Narcisse M. Cantin 1870-1940

Descended from a long line of French-Canadian shipbuilders, Cantin was born on a nearby farm which his grandfather acquired about 1850. An energetic entrepreneur, inventor and cattle trader, Cantin began work here, in 1897, on a city named St. Joseph from which he hoped to construct a canal linking Lake Huron and Erie. Undaunted by his inability to raise sufficient funds for this project, he initiated and, between 1900 and 1930, tirelessly promoted the concept of a Great Lakes seaway system which "would take passengers and freight from all ocean ports on the globe direct to all the principal ports of the Great Lakes".