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• Jack Miner 1865-1944
  Natural ponds formed from clay excavation on Jack Miner's property attracted flocks of migrating ducks and geese. In 1904, the avid naturalist established one of the earliest bird sanctuaries in Canada. He devoted his life to the study and conservation of migrating waterfowl.

• Development of Pelee Island, The
  The largest in a string of islands in the western end of Lake Erie, Pelee Island forms, together with nearby Middle Island, the southernmost portion of Canada. In 1788, it was leased to Thomas McKee, the son of an influential Indian Department official, by the Ojibwa and Ottawa nations. The island, whose name is derived from the French "pelée," meaning bare, remained largely undeveloped, however, until William McCormick purchased it in 1823. In 1868, it...

• John Muir 1838-1914
  On one of his many walking trips John Muir travelled much of the present-day Bruce Trail and for a few years lived in the Meaford area. The dedicated American naturalist played a significant role in the development of the United States National Parks Service.

• Niagara Escarpment, The
  A land formation of intriguing geological complexity, the escarpment stretches from central New York State to Manitoulin Island. It has significantly influenced the pattern of settlement and the development of communications systems in Ontario.

• Grand Bend
  A hairpin turn in the Ausable River gave this town its name. With the cutting of a new riverbed directly to the lake in 1892, the grand bend was eliminated although the name of the community survived.

• John Backhouse Mill, The
  Reputedly built in 1798, the Backhouse mill fortunately escaped destruction by American raiders during the War of 1812 and was operated by the Backhouse family for more than 150 years. In 1955, the mill was purchased by the Big Creek Region Conservation Authority.

• R. Thomas Orr 1870-1957
  A life-long member of the Stratford Parks Board, R. Thomas Orr was the driving force behind the Stratford parks system. Orr led the fight to save the riverfront and millpond from railway development and oversaw the transformation of the former industrial area into parkland. In 1936, Orr's plans to link Stratford with the birthplace of the English playwright William Shakespeare led to the creation of the Shakespearean Gardens. These parklands provided an inspirational setting in...

• Sudbury Structure, The
  The Sudbury Structure is the geological feature that encompasses the city. Its central component is the Sudbury Basin. Since 1884, mines on the rim of the Complex have produced much of the world's nickel and substantial amounts of copper, gold, silver and platinum.

• Fool's Paradise
  This property sits on the ecologically sensitive, geologically significant Scarborough Bluffs that display sediments left by glaciers over 70,000 years during the last phase of the Pleistocene epoch. Aboriginal peoples may have inhabited this site as early as 8,000 B.C. Scottish immigrant James McCowan settled this land for farming in 1833, calling it "Springbank" because of the springs running from the ancient shoreline of Lake Iroquois (predecessor of Lake Ontario) to the north. In 1939...

• The Niagara Parks Commission
  In 1885, the Province of Ontario established The Niagara Parks Commission as part of an international effort to preserve the natural scenery around Niagara Falls. Originally, the Commission included Colonel Casimir Gzowski, Chairman, John W. Langmuir and J. Grant Macdonald, and was responsible for making the park self-financing while keeping admission free to the public. The Commissioners acquired parkland along the river to create Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park, which opened on May 24, 1888...

• Gibraltar Point
  The site of fortifications to defend the harbour of York during the early years of the 19th century, Gibraltar Point was renamed Hanlans Point after the family of the world-championship rower, Ned Hanlan.

• Mount Pleasant Cemetery
  In 1874 the Trustees of the Toronto General Burying Grounds hired H.A. Engelhardt, who was in the forefront of landscape gardening in Canada, to plan the transformation of ravine and plateau farmland into Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Prominent in this naturalistic setting with its curving drives are E.J. Lennox's Massey Mausoleum, private mausoleums in classical temple style, the public Mount Pleasant Mausoleum designed by Darling & Pearson, and a wide variety of granite monuments. Rare trees...

• Scarborough Bluffs, The
  The fossil beds and alternating layers of sand and clay that form these bluffs provide a comprehensive record, unique in North America, of the last stages of the Great Ice Age.

• Toronto Island
  The sandbar that comprises Toronto Island began to form about 8,000 years ago as sand from the eroding bluffs situated to the east was washed westward. The long, curving peninsula that resulted created a large natural harbour for the future city of Toronto.

• Sir Casimir S. Gzowski 1813-1898
  Following the Polish uprising of 1830, Gzowski came to North America and in 1841 settled in Upper Canada. A highly skilled engineer, he organized the company that constructed the Grand Trunk Railway from Toronto to Sarnia between 1853 and 1857. From 1885 to 1893, he served as first chairman of the Niagara Falls Parks Commission.

• Niagara Escarpment, The
  A land formation of intriguing geological complexity, the escarpment stretches from central New York State to Manitoulin Island. It has had a significant influence on the pattern of settlement and the development of communications systems in Ontario.

• Ripple Rock
  The prominent ripple marks on this large rockcut were the result of shoreline waves some two billion years ago. Subsequent compression of the earth's crust tilted the sandstone formation to its present 60-degree angle.

• Great Fire of 1916, The
  In July 1916, high winds united separate fires burning in the tinder-dry woods along the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway into one vast conflagration that devastated 500,000 acres, destroyed numerous settlements including Matheson, and killed more than 200 people.

• Porcupine Fire, The
  In July 1911, at the height of the Porcupine gold rush, gale-force winds united scattered bush fires into a massive firestorm that destroyed several towns and mining camps in the area and claimed many lives.

• Brent Crater, The
  First noted in aerial photographs in 1951, the Brent Crater is a circular depression approximately three kilometres in diameter that is thought to have been formed as the result of the high-speed impact of a giant meteorite some 450 million years ago.

• Grey Owl 1888-1938
  Archibald Belaney came to Canada from England in 1906 and lived as a trapper and guide in the Temagami and Biscotasing areas. After joining an Ojibwa band he adopted the name Grey Owl. Alarmed at the rapid despoliation of the wilderness, the trapper turned conservationist and spent the last 10 years of his life writing and lecturing on wildlife preservation.

• Lake Nipissing
  When the glacial ice began to retreat about 9000 BC, the Nipissing Basin formed an eastern extension of Georgian Bay and drained into the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers. With the gradual tilting of the land, the lake began to drain westward some 7,000 years later, thereby creating the French River.

• Steep Rock Iron Range
  As early as 1897 it was thought that a substantial iron ore body lay beneath the waters of Steep Rock Lake, but it was not until 1938 that ore was actually discovered. Mining began six years later, and over the next 20 years more than 36 million tons of ore were mined.

• Quetico-Superior
  A wilderness area cooperatively protected since the first part of the 20th century by the governments of the United States, Minnesota, and Ontario, Quetico-Superior is one of the largest international nature sanctuaries in the world.

• Palisades of the Pijitawabik, The
  The pillar-like features of the sheer-rising cliffs at several points along the Lake Nipigon shoreline are the dramatic result of erosion and glacial activity that began more than a billion years ago.

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