Today Peterborough is a "city" of bricks, a high-tech city with a focus on finance, mechanical engineering and brick production. A pedestrian zone replaced the old town, but the wave of real estate renovation spared the cathedral, the magnificent 17th century town hall, the Gothic Vertical Church of St John in Cowgate and some Georgian dwellings in Priestgate. Pre-European settlement age A few centuries ago, groups of the first Nations probably crossed the Bering Sea via Alaska (exact dates are unknown). The Woodland Natives lived in the area from about 1000 BC to 1000 AD. The Iroquois and Mississaugas followed around 1740, two of the most important sites of this period are the rock paintings of the rock paintings and the snake-blowing Provincial Park. The rock paintings are located in the northeast of Peterborough and were probably carved by the Algonquin between 900 and 1400 AD. J.-C. The Hose Hills are located near Keene, about 30 km southeast of Peterborough in the municipality of Otonabee-Zuid Monaghan, in a first inhabited area around the year 10 of our time. In 1615, Samuel de Chamvlin travelled through the area, along Lake Chemong, and transported on a road roughly equivalent to the Chemong Highway leading to the Otonabee River, where he stayed for a short time close to the current location of Bridgenorth, north of Peterborough. Thomas Poole, a 19th-century writer, wrote that in June 1825 the 2024 passengers carried nine ships with all their belongings on board; they left Cork and crossed the Atlantic to arrive in Quebec. The Atlantic crossing lasts 30 days. Beds and food were provided on board the ship. Hard biscuits are one of the many food products available to power passengers. These hard cookies are very easy to prepare and can be stored for months without spoiling. Later the settlers got off in Quebec City, drove onto the St. Lawrence River and finally reached Lachine, where they boarded a boat, then westwards to Kingston and then to Cobourg. The settlers stayed in tents in Cobourg for a few weeks until Peter Robinson brought them to their final destination. The long journey across the ocean is enough to weaken the emigrants, but if you have to camp in tents in the middle of summer, new complications arise. Almost all settlers knew fever and malaria and many died. Despite these difficulties, they entrusted all of their trust to Peter Robinson, the man who led them to their foundation in Peterborough. [10] In 1845, Sandford Fleming, inventor of the time zone and designer of the first postage stamp in Canada, moved to the city to live with Dr. John Hutchison and his family until 1847. Dr. John Hutchison was one of the first doctors in Peterborough. Peterborough was founded in 1850 as a community of 2,191 inhabitants. At the end of the 1850s, the canoe industry around Peterborough flourished. The Peterborough Canoe Company was founded in 1893. The plant was built on the original site of the Adam Scott plant. In 1930, 25% of all shipbuilding workers in Canada worked near Peterborough. Peterborough is one of the first cities in the country to produce hydroelectric energy (before the Niagara waterfalls). Companies such as Edison General Electric Company (later known as Generale Electric Company of Canada) and America Cereal Company (later Quaker Company and 2001 PepsiCo, Inc.) have established themselves here to use this new source at a good price.