About 2,000 years ago, the local population greatly increased. The need to exploit every food resource prompted the introduction of new technologies. First came the canoe and the bow and arrow, which increased fishing and hunting efficiency. Wild rice was also gathered. Cooking capability was improved by the development of ceramic pots made from riverbank clay. Before hardening them on a fire, the women inscribed the pots with elegant patterns. Today, fragments of such pots are found at the local archaeological sites. The form of decoration enables the pots to be dated. Such technologies persisted up to the coming of the Europeans.

The eastern boreal landscape is comprised of lakes, rivers and wetlands, evergreen and mixed forests, and rugged granite outcrops. Such diversity of landscape has naturally attracted a whole host of fauna; from omnivores to fishes and birds. Humans have also been attracted to the region for access to these prime hunting, fishing and fur-bearing grounds. Today, the landscape is even more diverse under the impact of small communities, highways, transmission lines and access trails. The region still boasts the ancient lake sturgeon, but no longer supports the black-tailed deer, which has been replace by its more successful competitor, the white-tailed deer. It is this species that everyone in Pinawa sees sooner or later.

Look across the river and you will see the north-western reaches of the Whiteshell Provincial Park. This 272,090-hectare natural park was first opened up to the cottagers about 1920. They built their cottages on the lakes closest to the rail lines that served them, such as West Hawk, Brereton and Falcon. After a jurisdictional transfer the Dominion of Canada to the Province of Manitoba in 1930, the area became a forest reserve in 1931 and finally a provincial park thirty years later in 1961. While the park is alive with individual lakes and rivers, it is most known for straddling one of Canada’s magnificent waterways: the Winnipeg River, which bulges to form numerous lakes along its journey from Lake of the Woods to Lake Winnipeg. Today, the park offers visitors a wide variety of year-round recreational pursuits ranging from canoeing, swimming and hiking in summer and cross-country skiing, ice fishing and snowmobiling in winter to name just a few.

As the ancient Lake Agassiz receded, the first Native people entered the region about 9,000 years ago, using the emerging network of lakes and rivers. Of interest to these hunters and gatherers were the flourishing herds of caribou and bison. Evidence of these first peoples is to be found in the numerous archaeological sites located close to Pinawa. These contain projectile points chipped from stone. Such points were attached to spears, used for hunting. Early spears were large, used in a thrusting mode at close quarters. Later these spears were smaller and were thrown with the leveraged power of a throwing stick, called an "atlatl".