Georgian Bay Islands National Park is a Canadian park made up of 59 islands and parts of islands in Georgian Bay, in southern Ontario. It is part of the Thirty Thousand Islands Archipelago, the largest freshwater island group in the world. The park has a mainland base in Honey Harbour, about 93 miles (150 kilometers) north of Toronto. The largest and most popular island in the park is Beausoleil Island. Visitors to the park engage in such activities as boating, camping, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and swimming.
The islands in the park are part of the Canadian Shield, a huge, rocky area that covers about half of Canada. The passage of glaciers tens of thousands of years ago smoothed the tops of the islands and gave them a rounded shape. Islands in the northern part of the park are rugged and lack enough soil to support many trees. Plants that can grow in this region include junipers, lichens, red oaks, and windswept white pines. The southern part of Beausoleil Island has lush hardwood forests that contain such leafy trees as beeches, elms, and maples.
The park has more than 30 species of amphibians and reptiles, including the shy but venomous Massasauga rattlesnake. The islands’ forests and shorelines are home to many kinds of birds, including the black tern, the great blue heron, and the snowy owl.
Archaeological evidence indicates that people lived on Beausoleil Island thousands of years ago. More recently, the Chippewa (also known as the Ojibwe or Anishinaabe), Huron (also called the Wendat), and Iroquois people inhabited the island. Some Indigenous (native) legends tell that an angry giant grabbed the shoreline of Georgian Bay and threw it into the water. The land broke into pieces and became many islands.
The government of Canada established Georgian Bay Islands National Park in 1929. Paintings by a group of Canadian landscape painters called the Group of Seven feature the windswept pines of the park’s northern islands.
