Neys Provincial Park
Encyclopedia
Neys Provincial Park is a Natural Environment Class provincial park
on the north shore of Lake Superior
, just west of Marathon, Ontario
, Canada. This 5384 ha park includes the historic Coldwell Peninsula and the surrounding island system (added as part of Ontario Living Legacy in 2000-2001) consisting of Pic Island, Detention Island, and the Sullivan Islands.
The ghost village of Coldwell, which lies just outside the east boundary of the park, was home to an old railway and fishing community until the 1960s. All that remains of the village now are a few foundations, shipwrecks in the harbour and a cemetery. Within park boundaries is also the muse for Group of Seven
member Lawren Harris
, who in 1924 painted the now famous image of Pic Island. Only the hardy survive here, including subarctic plants and a rare herd of woodland caribou. Enjoy one the finest beaches on Lake Superior’s north shore or view a model of a former German Prisoner of War
Camp at the Neys Visitor Centre.
began to form over 1 billion years ago when magma chamber
s formed beneath the surface causing surface swelling to occur. Eventually this swelling turned into an active volcano. 600 million years ago, the volcano walls became so large and heavy, they caved in on the volcano, acting as a plug. The magma then became trapped in the magma chamber where it settles and cools with other minerals causing the initial phases of the complex. 65 million years ago, glaciers began to recede, stripping away the top layers of the volcano. Today, the once hot magama chamber is exposed surface rock on the northern shore of Lake Superior. The park has an interpretive trail (Under The Volcano Trail) with detailed information plaques that explain the process with more detail.
Lake Superior has been the reason for part of the early cultural heritage of Northern Ontario. It is also the cause of one of the most interesting parts of the natural heritage of the region as well. 7,500 years ago, the large Glaciers of the Laurentide Ice Sheet had finally melted away, filling in large bodies of water that covered 246,050 km². These bodies of water are the Great Lakes. The extremely cold and rough waters of Lake Superior have caused its rocky shores to be home to subarctic plant species. The following is a description of the region from the Natural Heritage Information Centre, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources:
The forests of Neys are home to a wide variety of species of flora and fauna. Some of the most common plant species include the Bunchberry, Labrador Tea, blueberry, bearberry, larch, mountain maple, a wide variety of fungi. These plants are an attraction to such forest species as the Woodland Caribou, Moose, and the Black Bear.
, 35,046 Prisoners of war
and Japanese-Canadians were held in 26 main camps in Canada. The north shore of Lake Superior
was the site of three such camps: Neys, Angler
, and Red Rock
.
Neys Camp 100 interned mostly German POWs
, and some Japanese-Canadians between 1941-1946. The prisoners were forced to log in the Pic River
and Little Pic River valleys.
German POWs were divided into categories: the "greys" who were largely ordinary soldiers, and the "blacks" who were considered die-hard Nazis
, high risk for violence or escape. Neys Camp 100 was one of Canada's nine camps which interred "black" prisoners. Hence the camp was enclosed by three barbed-wire fences and guard towers.
At the end of World War II
, Neys was turned into a processing camp for POWs in the Northwestern Ontario region. It was then turned into a minimum-security work camp for civilian prisoners from the Thunder Bay area, and finally dismantled in the 1950s.
.
Along the western border of Neys Provincial Park, runs the narrow, and shallow sandy bottomed Little Pic River. The river side was at one point home to dozens of logging camps in the middle of the twentieth century. The timber operations in the region were run by an American company known as Marathon Pulp and Paper Mills INC., and a Canadian company of Fort William
, the Pigeon Timber Company.
The logging process was quite simple. In the fall, a team of lumberjacks would arrive in the town of Coldwell via the Canadian Pacific Railway
. They would then travel up the river to their respective logging camps where they would remain all winter until the spring. The loggers would work all day in woods cutting and felling trees. They would then stack them in cords and then have horses (mid 20th C saw tractors being used in some cases) drag the cords to the shores of the frozen Little Pic River. This process would go on all winter until the spring thaw. Once the rivers path was totally thawed, the loggers would begin the log drive. Using tools such as the peavey
, the loggers would ride the logs down the river until they reached the mouth. At the mouth of the Little Pic River there were boom logs which were attached to chains. These chains were attached to rings that are still in the rocks edge at the Little Pic River picnic area. Once the boom rafts were filled with logs, the rafts would be closed and hauled away by tug boats to the Slate Islands
where steamers would be waiting to load and transport the logs to the states for processing.
With the loss of the steam engines on the railway, the introduction of the Sea Lamprey into Lake Superior and the highly anticipated Trans Canada Highway's completion, Northern Ontario was dying. The federal government ordered that all timber which was removed from Canadian forests was to be processed in Canada. In an effort to save time and money, the Marathon Pulp and Paper company decided that it would open a mill and develop its own mill town along the Canadian Pacific Railway. The town was appropriately titled Marathon, by Canada Post. Eventually, the Little Pic River became obsolete as trucks could transport logs from anywhere to the mill with much more ease and less expense.
In the course of the years that the Little Pic River was vital to the Marathon Pulp and Paper company's operation, lumberjacks came in all shapes and sizes. The region saw loggers from southern Ontario, World War II
German prisoners of war, and former Japanese interns who were staying at Neys Camp 100 all working for the companies logging on the Little Pic River. For example, in 1943, POWs accounted for 90,000 of the total 98,000 cords of wood harvested by the Pigeon Timber Company.
The park offers 144 campsites throughout four campgrounds within the park. 61 of these sites have electrical service and all are a short walk from Neys' large sandy beach where, if they are brave enough, swimmers can enjoy the refreshing cold of Lake Superior. In addition, what has been called the "cleanest comfort station within Ontario Parks
" is centrally located and includes showers, flush toilets and a laundromat.
A number of trails through varying terrain exist within a short distance of the four campgrounds including "The Dune Trail" (1km) through sand dunes and a beaver pond; "The Lookout Trail" (2.5km, which takes hikers above the campground and offers spectacular views of the park; "The Point Trail" (1km), which follows the shore of Lake Superior to a rocky outcropping where boats used to ferry POW lumberjacks are beached; and the "Under the Volcano Trail" (2km) which extends from the end of the "Point Trail" and follows the coast and includes information about the geological history of the area. A coastal trail, currently in development and including some interior camping sites, is in development and can be found at the end of the "Under the Volcano Trail". The park also has two day-use areas, "Prisoner's Cove" and "The Little Pic", where visitors can enjoy picnic spots, the beach, playground equipment or just the park's amazing views of Lake Superior.
Neys offers an excellent Natural Heritage Education
program every summer. The NHE program provides quality educational and recreational opportunities to all campers through the use of the park Visitor Centre or through one of the parks many wonderful interpretive trails, programs and guided hikes.
Provincial park
A provincial park is a park under the management of a provincial or territorial government in Canada.While provincial parks are not the same as national parks, their workings are very similar...
on the north shore of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
, just west of Marathon, Ontario
Marathon, Ontario
Marathon is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Thunder Bay District, on the north shore of Lake Superior north of Pukaskwa National Park, in the heart of the Canadian Shield.- History :...
, Canada. This 5384 ha park includes the historic Coldwell Peninsula and the surrounding island system (added as part of Ontario Living Legacy in 2000-2001) consisting of Pic Island, Detention Island, and the Sullivan Islands.
The ghost village of Coldwell, which lies just outside the east boundary of the park, was home to an old railway and fishing community until the 1960s. All that remains of the village now are a few foundations, shipwrecks in the harbour and a cemetery. Within park boundaries is also the muse for Group of Seven
Group of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
member Lawren Harris
Lawren Harris
Lawren Stewart Harris, CC was a Canadian painter. He was born in Brantford, Ontario and is best known as a member the Group of Seven who pioneered a distinctly Canadian painting style in the early twentieth century. A. Y. Jackson has been quoted as saying that Harris provided the stimulus for the...
, who in 1924 painted the now famous image of Pic Island. Only the hardy survive here, including subarctic plants and a rare herd of woodland caribou. Enjoy one the finest beaches on Lake Superior’s north shore or view a model of a former German Prisoner of War
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
Camp at the Neys Visitor Centre.
Coldwell Complex
Neys Provincial Park is home to one of the hardest and rarest mineral complexes in North America. The Coldwell ComplexColdwell Complex
The Coldwell Complex is a large circular gabbro and syenite intrusion within the Earth's crust. Located on the North Shore of Lake Superior in northwestern Ontario, Canada, it is the largest alkaline intrusion in North America with a diameter of .-Formation:...
began to form over 1 billion years ago when magma chamber
Magma chamber
A magma chamber is a large underground pool of molten rock found beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock in such a chamber is under great pressure, and given enough time, that pressure can gradually fracture the rock around it creating outlets for the magma...
s formed beneath the surface causing surface swelling to occur. Eventually this swelling turned into an active volcano. 600 million years ago, the volcano walls became so large and heavy, they caved in on the volcano, acting as a plug. The magma then became trapped in the magma chamber where it settles and cools with other minerals causing the initial phases of the complex. 65 million years ago, glaciers began to recede, stripping away the top layers of the volcano. Today, the once hot magama chamber is exposed surface rock on the northern shore of Lake Superior. The park has an interpretive trail (Under The Volcano Trail) with detailed information plaques that explain the process with more detail.
The inhospitable shore of Lake Superior
The rocky shore vegetation is an association of lichens, mosses and herbs that can tolerate the severe growing conditions of this site. These plants are able to survive in a microclimate that is cooler, windier and moister than those of nearby areas which are not as strongly influenced by Lake Superior. Lichens cover the bare, wave-washed rocks while the herbs are restricted to cracks and crevices in the rocks where soil has been able to accumulate. Many of these plants such as the butterwort, the three toothed cinquefoil, crowberry and bird’s eye primrose are not found elsewhere in the park and are part of a vegetation association known as an Arctic disjunct community, that is, the discrete association isolated from its main geographical location.
Source: NHIC (OMNR)
Forest vegetation
Neys is within the Central Boreal Forest Region of Ontario. As such it is home to a predominantly coniferous forest, however some boreal deciduous species can be found near waterways and former beaver dams. The park is also home to a large plantation of Red Pine. Park Naturalists theorise that these trees were planted by the Boy Scouts of Canada in the early-mid 1960s. The age of the trees and the fact that Boy Scouts did in fact plants nothing but Red Pines all across Canada as their "Centennial Project" in the 1960s backs this theory up. The Red Pines are not natural to the park eco-system, however, as they are planted in an inhospitable sand dune micro-environment of the park. This dune environment was previously disturbed (flattened and built upon) with the construction of the Neys Prisoner of War Camp (Neys Camp 100, Camp W).The forests of Neys are home to a wide variety of species of flora and fauna. Some of the most common plant species include the Bunchberry, Labrador Tea, blueberry, bearberry, larch, mountain maple, a wide variety of fungi. These plants are an attraction to such forest species as the Woodland Caribou, Moose, and the Black Bear.
Neys Camp 100
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, 35,046 Prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
and Japanese-Canadians were held in 26 main camps in Canada. The north shore of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
was the site of three such camps: Neys, Angler
Angler POW escape
In April 1941, inmates at the Angler POW Camp near Neys Provincial Park on the north shore of Lake Superior planned the largest escape from a Canadian POW camp during World War II. The escape was the largest of its kind in Ontario, Canada.-Angler Camp background:...
, and Red Rock
Red Rock, Ontario
Red Rock is a township in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, located in the Thunder Bay District. The community of Red Rock is at the mouth of the Nipigon River where it drains into Nipigon Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior. The population as of 2006 is 1,063....
.
Neys Camp 100 interned mostly German POWs
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
, and some Japanese-Canadians between 1941-1946. The prisoners were forced to log in the Pic River
Pic River
The Pic River is a river in the east part of Thunder Bay District in northwestern Ontario, Canada. It flows from McKay Lake southeast of the community of Longlac and empties into Lake Superior southeast of the town of Marathon.-Course:...
and Little Pic River valleys.
German POWs were divided into categories: the "greys" who were largely ordinary soldiers, and the "blacks" who were considered die-hard Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, high risk for violence or escape. Neys Camp 100 was one of Canada's nine camps which interred "black" prisoners. Hence the camp was enclosed by three barbed-wire fences and guard towers.
At the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Neys was turned into a processing camp for POWs in the Northwestern Ontario region. It was then turned into a minimum-security work camp for civilian prisoners from the Thunder Bay area, and finally dismantled in the 1950s.
Logging and the Little Pic River
Ontario's forests have historically been used for logging purposes since the first White Pine loggers traversed the Ottawa Valley in the late 17th Century. The Neys Region has a more modern logging heritage that is melded with park and national history along with the formation of the town of Marathon, OntarioMarathon, Ontario
Marathon is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Thunder Bay District, on the north shore of Lake Superior north of Pukaskwa National Park, in the heart of the Canadian Shield.- History :...
.
Along the western border of Neys Provincial Park, runs the narrow, and shallow sandy bottomed Little Pic River. The river side was at one point home to dozens of logging camps in the middle of the twentieth century. The timber operations in the region were run by an American company known as Marathon Pulp and Paper Mills INC., and a Canadian company of Fort William
Fort William, Ontario
Fort William was a city in Northern Ontario, located on the Kaministiquia River, at its entrance to Lake Superior. It amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Ever since then it has been the largest city in Northwestern...
, the Pigeon Timber Company.
The logging process was quite simple. In the fall, a team of lumberjacks would arrive in the town of Coldwell via the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
. They would then travel up the river to their respective logging camps where they would remain all winter until the spring. The loggers would work all day in woods cutting and felling trees. They would then stack them in cords and then have horses (mid 20th C saw tractors being used in some cases) drag the cords to the shores of the frozen Little Pic River. This process would go on all winter until the spring thaw. Once the rivers path was totally thawed, the loggers would begin the log drive. Using tools such as the peavey
Peavey (tool)
A peavey or peavey hook is a logging tool consisting of a handle, generally from 30 to 50 inches long , with a metal spike protruding from the end. The spike is rammed into a log, then a hook grabs the log at a second location...
, the loggers would ride the logs down the river until they reached the mouth. At the mouth of the Little Pic River there were boom logs which were attached to chains. These chains were attached to rings that are still in the rocks edge at the Little Pic River picnic area. Once the boom rafts were filled with logs, the rafts would be closed and hauled away by tug boats to the Slate Islands
Slate Islands
The Slate Islands are an island group in the Inner Hebrides, lying immediately off the west coast of Scotland, north of Jura and southwest of Oban. The main islands are Seil, Easdale, Luing, Lunga, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua...
where steamers would be waiting to load and transport the logs to the states for processing.
With the loss of the steam engines on the railway, the introduction of the Sea Lamprey into Lake Superior and the highly anticipated Trans Canada Highway's completion, Northern Ontario was dying. The federal government ordered that all timber which was removed from Canadian forests was to be processed in Canada. In an effort to save time and money, the Marathon Pulp and Paper company decided that it would open a mill and develop its own mill town along the Canadian Pacific Railway. The town was appropriately titled Marathon, by Canada Post. Eventually, the Little Pic River became obsolete as trucks could transport logs from anywhere to the mill with much more ease and less expense.
In the course of the years that the Little Pic River was vital to the Marathon Pulp and Paper company's operation, lumberjacks came in all shapes and sizes. The region saw loggers from southern Ontario, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
German prisoners of war, and former Japanese interns who were staying at Neys Camp 100 all working for the companies logging on the Little Pic River. For example, in 1943, POWs accounted for 90,000 of the total 98,000 cords of wood harvested by the Pigeon Timber Company.
Park services and facilities
Ontario Parks
Ontario Parks is the branch of the Ministry of Natural Resources that administers the provincial parks in Ontario, Canada. The Ontario Parks system covers over 78,000 square kilometres , about 10 percent of the province's surface area or the equivalent of an area approximately equal to Nova Scotia...
" is centrally located and includes showers, flush toilets and a laundromat.
A number of trails through varying terrain exist within a short distance of the four campgrounds including "The Dune Trail" (1km) through sand dunes and a beaver pond; "The Lookout Trail" (2.5km, which takes hikers above the campground and offers spectacular views of the park; "The Point Trail" (1km), which follows the shore of Lake Superior to a rocky outcropping where boats used to ferry POW lumberjacks are beached; and the "Under the Volcano Trail" (2km) which extends from the end of the "Point Trail" and follows the coast and includes information about the geological history of the area. A coastal trail, currently in development and including some interior camping sites, is in development and can be found at the end of the "Under the Volcano Trail". The park also has two day-use areas, "Prisoner's Cove" and "The Little Pic", where visitors can enjoy picnic spots, the beach, playground equipment or just the park's amazing views of Lake Superior.
Neys offers an excellent Natural Heritage Education
Natural Heritage Education
Natural Heritage Education is an educational program offered by Ontario Parks in some provincial parks in Ontario, Canada. It is designed to provide education focusing on the natural and cultural heritage of the park its surrounding area...
program every summer. The NHE program provides quality educational and recreational opportunities to all campers through the use of the park Visitor Centre or through one of the parks many wonderful interpretive trails, programs and guided hikes.