was the access portal to WYNLAND of WEST,
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| Map of Nelson River from Lake Winnipeg (bottom) to Hudson Bay (Hudson Bay was labeled "Mer Christians" on a1658 French map. ) |
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| ELEVATION PROFILE OF THE NELSON RIVER . 
There are a few people who say "The Vikings never used the Nelson River, because the water flows too fast."s
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The evidence appears to indicate that they did use the Nelson River. Every one of the natural rapids appears to have a by-pass, so men on the ground could pull their boats around the rapids.
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The hypothesis is that the by-passes were made during the copper mining age. Other streams on the Canadian shield coming from other regions do not appear to have the man-made by-passes.
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The copper miners might have developed the straight channel up stream of the Kelsey Dam. This channel has cross channels at each end. The cross channels may have been harbors for many boats.
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The 1708 French Carte du Canada exaggerated the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg. The indication is that the Nelson River must have been used in the 17th century by the Americans and the French.
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Men probably pulled their boats up stream in the steepest part of the river. The water might flow fast, but the men walking on shore walked up a nearly flat slope. The steepest part of the Nelson River is now beneath reservoir basins. But the slope of 100 meters in 90 kilometers through the reservoir area does not appear to be too strenuous for men pulling boats.
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An easier visualization is one yard stick high in 3284 feet of walking or about one foot every thousand feet. Obvious the slope of the path of the men walking on the bank would not have been a limiting factor.
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The relative flat slope, the by-passes of every natural rapids, the long straight channel with perpendicular cross channels and the exaggeration of the Nelson on the 1708 Carte du Canada imply that the Nelson River was used by the copper miners, the Vikings and the French Voyagers.
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The name "Norway" house on the water route to Lake Winnipeg in a land occupied by French and then by the English implies that the French may not have been the first people on the Nelson River. The fact that the French named Hudson Bay Mer Christians implies that the first peopl on the Nelson River were Christians.
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