Mississauga Point

The earliest account of interest in pre-contact archaeological materials in Kingston appeared in the November 11, 1840 edition of the Kingston Chronicle and Gazette. The brief description of the Native burials found reads:

Indian Remains -- during the progress of some excavation making by the Marine Railway Company, on Mississauga Point, the remains of from 15 to 20 Indians with beads, knives, etc., have been found, embedded about 10 inches below the original surface of the site of the battery. The bodies appear to have been severally wrapt in bark, the remains of which were found in close proximity to the undecayed portions of each skeleton.

What further interest may have stemmed from these particular findings is not known, but there are several further references to the finding of Native artifacts within the City of Kingston: for example, a war club which was among the artifacts donated by Wallace Havelock Robb to the Kingston Historical Society in 1964 was said to have been turned up in a local garden.