The Great Wilderness
At the end of the 19th Century, Canadians and Americans shared one common concern. Mother Nature was under siege from civilization in both countries. The sprawl of industry and the spread of towns and cities were devouring natural wilderness at an alarming pace.

Both countries created huge national parks to preserve the wilderness frontier (see Old Fort William, Nunsting, Wanuskewin). The Americans set up their first park at Yellowstone , the Canadians responded with Algonquin. It was named after the Algonquin native Canadians who had always hunted and fished these lands.

Algonquin Park straddles 7,751 square kilometres of the Canadian Shield northeast of Toronto. Algonquin was at first dubbed a “pleasure ground for the people”. It was also to become a testing ground for how people could fit in with nature.

The park managers defied traditional conservation policy. They not only encouraged tree cutting by outside lumber companies but allowed a railway line to be built through the park to bring out the felled trees.

It served a double purpose. The railways made the park accessible to people. And careful forest management ensured the old tree stands were preserved. Today the forest is still a major source of hardwood in Eastern Canada.

Algonquin has always cast a mystical spell over everyone who's entered this shrine to nature. Tom Thomson, one of Canada's best-loved artists, was certainly mesmerized. He first went there in the early part of this century. Thomson finally moved to the park and made his permanent home there. His canvasses, inspired by this pristine wilderness, won worldwide acclaim.

They also drew the other artists in the legendary Group of Seven to Algonquin. It all came to a sudden and tragic end in 1917. Thomson's body was found in Canoe Lake near his house. The continuing mystery surrounding his untimely death is just one of many powerful stories that make up the folklore of Algonquin Park.