Joan Dillabough, age 13, of Brockville, Ont,, for her question:

When did the Province of Ontario get its name?

Ontario celebrates its birthday on July 1, which is Canada's Dominion Day. On that day in the year 1867 Canada attained her status as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Two vast territories had, until that time, been known as Canada East and Canada West, Canada East became known as the Province of Quebec. Canada West became the Province of Ontario. Ontario took her name from the Great Lake, Ontario.

The history of Ontario's territory, however, goes way back before it became a province. When the early French held Quebec, Ontario was held by hostile Iroquois. In 1673 Count Frontenac built an outpost fort on what is now the site of Kingston. In 1783 the southern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario were settled by English loyalists from the United States.

But this was by no means the beginning. In 1931 the rusty weapons of an ancient Viking were unearthed near Lake Nipigon. Visitors from Europe must have come to what is now Ontario 1,000 years ago. The soil of Ontario hold, perhaps, the bones of the first European to perish in the New World.