Posts Tagged Parks Canada

Photo Credit: Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site

Okay all you industrial built heritage experts out there, what do the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, the Canadian Corvette HMCS Sackville, the rocket launch pad at NASA’s Cape Canaveral in Florida, numerous sugar refineries in Cuba and dozens of vintage steam class Canadian Pacific and Canadian National locomotives all have in common? Stumped? Read on and you’ll learn about a very interesting National Historic Site in Saskatchewan that links these places and objects together.  (more…)

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie

A recent sojourn down Riverside Drive in Ottawa got me thinking about the pioneer families that contributed to the development of the National Capital Region. Long before Lieutenant-Colonel John By and his Rideau Canal and long before Canada was a united province let alone a confederated nation, there were some hearty families that settled the region, built homes, developed industries, and contributed to what would later become Ottawa. One such family were the Billings of Gloucester. Here, they built a magnificent home where the family would live for five generations. It is Ottawa’s oldest surviving framed home and has been a museum since 1975 celebrating their contributions to the development of Ottawa.  (more…)

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie

He was not welcome to some, laughed at by a few, yet in the end was  revered by many. William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s tenth and longest serving Prime Minister, with just three simple words uttered on September 3, 1939 would help raise Canada up from Dominion status to full autonomous nationhood. He also created a vast Canadian based Air Training Program that same year which has never been surpassed by any nation since. Yet, at the heart of Mackenzie King there was a country boy who loved the wilderness, a roaring fire, gardening and fishing. He had the pleasure of being able to do these things on his Kingsmere Estate in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec while he was Prime Minister. However, he wrote in his diary that the home with the fondest memories for him was the King family residence in Berlin, Ontario called Woodside. This home is now a National Historic Site and is beautifully maintained and operated by Parks Canada. Woodside was open this weekend for the Doors Open Waterloo Region event and hundreds of people came out to take a glimpse into the young life of one of this country’s greatest Prime Ministers.

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Photo Credit: Laura Waldie

Despite the heavy rains that came on June 6, the Doors Open Ottawa weekend was a great success. Nearly 60,000 people came out on June 5 and 6 to visit the 119 cultural and historic venues all around the city and surrounding area. As a historian who loves anything to do with heritage, I decided to sign up as a volunteer and really get involved. On June 5, I was at the Parks Canada Conservation Laboratories on Walkley Rd, and boy what a great day that was! If you thought Parks Canada was just about parks and good looking uniformed rangers politely telling you to put your campfire out, than think again and read on! (more…)