Algonquin Park

By Guy Scott

The oldest (and most famous) of Ontario’s excellent system of parks is Algonquin Provincial Park. This park was created by act of government in 1893. At its beginning, it was much smaller than it is today. Several additions have been made over the years. Today the park consists of 2,955 square miles and encompasses 39 townships (33 entire townships and 6 part townships). The reason for the creation of such a park was to reconcile the interests of loggers, homesteaders and conservationists who were who were starting to clash in the northern regions of the Ottawa-Huron Tract. This huge tract of land was the last unoccupied region in southern Ontario. It comprised the unorganized (and unoccupied) land laying in a huge swathe stretching from the Ottawa River in the east to Lake Huron in the west and bordered by Lake Nipissing/French River to the north and the edge of the Canadian Shield in the south. In our area, this meant the lands to the north of the Kawartha Lakes. Settlement in this huge area (over 100 townships!) had remained stalled. Only in the 1850s did surveyors go into the tract to lay out townships for settlement. This unleashed a land rush in the 1860s and 1870s as settlers and lumbermen flooded in from the south and east.

The Ottawa-Huron Tract was designated to be filled with agricultural settlement. The whole point was to open up land to surplus farmers from southern Ontario so these land-hungry locals (and new immigrants) could find farms. This plan failed. The tract was not prime farm country. The lumbermen, on the other hand, knew the tract was timber country. All they needed was access. This was gained by a series of colonization roads built during this era to open up the tract. The pioneers gallantly pushed into the tract, but agricultural settlement stalled in the face of poor land. By 1893, there were still not actual farm pioneers in the future park. Even free land was not going to make this area into farm country.

On the other hand, the lumbermen were having a field day. They were busy harvesting pine, and leaving a mess in their wake. The last stands of untouched, native forest were disappearing from Ontario. This left the small, but growing conservationist and tourism industries concerned. The once vast forests of southern Ontario were fast disappearing. Forward-thinking groups began to lobby for a conservation park, if such a thing was around during this era. The Government of Ontario decided to act. A large area in the centre of the tract was basically unoccupied in 1893. Except for lumber licenses and a few active operations on the fringes. The moment was now to control this last region of unspoiled Ontario. The Government act creating the park stated “this tract of land was to be set apart as a public park, health resort and pleasure ground for the benefit, advantage and enjoyment of all the people of the province.” Another settlement about forestry read “the experience of older countries has shown that the wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter of forests brings a host of evils in its train.” Despite this statement, logging continued in the Park and still does today. The emphasis on forestry switched from “indiscriminate slaughter” to “controlled cutting.”

Park rangers were hired to patrol the park boundaries, enforce wildlife laws, control trapping and fight forest fires. A few settlers who were within the boundaries (mostly on the east side) were removed. Native Canadians were forbidden from hunting and trapping. But for all its role as a nature preserve, the park was painfully difficult to access. There were no roads to or through the park. Access for the tourist or sportsman was gained by entering by canoe or by foot from outside areas. Basically, it was inaccessible for all but the most determined naturalist. Mother nature in all her splendour was more easily appreciated in the more settled areas surrounding the park.

Despite all these controls, economic activity in the park continued. Previous lumber cutting licenses were honoured and some new ones sold. In 1896, the first access route into the park was the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, which traversed the park. It was built by lumber baron J.R. Booth to exploit his limits in the park. Now both the lumberman and the public had access! A station was built in the centre of the park and named Algonquin Station. A resort hotel called the Highland Inn was built at this central site and the park headquarters moved here to access the rail link. Short term leases were granted for cottages and lodges, mostly in the vicinity of the railway corridor. The government of the day attempted to have the park pay for itself via these leases.

Further to the west, a sawmill complex was built (1893) on Canoe Lake and the mill village of Mowat was founded. At its height, this village contained 600 residents and was operated by the Gilmour Lumber Company who had bought extensive cutting rights in the park. This famous lumber company had tried to drive their logs to their mill at Trenton, but failing to do so profitably, moved the mill to the logs. This was only possible after the railway passed through the park. The Gilmour mill at Mowat closed in 1900 and the better-built structures were transformed to accommodations for tourists. The most famous of those tourists was painter Tom Thomson, who likely did more to promote the natural beauty of the park than all the government advertising!

By 1959, the age of the railway was over and this famous access route through the park was abandoned. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Government of Ontario began a works program to rebuild and improve public highways. Highway 60 from Huntsville was rebuilt and an extension through the park built to link the east and west entrances. The Highway 60 corridor relocated the park access away from the old railway line to the highway access points in the south end of the park. Besides being the entrance to Algonquin Park, it is one of only three through roads running through the Ottawa-Huron Tract. The other two are Highway #118 from Bracebridge to Bancroft and the old Monck Road which links Orillia with Bancroft through Kinmount, and even these two roads share a section from Tory Hill to Bancroft. Several years ago, a major crash destroyed a key bridge on Highway 60 in the park, closing the highway for several months. The traffic through Kinmount was noticeably heavier.

In the era after World War II, use of Algonquin Park increased dramatically. The new road made access much easier, opening the Park for both day drives and camping. The earliest camping involved tents, but as the years passed, recreational trailers became more common. Huge trailer parks were set up along the corridor. More trails were laid out away from the highway and into the ‘interior.’ Canoe routes were laid out and backcountry trails joined corridor camping as popular past times.

The cottages, never numerous, are largely gone; when their leases expired so did they. A few lodges are still in operation, but by far the largest use of the park today is camping. Besides being a busy commercial route, Highway 60 is travelled by large numbers of day-trippers; driving through the park, soaking in the scenery and hoping for a wildlife experience. Fall leaf-viewing tours are also popular. Algonquin Park has become famous worldwide. A tourist survey of visitors to Ontario listed the following four must see sites: Niagara Falls, CN Tower, Parliament Hill and Algonquin Park. The park is emblematic of unspoiled natural Ontario. It represents the way Ontario used to be, a link to past ages where the grandeur of Mother Nature still held court.