Ontario Re-Visited ~ Algonquin Provincial Park

Ontario Re-Visited ~ Algonquin Provincial Park

Algonquin Provincial Park has been part of my life for a very long time. First as a child, when my parents took me and my brother and sisters and later, as an adult taking my own children there. Fall in the Park gives true meaning to “a cavalcade of colours”!

Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven
(excerpt from http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/visit/history/cultural-history.php)

Algonquin was established in 1893, not to stop logging but to establish a wildlife sanctuary, and by excluding agriculture, to protect the headwaters of the five major rivers which flow from the Park. Soon it was “discovered”, at first by adventurous fishermen, then by Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven, and a host of other visitors who came by train and stayed at one of Algonquin’s several hotels.

Algonquin, the first provincial park in Ontario, protects a variety of natural, cultural, and recreational features and values. As one of the largest provincial parks, Algonquin is biologically diverse with more than 1,000 vascular plant species and more than 200 vertebrates that breed within its boundaries. The Park contains numerous historical and archaeological resources and has inspired more than 40 books, 1,800 scientific papers, a dozen films, a symphony, and the art of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.

Original historic “Art Sketch” by Susan ‘Shadow’ Caron