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The Humber River is one of two major rivers on either side of Toronto, the other being the Don River to the east. The Humber collects from about 750 creeks and tributaries in a fan-shaped area north of Toronto. One main branch runs for about 100 km from the Niagara Escarpment to the northwest, while the other major branch starts in the Lake St. George in the Oak Ridges Moraine near Aurora, Ontario to the northeast. They join north of Toronto and then flow in a generally southeasterly direction into Lake Ontario at what was once the far western portions of the city.

The Humber has a long history of human settlement along its banks. Native settlement of the area is well documented archaeologically and occurred in three waves. The first settlers were the Palaeo-Indians who lived in the area from 10,000 to 7000 BC. The second wave, people of the Archaic period, settled the area between 7000 and 1000 BC and began to adopt seasonal migration patterns to take advantage of available plants, fish, and game. The third wave of native settlement was the Woodland period, which saw the introduction of the bow and arrow and the growing of crops which allowed for larger, more permanent villages. The Woodland period was also characterized by movement of native groups along what is known today as the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, running from Lake Ontario up the Humber to Lake Simcoe and eventually to the northern Great Lakes.

French missionaries used the area for many years, including Jean de BrébeufJean de Brebeuf was a Jesuit missionary, martyred in Canada in 1649. Brebeuf was born in Conde-sur-Vire, Normandy, France on March 25, 1593. He became a Jesuit in 1617. In 1625 he sailed to Canada as a missionary, and lived with the Huron natives near Lak and Joseph Chaumonot in 1641, Louis HennepinLouis Hennepin ( 1640? 1701?) was a 17th-century Flemish-French explorer of the interior of North America and a Catholic priest. Hennepin County, Minnesota, whose seat is Minneapolis, is named after him, as is a street, Hennepin Avenue, in Minneapolis. in 1678, and Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle in 1680. However, no permanent European settlement occurred until the arrival of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (not the famous author) in the late 1700s. Rousseau piloted John Graves SimcoeJohn Graves Simcoe ( February 25, 1752 October 26, 1806) was the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (modern-day southern Ontario plus the shoreline of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior) from 1791- 1796. He founded York (now Toronto) and was instrument's ship into Toronto Bay to officially begin the British era of control in 1793. Most of the British attention was focussed to the east of the Humber, around the protected Toronto Bay closer to the Don River. Settlement was scattered until after the War of 1812The North American War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom is one of several wars associated with that year. It is more normally known in British texts as the British-American War to distinguish it from Napoleon's war against Russia w when many loyalists moved to the area, who were joined by immigrants from IrelandThe island of Ireland ire in Irish, Airlann in Ulster Scots) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies on the west side of the Irish Sea, close to the island of Great Britain. It is composed of the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Irelan and ScotlandScotland or in Scottish Gaelic, Alba is a country and former independent kingdom of northwest Europe, and one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom. Scotland occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Scotland took part in a p who chose to remain in British lands.

As the Toronto area grew, the lands around the Humber became important farming areas and were extensively deforested; in addition, some areas of the river's flood plainFlood Plain along Lynches River Johnsonville, South CarolinaShowing high water mark on tupelo and cypress trees In geography, a flood plain is a plain formed of sediment, typically dropped by a river. When the slope down which a river runs has become very were developed as residential. This led to serious runoff problems in the 1940s, which the Humber Valley Conservation Authority was established to address. But in 1954Events January events January 14 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation January 14 Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio. January 15 Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya January 20 The Nati, Hurricane Hazel raised the river to devastating flood levels, destroying buildings and bridges; on one street, Raymore Drive, 60 homes were destroyed and 32 people killed.

The Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority succeeded the Humber Valley authority in 1957 (the word "Metropolitan" was dropped in 1998). More recently, a task force within the TRCA was formed to further clear the Humber as a part of the Great Lakes 2000 Cleanup Fund.

Unlike the Don to the east, the Humber remained relatively free from industrialization as Toronto grew, mainly because it is much flatter and does not provide a large river valley to build in. Since Hurricane Hazel showed the land to be unsuitable for housing, it has been largely developed or redeveloped as parkland, with the extensive and important wetlands on its southern end remaining unmolested. Whereas the mouth of the Don is often clogged with flotsam and is obstructed by low bridges, the Humber is navigable and a major sporting and fishing area.

Today the majority of the Toronto portion of the Humber is parkland, with paved trails running from the lakeshore all the way to the northern border of the city some 30 km away. Trails following the various branches of the river form some 50 km of bicycling trails, much of which are excellent. Similar trails on the Don tend to be narrower and in somewhat worse condition, but the complete set of trails is connected along the lakeshore, for some 100 km of off-road paved trails.