Whiteshell Provincial Park
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Whiteshell Provincial Park
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.JPG) Falcon Lake in Whiteshell Park |
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| location | Manitoba (Canada) | |
| surface | 2729 km² | |
| WDPA ID | 4168 | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 56 ' N , 95 ° 21' W | |
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| Setup date | 1961 | |
| administration | Manitoba parks | |
The Whiteshell Provincial Park is a 2729 km² park in the southeast of the Canadian province of Manitoba .
The Trans-Canada Highway runs along Falcon Lake and West Hawk Lake , but the park can also be reached via Provincial Road 307 at Seven Sisters Falls and Provincial Trunk Highway 44 near Rennie .
The most important lakes, besides the Falcon and West Hawk Lakes, are the Caddy, Brereton, War Eagle and Jessica Lake, as well as Green and White Lake and Big Whiteshell, Betula, Nutimik, Dorothy, Eleanor and Star Lake. Difficult to access are George, Crowduck and Horseshoe Lake.
To the north joins the Nopiming Provincial Park .
The entire region, which consists of provincial parks and traditional territories of the First Nations located in the border region between Ontario and Manitoba , was to be recognized as World Heritage by a 2012 application . To this end, the Ontario-based Pikangikum First Nation and the Manitoba First Nations from the Poplar River (on Lake Winnipeg ), Pauingassi and Little Grand Rapids have joined forces. Woodland Caribou Park , the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Manitoba Conservation are also part of the initiative . The First Nations of Ontario the Wabaseemoong, the Grassy Narrows and Lac Seul are in turn partners of the Woodland Caribou Park.
history
Early history
Various cultures can be detected in the area by means of projectile points , scratches and other devices and weapons, most recently those of the Ojibway or Anishinabe . Some of the artifacts are in the museum on Nutimik Lake, to the west of the park. Indians lived here since at least 4000 BC. They hunted, fished and traded in extensive seasonal migrations. Their culture was characterized by wild rice ( Psinomani culture ). They used canoes to move mainly on the Winnipeg and Whiteshell Rivers .
Numerous archaeological traces can be found as so-called petroforms , i.e. groups of stones arranged by people, scattered around the park. Often arranged in the form of snakes, turtles, but also human-shaped or in the form of geometric patterns, they are still of great importance for the First Nations today. They played a role in spiritual healings, such as through the Midewiwin , the Grand Medicine Society of the Anishinabe. Because of this assignment, they are called Ojibway Mosaics .
The name Whiteshell goes back to the small, sacred shells through which, according to mythology , the Creator breathed life into the first humans. They are therefore symbols for the Creator and at the same time for the path of life and are of importance for initiation and healing rituals. The park administration therefore urges visitors not to touch them and to report petroforms found in remote areas to the staff.
Quartz was mined in the park area, tools and copper were traded.
First Europeans, Anishinabe, oust Cree
In 1733, the Frenchman Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye was the first European to come to the region. He had chosen the Whiteshell River, la rivière Pichikoka , as an alternative route to Winnipeg and stopped at what is now the Opapiskaw campsite, where Cree had built a fish weir . The Cree moved north and west from the area around 1800, and Anishinabe of the Great Lakes took possession of the abandoned area.
Railway connection, gold finds
From 1877 a railway connection was established, the Canadian Pacific Railway , which connected Winnipeg and Fort William from 1883 . Rennie was built along the route, where the locomotives took coal and water. Around 25 years later, a second railway line followed through what would later become the park, the Canadian National Railway . Gold finds at Keewatin sparked a gold rush that drew prospectors to the Falcon, Star and West Hawk Lake. Attempts to practice agriculture mostly failed on unsuitable soil.
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Failed national park, tourism, provincial park
When a suitable area for a national park in east Manitoba was sought in 1919, the Whiteshell area was also suggested, but for years no decision was made. Ten years later, both the later Riding Mountain National Park and the Whiteshell area were to be elevated to national parks, but the government of Manitoba rejected two national parks in the province in 1929.
Since the 1920s, tourism in the region increased, initially along the rail tracks of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National . This brought the regions around Brereton, Nora and Florence Lake as well as those around West Hawk and Falcon Lake into the focus of the visitors. The government in Ottawa ceded numerous rights to Manitoba in 1930, and in 1931 a sanctuary called the Whiteshell Forest Reserve was created under the direction of the province.
During the Great Depression unemployed men built roads, such as 1937, the road north of Rennie, past Brereton, Red Rock, Jessica and White lake to Big Whiteshell Lake. The monitoring of the forest fires was taken over by the Royal Canadian Air Force and canoe patrols. Observation towers have now been added, a telephone network, and later a computer-aided weather warning network, aircraft and helicopters are equipped with GPS . In 1961 the area was given the status of a provincial park, which meant that construction and other use measures were restricted.
Museums and interpretive centers
Several museums and interpretive centers are dedicated to the historical and biological importance of the area on the border with Ontario and the USA . The Whiteshell Natural History Museum opened in a log cabin on Nutimik Lake in 1960. As is often the case in North America, prehistoric and ethnological artefacts are assigned to natural history museums. Accordingly, in addition to objects and exhibitions on flora and fauna , the house also offers objects on the First Nations , such as petroforms. This also includes tours of the nearby Bannock Point petroform site .
The Whiteshell Trappers Museum was built in 1997 and structurally corresponds to a log house from the phase of the fur trade . Dedicated to the trappers or trappers , it is located in the grounds of the Alf Hole Goose Sanctuary and Interpretive Center , which is located on Provincial Road 44 east of Rennie. This is dedicated to the protection of the Canada geese , so it also offers visitors observation opportunities and information on the history of the house as well as guided tours. It goes back to four orphaned geese that Alf Hole found in 1939.
The West Hawk Museum is dedicated to the geology of the region , in particular the West Hawk crater , which was formed by a meteorite impact around 350 million years ago and has a diameter of around 2.5 km and a depth of up to 110 m, as well as gold prospecting.
Finally, the Whiteshell Fish Hatchery Interpretive Center teaches about fish farming activities.
Flora and fauna
In addition to black bears and moose, wolves, lynxes and bats, numerous other mammals live in the park.
Web links
Remarks
- ^ Frank Hall: Medicine on the Rocks, The Strange Tale of the Ojibwa Mosaics , in: Manitoba Pageant 6/3 (April 1961) .
- ^ Riding Mountain National Park of Canada , Parks Canada .
- ^ Whiteshell Natural History Museum
- ↑ Snake petroform, Bannock Point Petroform Site , Sask History Online (with ill.).
- ^ Alfred Hole Goose Sanctuary and Visitor Center .
- ↑ Charles O'Dale, The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Ottawa Center ( Memento of the original from August 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ West Hawk Museum
- ^ Whiteshell Fish Hatchery Interpretive Center
