The Naming of Paudash Lake
/Before reaching Marmora, the Crowe River will pass through three counties. The river begins at Paudash Lake and exits southeast out of the lake under Ontario Highway 28 and over Paudash Lake Dam at the settlement of Paudash in Faraday Township, Hastings County.
The lake was named in honour of the Indian chief, George Paudash member of the Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians of the Hiawatha Reserve of Rice Lake and last hereditary Chief of the tribe of Mississaugas situate there. Each summer, George Paudash and his followers travelled up the Crowe Valley's waterways, and frquented the area as their summer hunting-fishing territory. Remains of their camps were found on Joe's Bay, Wolfe Point and Old Portage. As with the Eels Lake and Jacks Lake south of Paudash, it was the practice of early settlers - when the Indian presence still had strength - to name lakes after the apparent dominant Indian clan or extended family patriarch or chief. Jack's Lake was named after Jack Cow and Eels Lake after Eel Cow. It follows that settlers experienced the visits now and then of the Paudash family at Paudash Lake and that was how the name was established.
The name, Paudash, itself suggests the abundance of wildlife in those days, "Paudash being the Chippewan word for "crane", a symbol which dominates the Petroglyphs of Stoney Lake.
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