In the days when the canoe bateau was the mode of transport, Lake Kente as it was then known, was an important body of water for trappers and First Nation tribes.
A First Nations trail, the Kente Portage, joining the 1.25-mile isthmus between the lake and the Bay of Quinte, was used by early explorers and settlers.
A mission was built in 1668 when Jesuits arrived from France, to serve the Cayuga village.
The village moved in 1680 and the area was then used by traders and early settlers. The bay was renamed Wellers Bay shortly after Mr. Asa Weller, who ran the Inn tap house, arrived in 1791.
During the war of 1812, 2,000 soldiers were stationed here. A block house was built in 1813 by provincial Dragoons, because of the importance of the location.
Consecon became an important port, where ships would dock and load up with grain.
Today, the Kente Portage Road is the oldest road in continuous use in Ontario and some of the houses still line the road — The Weller house, the Tap house, the former St John's Anglican Church.
In the 1940's, the Department of National Defense used Bald Head island as a bombing range. Around 1967, the land was declared surplus and transferred to the Wildlife Service to be used as a waterfowl habitat.
Now, "no public access signs" are posted on the shore because of the possibility of unexploded ordinance.
Any possibility of archeological or historical findings have been annihilated by dynamiting.
Our Natural Heritage by Terry Sprague
The County's West Coast by Marc Seguin
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