Port Perry is a community located in Scugog, Ontario, Canada. The town is located 84 kilometres (52 mi) noùrtheast of central Toronto and north of Oshawa and Whitby.
Due to its location in the Greater Toronto Area, many residents commute to Toronto for work.[2] Port Perry has a population of 9,453 as of 2016.
Port Perry serves as the administrative and commercial centre for the township of Scugog. The town is home to a 24-bed hospital (Lakeridge Health Port Perry), Scugog Township's municipal offices and many retail establishments. Port Perry serves as a hub for many small communities in the Scugog area, such as Greenbank, Raglan, Caesarea, Blackstock and Nestleton/Nestleton Station. The Great Blue Heron Charitable Casino is a major employer. Located at the basin of the Trent-Severn Waterways is Lake Scugog, one of Ontario's largest man-made lakes.
Port Perry's Victorian-era downtown is a tourist destination, with clothing stores, restaurants, cafés, bookstores, galleries and antique shops. In the summer, the town features the festivals Mississauga First Nation Pow Wow, the Highland Games, the Dragon Boat Races and StreetFest. Port Perry is also home to the Theatre on The Ridge summer theatre festival featuring 6 shows performed at Townhall 1873 during July and August. Its annual fair, held every Labour Day weekend, has been running for over 150 years. There are also golf courses, both public and private. Other attractions in Port Perry and surrounding area include the Great Blue Heron Charity Casino, Scugog Memorial Library (featuring the Kent Farndale Art Gallery), the Scugog Shores Historical Museum and the Town Hall 1873 Centre for the Performing Arts.
At many local farms, visitors may pick their own seasonal fruit (strawberries, raspberries, apples). In the summer, bass tournaments and lakeside activities are also featured.
The Lake Scugog shoreline offers two popular lakeside parks, Palmer and Birdseye. There are active fishing seasons, both winter and summer. In the winter months, Lake Scugog is dotted with ice-fishing huts and is a destination for ice fishermen and snowmobilers.
History
The area around Port Perry was first surveyed as part of Reach Township by MajorSamuel Street Wilmot in 1809. The first settler in the area was Reuben Crandell, a United Empire Loyalist who built a homestead with his wife in May 1821. Their original home is still in use and can be seen on King Street between Prince Albert and Manchester. In November 1821, Lucy Ann Crandell became the first child of European descent born in the area. In 1831, Crandell and his family moved to a homestead at what became Crandell's Corners (later called Borelia).[3] It had its own Post Office, near the present-day junction of Queen Street and Highway 7A.
Settler Peter Perry laid out village lots on the shore of Lake Scugog in 1848 on the site of a former native village known as Scugog Village. The townsite was named Port Perry in 1852 and its first Postmaster was Joseph Bigelow. It was incorporated as a village in 1871. At the time there was an intense rivalry between Port Perry and two nearby towns, Prince Albert and Manchester. Expecting great things for "his" town, Peter Perry predicted that goats would eat grass off of Prince Albert's main street.[4]
At the time, Prince Albert sat astride a planked toll road running south to Whitby. Grain and lumber from areas throughout the area south-east of Lake Simcoe fed through Prince Albert, which was a major grain trading area. Perry and others in Port Perry felt a railway was a much better option, and Perry's prediction would eventually come true.
A group of local businessmen started the process of bringing the railway to the town in 1867, and the first train on the Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway reached the terminus in Port Perry in 1872. In the following year the grain elevator was built, still standing today as Canada's oldest existing grain elevator.[5] Cargo from all over northern Ontario was shipped via the Trent-Severn Waterway to Port Perry via Lake Scugog, and then via the railway to Whitby, where it could be loaded onto the CP or CN mainlines running along the shore of Lake Ontario, or onto ships in Port Whitby. Businesses quickly moved out of Prince Albert and moved to Port Perry, leaving Prince Albert effectively a suburb of Port Perry today. The Port Perry Granary still stands as a tall sentinel on the shores of Lake Scugog and proud of being Canada's oldest grain elevator outlasting numerous fires and modern day demolition.
The village was amalgamated with Cartwright, Reach and Scugog Townships to form the Township of Scugog in 1974 upon the creation of the Regional Municipality of Durham.
An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected at the Scugog Shores Museum by the province to commemorate cartoonist Jimmy Frise's role in Ontario's heritage.[6]
Port Perry's Victorian-era downtown is a tourist destination, with clothing stores, restaurants, cafés, bookstores, galleries and antique shops. In the summer, the town features the festivals Mississauga First Nation Pow Wow, the Highland Games, the Dragon Boat Races and StreetFest. Port Perry is also home to the Theatre on The Ridge summer theatre festival featuring 6 shows performed at Townhall 1873 during July and August. Its annual fair, held every Labour Day weekend, has been running for over 150 years. There are also golf courses, both public and private. Other attractions in Port Perry and surrounding area include the Great Blue Heron Charity Casino, Scugog Memorial Library (featuring the Kent Farndale Art Gallery), the Scugog Shores Historical Museum and the Town Hall 1873 Centre for the Performing Arts.
At many local farms, visitors may pick their own seasonal fruit (strawberries, raspberries, apples). In the summer, bass tournaments and lakeside activities are also featured.
The Lake Scugog shoreline offers two popular lakeside parks, Palmer and Birdseye. There are active fishing seasons, both winter and summer. In the winter months, Lake Scugog is dotted with ice-fishing huts and is a destination for ice fishermen and snowmobilers.
Visible from many places in Thunder Bay, the Sleeping Giant is the
city's most well-known natural wonder. The landmass itself is an Ontario Park with hundreds of kilometres of hiking trails and campsites to enjoy.
Thousands of locals and visitors alike marvel at the wonder of
the Sleeping Giant each year, but what is the legend surrounding this
Giant?
The legend goes as follows...
Standing on the shores of Thunder Bay at
the head of the great Lake Superior, one can perceive, on looking out
across the waters of Thunder Bay, a great land formation situated
directly in the mouth of the Bay.
It requires no imagination whatever to see
that this form resembles the sleeping body of a giant, arms folded
across his massive chest as in the majesty of death.
Mystery and legend surround the origin of
this strange phenomenon of nature and down through the ages the
following story seems to have survived.
On an island just outside Thunder Bay, now known as "Isle Royale," once lived a great tribe of Ojibway Natives.
Because of their loyalty to their Gods, and
their peaceful and industrious mode of living, Nanabijou, the Spirit of
the Deep Sea Water, decided to reward them.
One day he called their Chief to his great
Thunder Temple on the mountain and warned him that if he told the secret
to the white man, that he, Nanabijou would be turned to stone and the
Ojibway tribe perish.
The Chief gave his promise, and Nanabijou told him of the rich silver mine, now known as "Silver Islet." The
Great Spirit told him to go to the highest point on Thunder Cape, and
here he would find the entrance to a tunnel that would lead him to the
centre of the mine.
Apparently the Chief and his people found
the mine, for the Ojibway became famous for their beautiful silver
ornaments. So beautiful indeed were they, that the Sioux warriors on
seeing them upon their wounded enemies, strove to wrest their secret
from them.
However, torture and even death failed to
make the gallant Ojibway divulge their secret and the Sioux chieftains
had to devise another scheme to find the source of the Ojibway silver.
One day they summoned their most cunning
scout to a pow-wow and a plan was formed. The scout was to enter the
Ojibway camp disguised as one of them. This he did and in a few days
succeeded in learning the secret of the island of silver.
Going to the mine at night he took several
large pieces of the precious metal in order to prove to his chieftain
that he had fulfilled his mission.
The scout however never returned to his
camp, for on his way back he stopped at a white traders post to purchase
some food. Having no furs or money with which to pay for the goods, he
used a piece of the silver.
Upon seeing such a large piece of the
gleaming metal, two white men sought to obtain the whereabouts of its
source, in order to make themselves fabulously rich. After filling the
Sioux scout with liquor they persuaded him to show them the way to the
mine.
When almost in sight of "Silver Islet" a
terrific storm broke over the Cape. The white men were drowned and the
Native was found in a crazed condition floating aimlessly in his canoe,
but the most extraordinary thing that had happened during the storm, was
that where once was a wide opening to the bay, now lay what appeared to
be a great sleeping figure of a man. The Great Spirit's warning had
been fulfilled and he had been turned to stone.
On a little island at the foot of the
Sleeping Giant, can still be seen the partly submerged shafts of what
was once the richest silver mine in the northwest. White men have tried
again and again to pump out the water that keeps flooding it from Lake
Superior but without success. Is it still under the curse of Nanabijou,
Spirit of the Deep Sea Water... perhaps... who can tell?
There
are numerous versions of the Legend of the Sleeping Giant and one is
not necessarily more valid than another. This particular one was
published in a booklet entitled Tales of The Tom Tom, written probably in the 1950s or 1960s, by Hubert Limbrick, a former Fort William City Councillor (1951-58 and '60-65).
Actual Ojibway legends are stories about Nanabijou printed in
local 19th-century newspapers. These stories reportedly came directly
from Ojibway elders interviewed at the time, but there's no way of
verifying that today. The earliest dates from 1882, while another
version dates from somewhat later. These versions are completely
different from Limbrick's rather simplistic and fanciful one, and
neither makes direct mention of the Sleeping Giant. They talk about how
Nanabijou created the world, including the lakes, rivers and islands.
Limbrick's story seems to be connected with Silver Islet and, as
such, must be of relatively recent origin as the mine was not discovered
until the late 19th century.
The McKenzie Marsh property has been sold. A large house was built large amount of trees were removed and the land was poisoned grass removed and wild life dissipated. In May 2020 the large house was in flames.
I was asking myself what is the history of this land? Hard to find information about the history of this piece of land. Who is McKenzie? Who built this lake? What was here before? 1900, 1800, 1700, 1600? Records were lost, paces were renamed, the history even the recent history is lost. Who was the initial recorded Owner of the McKenzie Marsh. In this area a University Professor of U of T was digging and found an old Town. He had his doctorate thesis based on the discoveries on this area. All artifact dissipated. There are only 4 pictures of the findings in this area of Aurora.
The Aurora Site, also known as the "Old Fort," "Old Indian Fort," "Murphy Farm" or "Hill Fort" site, is a sixteenth-century Huron-Wendat ancestral village located on one of the headwater tributaries of the East Holland River on the north side of the Oak Ridges Moraine in present-day Whitchurch–Stouffville, approximately 30 kilometres north of Toronto.
This Huron ancestral village was located on 3.4 hectares (8.4 acres) of
land and the settlement was fortified with multiple rows of palisades. The community arrived ca. 1550, likely moving en masse from the so-called Mantle Site located nine kilometres to the south-east in what is today urban Stouffville. The Aurora/Old Fort site is located at the south-east corner of Kennedy Road and Vandorf Side Road, east of the hamlet of Vandorf in the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville. The Aurora site was occupied at the same time as the nearby Ratcliff site.[2] The Rouge River
trail, used by the Huron and then later by the French to travel between
Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe / Georgian Bay, ran through the Aurora
site.
Perhaps the busiest and best documented of these routes
was that which followed the Humber River valley northward ... although
another trail of equal importance and antiquity and used earlier than
the former by the French, extended from the mouth of the Rouge River
northward to the headwaters of the Little Rouge and over the drainage
divide to the East Branch of the Holland River at Holland Landing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Site,_Wendat_(Huron)_Ancestral_Village
The Aurora/Old Fort site was completely excavated in 1947 and 1957 by the University of Toronto. The 1947 dig was the first student excavation by the university, and it was led by John Norman Emerson. Emerson's doctoral work was largely based on the excavations of the Aurora/Old Fort site.
The lack of public records of the findings make me to assume that the University of Toronto is responsible for the destruction of the real History of the place.
The $20 million St. Johns Sideroad
reconstruction project was officially completed on June 26, 2006. On
this date local stakeholders, Town, Regional officials and staff
attended the ceremony. The project was one of the most environmentally
significant projects completed by York Region to date. It was a
recipient of the Ontario Public Works Association’s
2006 Project of the Year in the environmental category and the American
Public Works Association’s 2007 Transportation Project of the Year.
Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe gave the order for Yonge Street to be extended to Holland Landing
in 1793, the first step toward the establishment of a community where
Aurora now stands. Yonge Street opened between 1794 and 1796. In 1795,
the first house in Aurora was built at Yonge St and Catherine Av. The government began granting deeds to land in 1797. By 1801 there were fourteen homes. In 1804, Richard Machell became the first merchant at the
crossroads of Yonge and Wellington and the hamlet soon became known as
Machell's Corners. Charles Doan was another early businessman at
Machell's Corners and became the first postmaster and later the first reeve. The post office was originally known as "Whitchurch". As postmaster, he was influential in renaming the village Aurora, after the goddess Aurora from Roman mythology.[7]:10[a]
Machell proposed to rename the town "Match-Ville", ostensibly for the
match factory in the town, but the name Aurora was more popular and
ultimately chosen as the town's name.
Flour and grist mills were built around 1827. With the coming of the
railway in 1853, Aurora emerged as an important centre north of Toronto. The Fleury plough works foundry opened in 1859, making agricultural implements. The community was first known as Machell's Corners and had only 100 residents in 1851.
The population of Aurora in 1863 was 700, and by 1869 it had grown to 1200. The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1863 with Charles
Doan as the first reeve. Records from 1885 describe Aurora as the
"largest village in the county" an "enterprising and stirring business
community" with several factories and mills, five churches, a school
house with 210 students, and two weekly newspapers. The population in
1881 was 1540. The population reached 2,107 by 1888.
Total Area 49.85 km2
Aurora got its start with the opening of Yonge Street in 1796 by
Governor John Graves Simcoe. The first settlers were refugees from the
new United States of America: Loyalists, who had sided with the British
Crown, and Quakers, who had sided with no one. In both cases, the
newcomers proved to be both industrious pioneers and exceedingly loyal
to their adoptive homeland. Aurora’s big boost
came when Richard Machell settled along the corners of Yonge and
Wellington Street in 1804. He was soon joined by other settlers and
soon, as was common in those days, a thriving hamlet sprung up around
this busy crossroad. The community took the name, Machell’s Corners, in
honour of its first settler.
In 1853, and to much excitement, the tracks of Ontario’s first railway
arrived in the village. The railway provided a direct link to Toronto
and encouraged growth in population and industry in Aurora. On the eve
of the railway’s arrival, a mere 100 people lived in the village. By
1878, that number had risen to 1500. Aurora had become an important
industrial town, home to two farming implement factories, three
sawmills, two cabinet factories, and other business enterprises.
In a very real sense, the arrival of the railway heralded the dawn of a
new age for the community. Sensing that, postmaster, Charles Doan,
decided to rename the village Aurora, after the Greek goddess of the
dawn. The new name became official on January 1, 1854.
William Lyon Mackenzie (March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861) was a
Scottish-born Canadian-American journalist and politician. His strong
views on political equality and clean government drove him to outright
rebellion in 1837 after a career as mayor of Toronto and in the colonial
legislative assembly of Upper Canada (Ontario). He led the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion and during its bitter end he set up a small rebel enclave named "Republic of Canada,"
where he served as president December 13, 1837 to January 14, 1838.
After a period of exile in the U.S., he returned to Canada and served as
elected member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
from 1851 to 1858.
While Mackenzie was not a religious man himself; he remained a lifelong proponent of separation of church and state.
William Lyon Mackenzie was born on March 12, 1795, in Scotland in the Dundee suburb Springfield. His mother Elizabeth (née Chambers) of Kirkmichael was a widow seventeen years older than his father, weaver Daniel Mackenzie; the couple married on May 8, 1794. Daniel died three weeks after William's birth, and his 45-year-old mother raised him alone; as Daniel had left her no significant property.
Mackenzie's mother arranged for him to apprentice with tradesmen in
Dundee, but in 1814, he secured financial backing from Edward Lesslie to
open a general store and circulating library in Alyth.
During this period Mackenzie had a relationship with Isabel Reid, of
whom nothing is known except that she gave birth to Mackenzie's
illegitimate son on July 17, 1814. The boy was raised by Mackenzie's
mother.
During the recession which followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Mackenzie's store in Dundee went bankrupt and he travelled to seek work in Wiltshire
in 1818, for a canal company. He travelled briefly to France and then
worked for a short period for a newspaper in London. Lacking stable
employment, at age 25 Mackenzie emigrated to British North America with John Lesslie.
Mackenzie initially found a job working on the Lachine Canal in Lower Canada, then wrote for the Montreal Herald. John Lesslie settled in York, Upper Canada (now Toronto). Mackenzie was soon employed at Lesslie's bookselling/drugstore business. Mackenzie began to write for the York Observer.
In 1822, Edward Lesslie and the rest of his family, along with
Elizabeth Mackenzie, joined Mackenzie and John Lesslie in Upper Canada.
Elizabeth brought along a young woman, Isabel Baxter (1802–73), whom
she had chosen for Mackenzie to marry. The couple were wed July 1, 1822
in Montreal. Isabel had 14 children with Mackenzie, including Isabel Grace Mackenzie, the mother of William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Edward and John Lesslie opened a branch of their business in Dundas,
entering into a partnership with Mackenzie who moved to Dundas to be
the store's manager. The store sold drugs, hardware, and general
merchandise. Mackenzie also operated a circulating library. However,
his relationship with the Lesslies soured and the partnership was
dissolved in 1823. He moved to Queenston and established a business there. While there, he established a relationship with Robert Randal, one of four members representing Lincoln County in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada.
The McKenzie Marsh property on St. John’s Sideroad
in Aurora has been sold and landscaping behind the pond began sometime
in May. Changes can be seen from the main boardwalk observation deck
just West of the railroad tracks on the North side of the road. The pond
is transforming and the standing trees and shrubs in the midst of the
pond are progressively collapsing. Also note that on the East side of
the pond behind the leaf-less landmark oak tree a white cell tower post appeared sometime last year standing behind the water treatment facility.
Large Aurora house under construction on McKenzie Marsh goes up in flames
The devastation of the property is reflected in the lack of wild life Gooses that used to lay eggs here were not returning. I believe that land destruction for the benefit of one person had consequences.
McKenzie Wetland (also known as Aurora Wetland or McKenzie Marsh), an
area designated as a Provincially Significant Wetland and an important
environmental feature to the local community. The McKenzie Wetland is a
permanent home to numerous fish and wildlife species. Recognizing a
significant opportunity to both protect and enhance the wetland and its
functions along with the roadway, York Region implemented a number of
key design elements to limit intrusion in the marsh and restore many of
the impaired functions of the wetland.
While achieving the transportation objectives, project design emphasized
improvements to: (1) Wetland area, function and attributes; (2) Fish
and wildlife habitat and function; (3) Water quality and circulation.
Other technical innovations associated with the project included: (1)
Timber boardwalks, viewing areas, education and interpretive signage;
(2) Unique streetscaping elements including landscaping and decorative
lighting; (3) Bike paths throughout the length of the project, which
linked the Town’s existing bicycle trail network to the McKenzie Wetland
and its boardwalk; (4) Widening the roadway to a fully illuminated four
lane urban cross-section with curb and gutter, storm sewers, sidewalks
on both sides and traffic signals at major intersections. (5) Railway
safety improvements that included profile revisions and new gates and
signals at an existing at-grade commuter railway crossing; (6) Extension
of the East Holland River Culvert, a triple-cell culvert, with
construction being staged to maintain stream flows without using
dam-and-pump or flow bypass methods; (7) Tunnel construction of the East
Holland Sanitary Trunk Sewer using a tunnel boring machine with a
connection to the Aurora Pumping Station. This $20 million project
presented several challenges that in turn provided opportunities to
develop unique design approaches. This project complimented the
surroundings by being sensitive to both the natural environment, while
enhancing the communities enjoyment of the area. Links https://youtu.be/1PlGB-RPo7g https://www.livinginaurora.com/mckenzie-marsh-changing-landscape/ http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/pdfs/r&e_Wed5.BHenshaw.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratcliff_Site,_Wendat_(Huron)_Ancestral_Village
Petroglyphs Provincial Park is a historical-class provincial park situated in Woodview, Ontario, Canada, northeast of Peterborough.
McGinnis Lake use to be named the Shamanic Lake and it is a sacred lake for the Native Americans.
The Ojibway (Anishinaabe) people who have lived in the region for
millenia. The presence of the First Nations people is marked by the
largest known concentration of rock carvings in Canada. Cut into white
marble rock face centuries ago, the 900 petroglyphs depict turtles,
snakes, birds, humans, and spiritual images. This sacred site is known
as “the rocks that teach”, or Kinoomaagewaapkong, by the Anishinaabe
people. This park protects an area that serves as a critical reminder of
some of the region’s most ancient cultural history. After seeing this
amazing site, continue your journey over to McGinnis lake.
Indigenous peoples are caretakers of Mother Earth and realize and
respect her gifts of water, air and fire. First Nations peoples’ have a
special relationship with the earth and all living things in it. This
relationship is based on a profound spiritual connection to Mother Earth
that guided indigenous peoples to practice reverence, humility and
reciprocity.
McGinnis Lake use to be named the Shamanic Lake Nature Lovers’ Paradise
For nature lovers there is a wide diversity of trees and plant life,
including red and white pine with pockets of spruce and other trees such
as white birch, sugar maple, and red oak. The park is home to a large
population of white-tailed deer, as well as smaller mammals and bird
life is abundant. Bald and golden eagles can occasionally be seen in the
winter.
McGinnis Lake use to be named the Shamanic Lake is a meromictic lake. A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix.
In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters.
Most lakes are holomictic; that is, at least once per year, physical mixing occurs between the surface and the deep waters. In so-called monomictic lakes, the mixing occurs once per year; in dimictic lakes, the mixing occurs twice a year (typically spring and autumn), and in polymictic
lakes, the mixing occurs several times a year. In meromictic lakes,
however, the layers of the lake water can remain unmixed for years,
decades, or centuries.
The lake is
one a few meromictic lakes in Ontario, an effect that creates different
oxygen levels at different layers of the lake where only certain depths
can be habitable due to oxygen depletion. This lake has a fantastic
green/blue hue to it and it is not permitted to swim or use watercraft
on the lake as to not disturb the water.
Meromictic lakes can usually be divided into three sections or layers. The bottom layer is known as the monimolimnion; the waters in this portion of the lake circulate little, and are generally hypoxic and saltier than the rest of the lake. The top layer is called the mixolimnion, and essentially behaves like a holomictic lake. The area in between is referred to as the chemocline.
A meromictic lake may form for a number of reasons:
The basin is unusually deep and steep-sided compared to the lake's surface area
The lower layer of the lake is highly saline and denser than the upper layers of water
The layers of sediment at the bottom of a meromictic lake remain
relatively undisturbed because there is little physical mixing and few
living organisms to agitate them. There is also little chemical
decomposition. For this reason, cores
of the sediment at the bottom of meromictic lakes are important in
tracing past changes in climate at the lake, by examining trapped pollen
grains and the types of sediments The term Algonquian (also spelled Algonkian) refers
to one of North America’s largest indigenous language families.
Individual tribes or First Nations like the Innu, the Micmac, the
Algonquin, the Ojibwe, and the Cree all speak a version of Algonquian.
n 1954 a prospector, Everett Davis, sat on this rock face as he surveyed
the area east of Eels Creek and north of Upper Stony Lake. He had been
here before but had never noticed anything special; this time the sun’s
light hit the rock just right and the images came out of the rock – some
recognizable as humans or animals and others more abstract or
fantastical. As he pushed away the leaves and moss covering some of the
rock face, more and more petroglyphs were revealed. He did not know it
at the time but he was standing on one of the largest petroglyph sites
in Canada.
The territory lies on the southern edge of the Canadian Shield and
before the arrival of the Europeans, it was in the cultural transition
zone between Algonquian-speaking communities (the Anishinaabeg) to the north who lived in small mobile hunter-gatherer (foraging) bands and Iroquoian-speaking communities (the Haudenosaunee) with their larger and more advanced agriculture-based villages to the south.
A number of the images on the rock have parallels with pictographs at
other sites on the Canadian Shield which are known to be Algonquin or
Ojibwe or Cree. Thus, placing the petroglyphs in an Algonquian context
fits the evidence best. Since carbon dating a petroglyph is not possible, the discovery
of other datable material at the site helped set a rough parameter for
when it was used. Found in the crevasses of the rock were bits of
pottery – the remains of small offering bowls? – which were dated back
about 1000 years, placing it in the Woodlands Period
of pre-Columbian archaeology. At the very least, this puts the
creation of the petroglyphs before the arrival of the French in the
1600s.
In 1976 the Ontario government of the day created a new park – Petroglyphs Provincial Park.
Since 1990 Ontario Parks has managed the site along with members of a
nearby Ojibwa First Nation whose ancestors first moved into the area in
the late 1700s. Their present community is found on Buckhorn Lake
southwest of and above Burleigh Falls.
1. The Learning Centre The Visitors’ Centre, also called The Learning Centre, opened to the
public in 2002 and is where the visit to the site begins. While the
building has a small gift shop with various souvenirs and a movie
theatre with seats for perhaps 80 visitors, the main attraction is a
colourful multi-panelled poster display. We spent some time reading our
way through the various snippets of text. I had expected an
introduction to the petroglyphs and their meaning to be the main focus
but it soon became clear that there was something else being presented
here.
For over 100,000 years, shamans around the world have perfected the art
of traveling in consciousness to other levels of reality, gaining access
to information that can seem quite extraordinary about how to treat and prevent disease, avoid negative situations, clear family issues, plan for our future, and more.
Here are few Shamanic Practices
A few of the frequently used shamanic healing practices are:
Power animal retrieval (restoring spiritual power to the individual)
Shamanic extraction (removal of spiritual intrusions or energies that simply do not belong)
Soul retrieval (reintegrating soul parts that have departed from a client)
Shamanic drum healing (allowing the healing power of spirits to pass through the drum to the client)
Passing on the power of the helping spirits to the client
Psychopomp work (helping/guiding souls who have passed)
Covering an area stretching 1,600 km² (618 square miles), Los
Haitises National Park is one of the crown jewels of the Dominican
Republic’s national park system. Los Haitises–which translates into
“hilly land” in the Taino language–attracts numerous visitors who come
here by boat to see its magnificent series of 30-meter (98-foot) high
rock formations jutting out of the water. The park also boasts extensive
mangroves along its bay, which is dotted with cayes that are home to
multiple bird colonies, as well as a series of caves known for having
one of the highest numbers of petroglyphs and pictographs in the
country.
You’ll easily spot the endangered Ridgway’s Hawk, the Hispaniolan
Piculet, the Hispaniolan Woodpecker, the Hispaniolan Emerald, as well as
pelicans, frigate birds, herons, and many more majestic birds in flight
over the park’s extensive landscape. Los Haitises also nurtures one of
the DR’s few remaining rainforests, once used as a filming location for
the feature film Jurassic Park. Explore the park by boat from Samaná,
hike its rainforest to view flora up close, or kayak along its lush
mangrove system.
Los Haitises National Park is a national park located on the remote northeast coast of the Dominican Republic that was established in 1976. It consists of a limestone karst plateau with conical hills, sinkholes and caverns, and there is a large area of mangrove forest on the coast. Other parts of the park are clad in subtropical humid forest and the area has an annual precipitation of about 2,000 mm (79 in). The park contains a number of different habitats and consequently has a great diversity of mammals and birds, including some rare species endemic to the island. Some of the caverns contain pictograms and petroglyphs. The park has become a popular ecotourism destination but the number of tourists allowed to visit is limited.
The park was created by Law 409 enacted June 3, 1976. It was preceded by a Reserva Forestal (Forest Reserve) called Zona Vedada de Los Haitises (Los Haitises Prohibited Zone), created by Law 244. In 1996, its area was expanded from 208 to 826 km2 (80 to 319 sq mi) by Decree 233. Its boundary, which has been redrawn on several occasions, is uncertain. The bulk of the park is located in the municipality of Sabana de la Mar, province of Hato Mayor, while the remainder lies in the provinces of Monte Plata and Samaná. Sabana de la Mar is the site of a visitors' center.
The area was formed during the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period. Geomorphologically, it is a platform karst[2] with dense clusters of conical hills of nearly uniform height (200–300 m or 660–980 ft) in between which there are many sinkholes. The maximum dimensions of this platform karst block are 82 km (51 mi) east to west (from Sabana de la Mar to Cevicos) by 26 km (16 mi) north to south (from the Samaná Bay to Bayaguana). The hills of the interior have the same origin as the islets of the Samaná Bay. There is a multitude of caverns.
Hydrographically, Los Haitises spans portions of two basins: in its western half, the lower basin of the Yuna River; and in its eastern half, a zone spanning Miches and Sabana de la Mar. The Yuna drains through two mouths: its own and that of the Barracote River. In addition to these two rivers, the park is traversed by the Payabo River, the Los Cocos River, the Naranjo River, and numerous natural channels[3] including the Cabirma, Estero, and Prieto.
Flora
Mangroves in Los Haitises National Park
Los Haitises has two Holdridge life zones: humid subtropical forest (Bh-S) and very humid subtropical forest (Bmh-S). Broadleaf species in the park include "musk wood"[4][5] (Guarea guidonia, locally cabirma santa), cigar-box cedar (Cedrela odorata), ceiba (Ceiba pentandra), West Indian mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni, Spanish caoba), cupey[6] (Clusia rosea), and grandleaf seagrape (Coccoloba pubescens). There are many species of orchids. Los Haitises contains the greatest abundance of Caribbean mangrove, in which species like red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) and white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa) predominate.
Fauna
Pelican in the nest on one of Los Haitises islands
The fauna of Los Haitises is of great variety, and due to the park's diversity of physical geographic zones, it has the greatest diversity of fauna among the protected natural areas in the country. Two endemic mammal species, the Hispaniolan hutia (Plagiodontia aedium) and the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus), are threatened with extinction.
Being a coastal and marine park, it contains a large variety of birds, including most of the species endemic to the country. These include the brown pelican or alcatraz (Pelecanus occidentalis), magnificent frigatebird (Fregata magnificens), Hispaniolan amazon (Amazona ventralis), barn owl (Tyto alba), and stygian owl (Asio stygius). Some of the bird species found in Los Haitises are not found elsewhere within the Dominican Republic.
Tourism
Nesting birds island in San Lorenzo bay
Los Haitises National Park is a protected virgin forest with little road access. The number of tourists allowed is limited, but since 2000 it has been a relatively popular destination for ecotourism using ecological guides from Sabana de La Mar. Haiti (singular) means highland or mountain range in the Taíno language, although the elevation of the park's hills ranges from 30–40 m (98–131 ft). There is a multitude of caverns created by water erosion. Native Americans adorned these caverns with pictographs and petroglyphs.
Los Haitises National Park contains spectacular landscapes like the San Lorenzo Bay, the islets (keys), and the mangroves. The Cayo de los Pájaros ("bird key"), which is conspicuous for the virtually continuous presence of frigatebirds and pelicans circling low overhead, sits between the Boca del Infierno ("Mouth of Hell") and El Naranjo Arriba. Cupey is the dominant tree species and birds fill its horizontal branches. The wild banyantree (Ficus citrifolia, also known as shortleaf fig) and tropical almond (Terminalia catappa) are the other park trees.
Most visitors arrive by sea embarking from Sabana de la Mar (east end), Sánchez (north end), or Samaná (across Samaná Bay to Sabana de la Mar center); however, it is possible to arrive by land from the south using four wheel drive vehicles. A private highway is being constructed through the mountains and a new airport is being built in the city of Samaná to provide better access. The main economic activities in Monte Plata Province are cattle ranching and sugarcane farming. Tourists will find a large number of roads for sugarcane transport.
The Arawak
The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. All these groups spoke related Arawakan languages.
The term Arawak originally was applied by Europeans specifically to the South American group who self-identified as Arawak, Arhuaco or Lokono. Their Arawak language is the name of the overall Arawakan language family. Arawakan speakers in the Caribbean were also historically known as the Taíno, a term meaning "relatives. The Spanish assumed some islanders used this term to distinguish their group from the neighboring Island Caribs.
In 1871, ethnologist Daniel Garrison Brinton proposed calling the Caribbean populace "Island Arawak" due to their cultural and linguistic similarities with the mainland Arawak. Subsequent scholars shortened this convention to "Arawak", creating confusion between the island and mainland groups. In the 20th century, scholars such as Irving Rouse resumed using "Taíno" for the Caribbean group to emphasize their distinct culture and language.
The Arawakan languages may have emerged in the Orinoco River valley. They subsequently spread widely, becoming by far the most extensive language family in South America at the time of European contact, with speakers located in various areas along the Orinoco and Amazonian rivers and their tributaries. The group that self-identified as the Arawak, also known as the Lokono, settled the coastal areas of what is now Guyana, Suriname, Grenada, Jamaica and parts of the islands of Trinidad and Tobago
Michael Heckenberger, an anthropologist at the University of Florida who helped found the Central Amazon Project, and his team found elaborate pottery, ringed villages, raised fields, large mounds, and evidence for regional trade networks that are all indicators of a complex culture. There is also evidence that they modified the soil using various techniques such as deliberate burning of vegetation to transform it into black earth, which even today is famed for its agricultural productivity. According to Heckenberger, pottery and other cultural traits show these people belonged to the Arawakan language family, a group that included the Tainos, the first Native Americans Columbus encountered* It was the largest language group that ever existed in the pre-Columbian Americas.
At some point, the Arawakan-speaking Taíno culture emerged in the Caribbean. Two major models have been presented to account for the arrival of Taíno ancestors in the islands; the "Circum-Caribbean" model suggests an origin in the Colombian Andes connected to the Arhuaco people, while the Amazonian model supports an origin in the Amazon basin, where the Arawakan languages developed. The Taíno were among the first American people to encounter Spanish Conquistadors when Christopher Columbus visited multiple islands and chiefdoms on his first voyage in 1492, which was followed in 1493 by the establishment of La Navidad on Hispaniola, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Americas.
Relationships between the Spaniards and the Taino would ultimately take a sour turn. Some of the lower-level chiefs of the Taino appeared to have assigned a supernatural origin to the explorers. The Taino believed that the explorers were mythical beings associated with the underworld who consumed human flesh. Thus, the Taino would go on to burn down La Navidad and kill 39 men[9]. There is evidence as to the taking of human trophies and the ritual cannibalism of war captives among both Arawak and other Amerindian groups such as the Carib and Tupinamba.
With the establishment of La Isabella, and the discovery of gold deposits on the island, the Spanish settler population on Hispaniola started to grow substantially, while disease and conflict with the Spanish began to kill tens of thousands of Taíno every year. By 1504, the Spanish had overthrown the last of the Taíno cacique chiefdoms on Hispaniola, and firmly established the supreme authority of the Spanish colonists over the now-subjugated Taíno. Over the next decade, the Spanish Colonists presided over a genocide of the remaining Taíno on Hispaniola, who suffered enslavement, massacres, or exposure to diseases. The population of Hispaniola at the point of first European contact is estimated at between several hundred thousand to over a million people, but by 1514, it had dropped to a mere 35,000.By 1509, the Spanish had successfully conquered Puerto Rico and subjugated the approximately 30,000 Taíno inhabitants. By 1530 there were 1148 Taíno left alive in Puerto Rico
Taíno influence has survived even until today, though, as can be seen in the religions, languages, and music of Caribbean cultures.[12] The Lokono and other South American groups resisted colonization for a longer period, and the Spanish remained unable to subdue them throughout the 16th century. In the early 17th century, they allied with the Spanish against the neighboring Kalina (Caribs), who allied with the English and Dutch.[13] The Lokono benefited from trade with European powers into the early 19th century, but suffered thereafter from economic and social changes in their region, including the end of the plantation economy. Their population declined until the 20th century, when it began to increase again.[14]
Most of the Arawak of the Antilles died out or intermarried after the Spanish conquest. In South America, Arawakan-speaking groups are widespread, from southwest Brazil to the Guianas in the north, representing a wide range of cultures. They are found mostly in the tropical forest areas north of the Amazon. As with all Amazonian native peoples, contact with European settlement has led to culture change and depopulation among these groups.[15]
Modern population and descendants
Arawak people gathered for an audience with the Dutch Governor in Paramaribo, Suriname, 1880
The Spaniards who arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in 1492, and later in Puerto Rico, did not bring women on their first expeditions. Many of the explorers and early colonists took Taíno women as sexual partners or concubines, whether consensually or not, and those women bore mestizo or mixed-race children. Through the generations, numerous mixed-race descendants still identify as Taino or Lokono.
In the 21st century, these descendants, about 10,000 Lokono, live primarily in the coastal areas of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, with additional Lokono living throughout the larger region. Unlike many indigenous groups in South America, the Lokono population is growing
The Taíno
The Taíno were an indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.At the time of European contact in the late fifteenth century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Taíno were the first New World peoples to be encountered by Christopher Columbus during his 1492 voyage. They spoke the Taíno language, an Arawakan language.
Groups of people currently identify as Taíno, most notably among the Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Jamaicans, and Dominicans, both on the islands and on United States mainland. Some scholars, such as Jalil Sued Badillo, an ethnohistorian at the University of Puerto Rico, assert that although the official Spanish histories speak of the disappearance of the Taínos as an ethnic identification, many survivors left descendants – usually by intermarrying with other ethnic groups. Recent research revealed a high percentage of mixed or tri-racial ancestry in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Those claiming Taíno ancestry also have Spanish ancestry or African ancestry, and often, both.
Groups, such as the Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation of Boriken Puerto Rico (1970), the Taíno Nation of the Antilles N.Y.C. (1993), United Confederation of Taíno People N.Y.C (1998), and El Pueblo Guatu Ma-Cu A Borikén Puerto Rico (2000), have been established to foster Taíno culture.[citation needed] Taíno activists have created two unique writing scripts. The scripts are used to write Spanish, not a retained language from pre-Columbian ancestors.[5] The organization Guaka-kú teaches and uses their script among their own members.[citation needed]
In February 2018, a DNA study from an ancient tooth determined that the Taínos have living descendants in Puerto Rico, indicating that most Puerto Ricans have a degree of Taíno ancestry.[6]
Frank Moya Pons, a Dominican historian, documented that Spanish colonists intermarried with Taíno women. Over time, some of their mixed descendants intermarried with Africans, creating a tri-racial Creole culture. 1514 census records reveal that 40% of Spanish men on the island of Hispaniola had Taíno wives. Ethnohistorian Lynne Guitar writes that the Taíno were declared extinct in Spanish documents as early as the sixteenth century; however, individual Taínos continued to appear in wills and legal records for several decades after the arrival of the Spaniards.[7]
Evidence suggests that some Taíno men and African women inter-married and lived in relatively isolated Maroon communities in the interior of the islands, where they evolved into a hybrid rural or campesino population with little or no interference from the Spanish authorities. Scholars also note that contemporary rural Dominicans retain Taíno linguistic features, agricultural practices, food ways, medicine, fishing practices, technology, architecture, oral history, and religious views. Often these cultural traits are looked down upon by urbanites as backward, however.[7]Sixteen “autosomal” studies of peoples in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and its diaspora (mostly Puerto Ricans) have shown that between 10–20% of their DNA is indigenous, with some individuals having slightly higher scores and others having lower scores or no indigenous DNA at all.[8] A recent study of a population in eastern Puerto Rico where the majority of persons tested claimed Taíno ancestry and pedigree showed that they had 61% mtDNA (distant maternal ancestry) and 0% y-chromosome DNA (distant paternal ancestry) demonstrating as expected that this is a hybrid creole population.[9]
The ancestors of the Taíno originated in South America, and the Taíno culture as documented developed in the Caribbean. Taíno groups were in conflict with the Island Caribs of the southern Lesser Antilles. At the time of contact, the Taíno were divided into several groups. Western Taíno groups included the Lucayans of the Bahamas, the Ciboney of central Cuba, and the inhabitants of Jamaica. The Classic Taíno lived in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, while the Eastern Taíno lived in the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles.
The Los
Haitises National Park Preserve is a very beautiful, untouched,
lush Rain-Forest area. This tour consists of a scenic boat ride
across the bay to the Nature Preserve/Bird Sanctuary area. The scenery of
the Samana peninsula includes a number of small islands
that make up the bird sanctuary part of the Park. Many species of birds
use
this protected area to raise their young, safe from humans and other
predators.
Next we dock at the mouth of a larger cave with some
spectacular photo ops.
Walk from one end of the cave out the other side where the boat will be
waiting
at another dock to pick us up. Once safely back in the boat we are
on our way to the pictograph caves where we’ll pass through the
mangroves swamp en route. These caves are where you find
the drawings on the walls from some of the original Taino Indians that were
wiped out by the Spanish. The caves on this tour alone are worth seeing because
they are very large and carry a very unique history that's over 500 years old.
You can visit two caves Cueva de la Linea and Cueva de la Arena that have pictogrames from the original Tainos people over 1000 years old.
At the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, there were five Taíno chiefdoms in Hispaniola, each led by a principal Cacique (chief), to whom tribute was paid. The Taíno name for Hispaniola was Ayiti ("land of high mountains"), which is the source of the name Haiti.
Cuba was divided into 29 chiefdoms, many of which have given their name to modern cities, including Havana, Batabanó, Camagüey, Baracoa, and Bayamo.[10] Taíno communities ranged from small settlements to larger centers of up to 3,000 people. They may have numbered 2 million at the time of contact.
The Spanish conquered various Taíno chiefdoms during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. According to The Black Legend and some contemporary scholars such as Andrés Reséndez, warfare and harsh enslavement by the colonists decimated the population; however, most scholars believe that European diseases caused the majority of deaths.
A smallpox epidemic in Hispaniola in 1518–1519 killed almost 90% of the surviving Taíno. The remaining Taíno were intermarried with Europeans and Africans, and were incorporated into the Spanish colonies. The Taíno were considered extinct at the end of the century. However, since about 1840, there have been attempts to create a quasi-indigenous Taíno identity in rural areas of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. This trend accelerated among Puerto Rican communities in the mainland United States in the 1960s.
At the 2010 U.S. census, 1,098 people in Puerto Rico identified themselves as "Puerto Rican Indian", 1,410 identified as "Spanish American Indian", and 9,399 identified as "Taíno". In total, 35,856 Puerto Ricans considered themselves Native American.
