TRAVEL IN ALGONQUIN PARK The first Europeans to travel throughout today’s Algonquin Park were explorers such as Champlain and David Thompson. In their wake came the trappers, lumbermen and settlers, roughly in that order. Indigenous to the Algonquin Region was the lightweight birch bark canoe, a mode of travel vastly superior for exploration than tramping […]
ALGONQUIN R & R Algonquin Provincial Park, “7600 square km of wild rugged beauty” quoth The Raven, Algonquin Park’s official newsletter, found between latitudes 45 degrees 10 minutes – 46 degrees 10 minutes and longitude 77 degrees 30 minutes – 79 degrees 15 minutes, within the Madawaska Highlands of the Laurentian Shield. The Precambrian Shield […]
ALGONQUIN BREAKUP When the gentle zephyrs of a changing season first blew through the Algonquin forests their warmth issued a wake up call that signaled the coming spring. As the ice pack groaned under the vast white weight of winter the Lumbermen could hear, and feel, the impending climax to their camboose shanty sojourn. An […]
John F. Kennedy – President of the U.S. of A. People usually have “I know where I was when that happened” moments. For example, I was in Mr. Pipe’s grade 12 chemistry class on Friday November 22, 1963 when it was announced that J.F.K. was assassinated. (Mr. Pipe resembled a popular Popeye cartoon character, Wimpy, […]
ALGONQUIN PARK – RICH IN TRADITION One of the six original aims of the Algonquin Royal Commission in recommending the creation of Algonquin Park was to promote it as a health resort, a place of recreation. This was to be a serious attempt to keep the tourism dollar at home, to stem the tide of […]
A Year of Celebration 1893 – 1993 On August 15, 1992 Algonquin Park officially presented the new Logging Museum to an adoring public. “The opening of the new Logging Museum, one of the two unique attractions being constructed to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Algonquin Park in 1993, could not have come at a […]
PARK PRANKS by Barney Moorhouse To the trapper who entered Algonquin Park on stilts or the one who strapped his snowshoes on backwards, intent on fooling the game warden, it was no prank. Nor was it to the individual who exchanged his old worn out boots for those of the sleeping park ranger. These guys […]
THE MOOSE HUNT With the 2024 moose season upon us in Ontario I thought readers might enjoy some tongue in cheek penned by ANON, undated. 3:00 a.m. – Out of bed first day of the hunt after a restless sleep. 3:05 a.m. – Assure the wife of moose meat for supper. 3:15 […]
RALPH BICE – TRAPPER, WRITER, OUTDOORSMAN – by Margaret Sochasky He says he was only three when he set his first trap, but never did say if he skinned that rabbit. That’s my dad, Ralph Bice of Kearney, Ontario. Born March 2, 1900, he was the second child of seven. My grandfather was a ranger […]
Ralph Bice; an incomplete biography plus recollections Ralph was born on March 2, 1900 at West Guilford to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bice, a Park Ranger. February 23, 1911 they moved to Kearney. Ralph began life as a guide in 1917 on August 4. In 1918 he built a trapping camp in McCraney. At […]
