The Western end of Lake Ontario has been a traditional landing place, portage route, and gathering area since the glaciers retreated. The name Cootes Paradise results from its association with Thomas Coote, a British Army officer stationed in the Niagara area during the American Revolutionary War. The association of the marsh with Thomas Coote's name was as a place he would visit to hunt and fish during the 1780's, and as a result was recorded in early maps as a means of reference. It also appears in the diary of Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada in 1796. Indigenous peoples name for the marsh have not be ascertained, a result of the multiple groups that have used the area over last several centuries.