Nagagamisis Provincial Park
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Nagagamisis Provincial Park
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| location | Ontario (Canada) | |
| surface | 81.31 km² | |
| WDPA ID | 18216 | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 27 ' N , 84 ° 39' W | |
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| Setup date | 1957 | |
| administration | Ontario parks | |
The Nagagamisis Provincial Park is a 81.31 km² large provincial park in the Canadian province of Ontario . It is located in the northeast of the province, 32 km north of Hornepayne , 100 km southwest of Hearst . Access is via the north route of the Trans Canada Highway , as well as via the south route that runs along Lake Superior . The park was established in 1957. The main rivers are Nagagami and Shekak , the largest lake is the eponymous Nagagamisis Lake.
The name Nagagamisis goes back to a Cree word that means "lake with fine sandy shores".
history
Early history
In 1973 archaeological investigations revealed 15 sites, 5 of which were considered prehistoric and 10 historical. Two of the prehistoric sites were considered of great importance to the history of the province, none as significant to the history of Canada. One of the sites was assigned to the Late Woodland , the late woodland period , a period from around 800 to 1650 in which Algonquin groups, possibly already Cree , probably visited the area seasonally. This phase could be assigned to cuts, as well as bone fragments, a wall shard, a wedge, scratches, scrapers, masonry bits and pearls that were intended for trade. Apparently furs were worked, but the lack of flint and projectile points indicates that hardly any large game was hunted. The only exception is the chert beach site , which is the most important site from a prehistoric point of view, as it is one of the few production sites for stone tools in the Albany drainage . On the other hand, willow and bone nets indicate intensive fishing. Clay pots were used to prepare food, and tools were often made of wood. First bones were of wolverines found in Ontario, even small quantities of bones of living in the park area of mammals and birds were found. There are also two graves.
Culturally Modified Trees were first studied in Ontario in 2001 in Nagagamisis Provincial Park. This made them the first trees of their kind to be examined east of the Rocky Mountains . Most of the trees are between 80 and 110 years old, some possibly over 400.
The sites are pre-European Algonquian sites called Nagagami Lake (5th DiIf-1, Borden system ), Chert Beach Site on the same lake (6th Diff-2), where the Walleye Beach Site (9th DiIf-5 ), and the Narrows Site (10.DiId-1). Other sites from the pre-European phase are 11.DiId-2, 13.DiId-4 and 13.DiId-4 (burial places).
First European, Cree
The first Europeans were one or two trappers who were only there for a short time and left little trace. On the lake is the Rocky Point Site (7.DiIf-3), the young trappers' hut, and the Moose Lake Post (8.DiIf-4, another: 19th DiId-10), a small, independent trading post the 19th century.
In contrast, four families of the Anishinabe (Ojibway) and Cree, the latter led by Joseph and George B. Taylor and an otherwise unknown Mr. Shaganash, lived at the main lake since the beginning of the 19th century. They had come from Hudson Bay. At Nagagamisis Lake, they met the Ojibway Bedwash family, who had moved over from Heron Bay. Together they maintained a small trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company on the lake until 1926 . They relocated to the Morrison River , now called Shekak , in the 1930s , but they continued to regularly use Nagagamisis Lake as winter storage. The new location offered the advantage that they could benefit from the economic advantages of the railroad. In 1946 they moved to Hornepayne. Her descendants include the Constance Lake Band and the Hornepayne First Nation . With contract no. 9 of the so-called Numbered Treaties , some of these groups were assigned to the band near Fort Albany on James Bay , to which they were linguistically close and with whom there were relatives. You could have your own reservation , No. 66 choose from Mammamattawa . The Constance Lake Group lived in the English River Reserve there (3,108 ha), which is now almost uninhabited. In 1901 there were 85 residents.
Railway connection, change of way of life
With the construction of the transcontinental railroad link, Hornepayne came into being, and more whites came to the area from around 1900. From the 1930s and 1940s, the subsistence economy of the indigenous peoples turned into precarious employment in the timber industry and in government tasks. During the 1970s, archaeologists also examined these settlements, such as 14.DiId-5, 15.DiId-6, 16.DiId-7 and 17.DiId-8 with their cemeteries (18.DiId-9).
During the construction of the railway, there were several forest fires, around 1922 a significant part of the southern tree population burned down.
Park establishment and research
In 1943 , a logging company, in this case Marathon Paper Mills of Canada , received a logging license for the first time , but the area was not surveyed until 1948. In 1964, the company carried out a detailed investigation, mainly using aerial photographs. But it was in 1967 by the American company American Can of Canada Ltd. taken over, which in turn made investigations in 1974. After that, the license expired with the restitution as Crown Land (Kronland).
When it was founded in 1957, the park consisted of an area of 1530 hectares at the western end of Nagagamisis Lake, plus a historic reserve (425 hectares) of 3,160 hectares on the eastern edge of the lake that had been in existence since 1956. First the park was reduced in size in 1958, but after Highway 631 to Hornepayne was completed and the number of visitors increased dramatically, the park was enlarged again. It now comprised 4,810 hectares. In 1970 the park was enlarged again in order to be able to better protect the lakeshore, whereby it increased to 5,850 hectares. In 1976 the still missing lake area was added, so that the park grew to 8,131 hectares, an area that still exists today.
In 1970 the park was elevated to a Natural Environment Park based on the Ontario Parks Classification System created in 1967 . In 1974 a 325 hectare protected area was established in the west of Lake Nagagamisis for the spawning grounds of the pickerel ((American pikeperch)). In 1975, the mining of sand and gravel, which had been operated on Arnott Lake, was stopped. Guided tours were offered from 1974 to 1979, but since 1979 all paths have been opened for use at your own risk. It was an easy path and two hiking trails, which initially had a total length of around 5 km.
From 1970 to 1973 the number of campers, who were almost the only visitors, rose from around 10,000 to over 16,000 annually, reaching the highest point in 1976 at over 20,000, but fell again to around 11,500 by 1979. In 1968, only 6,700 visitors entered the park.
In the 1980s, Nick Adams explored several sites on Nagagami Lake for Thor Conway . 2001 and 2002 were renewed investigations by John Pollock, during which 27 sites were discovered.
In 1985 the Nagagami Lake Provincial Nature Reserve , an area of 1,650 hectares, was created. In 2004, more than 60 sites from pre-European and 20 from European times were known.
Historic reserve
The historic reserve, established in 1957, covered 425 hectares and was divided into four zones. In 1999, as part of the Ontario Government's program to designate 378 new protected areas, it was proposed that the park be expanded to the north, south and west. This was an area of 27,680 ha.
Flora and fauna
In addition to a few black bears and very few moose , numerous snowshoe hares live in the park. Muskrat is only found in the few marshland areas in the southeast of the park, beaver only around the main lake. Mallards and dark ducks are the most common bird species.
In the park there were four so-called trap lines , which produced 219 beavers in the 1977-78 season alone, as well as 130 martens , 27 muskrats, 22 otters and 12 mink . At that time, most of the trapping took place in the recently added areas. It is meaningless today.
The most important fish is the "pickerel" ( American Zander ), the "yellow pickerel" or walleye , the pike , the "yellow perch" ( Perca flavescens ) and the "lake whitefish", the lake whitefish .
literature
- J. Pendergest: Historic Sites Survey and Inventory of Nagagamisis Provincial Park , Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources 1973.
- John Pollock: Archaeological Surveys and Excavation in Nagagamisis Provincial Park , Hearst District, Ontario 1973.
- John Pollock: Preliminary Inventory and Assessment, New Park and Management Areas, Nagagamisis Provincial Park , Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Hearst District 2000.
- John Pollock: Stage one and two Project Report Archaeological / Cultural Heritage Potential Site Assessment for Southwest Alternative Winter Road Right of Ways from Hearst Northerly approximately 320 km to the Victor Diamond Project Site , 2004.
- Signature Site Nagagamasis Central Plateau , Ministry of Natural Resources, 2002.
- Ontario's Living Legacy / Patrimoine vital de l'Ontario (ed.): Nagagamisis Central Plateau Signature Site: the management options - a working document / Région caractéristique du plateau central de Nagagamisis: option de gestion - un document de travail , 2003.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ This and the following from the Nagagamisis Provincial Park Master Plan , Ministry of Natural Resources, 1980.
- ↑ Another Dan Douglas: Northern Algoma. A People's History , from 1995 mistakenly believed that the area was never inhabited until the 20th century (p. 87).
- ^ Dan Douglas: Northern Algoma. A People's History , 1995, p. 87.
- ↑ Nagagamisis & Nagagami Lake Provincial Park Addition , September 2002 (PDF, 374 kB).