Canada-Oshawa TB

Please drop this item in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Photos in the travel bug logs are appreciated.  I will be re-post them here, where they can be seen by other cachers.

This wooden maple leaf recalls the maple leaf on the national flag of Canada.  Most people people living in the United States couldn’t name many cities in Canada, unless they live in the northern tier of states or Alaska.  This series of “Canada” travel bugs brings attention to the largest metropolitan areas in that country. 

Oshawa, metro population 356,177,  is on the Lake Ontario shoreline.  The name Oshawa originates from the Ojibwa term aazhaway, meaning "the crossing place" or just "(a)cross".

The automobile industry, specifically the Canadian division of General Motors Company, known as General Motors Canada, has always been at the forefront of Oshawa's economy.  Founded in 1876 as the McLaughlin Carriage Company, General Motors of Canada's headquarters and major assembly plants are located in the city.

Historians believe that the area that would become Oshawa began as a transfer point for the fur trade. Beaver and other animals trapped for their pelts by local natives were traded with the Coureurs des bois (voyagers).  Furs were loaded onto canoes by the Mississauga Indians at the Oshawa harbour and transported to the trading posts located to the west at the mouth of the Credit River.  Around 1760, the French constructed a trading post near the harbour location; this was abandoned after a few years, but its ruins provided shelter for the first residents of what later became Oshawa.  

In the late 18th century a local resident, Roger Conant, started an export business shipping salmon to the United States. His success attracted further migration into the region.  A large number of the founding immigrants were United Empire Loyalists, who left the United States to live under British rule.