoleon.

That's where Toronto comes in. The city was still just a tiny little frontier town, surrounded by old forests — including this one. And this forest was FULL of masts.

Now, it was ax-wielding lumberjacks making trails through these woods. In fact, it was those lumberjacks who made THIS trail. With the British Empire at war, they came to the Rouge Valley to find the biggest and oldest white pines they could, then bring them crashing to the ground.

Those huge logs were then floated down the Rouge River to Lake Ontario and shipped down the St. Lawrence to make the long journey across the Atlantic.

And it wasn’t just happening in Toronto. There were forests all over eastern Canada. So the lumberjacks got to work. Timber exports went up by about 1000% in just four years. Tens of thousands of masts headed across the Atlantic. And Napoleon’s feeble navy couldn’t do anything about it.

The trees chopped down in the Rouge Valley rose again as masts from the decks of British ships fighting the French half a world away.

The Royal Navy was saved. Napoleon never did invade England. His embargo eventually broke down. And soon, his empire crumbled.

He was defeated and exiled by a coalition of European powers... and then escaped, only to be defeated and exiled again. This time for good.

But even with Napoleon gone, the British still wanted Canadian lumber. Trees kept coming down and exports kept going up. Soon forestry had taken over from the fur trade as the engine of the Canadian economy. And today, it's still one of the country’s biggest industries.

There are no more lumberjacks in the Rouge Valley, though. The forests growing here today are protected — Rouge Park is now a national urban park. Here, you can STILL find enormous white pines towering above the forest floor. Some have been growing here since those Napoleonic days.

This old logging trail is now called the Mast Trail in memory of that time. And twenty-first century Torontonians and tourists can walk in the very same place those lumberjacks did as they waged their wooden war against Napoleon more than 200 years ago.

Rouge Park has some of the best fall hiking trails near Toronto! Be sure to check them out during peak Autumn foliage.