"We Have a Vision for this Land"

We continue our journey through the human history of Algonquin, starting from where we left off here:

http://americanvoyages.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-national-forest-and-park.html

In Canada and the United States, the conservationists faced an uphill battle against numerous interest groups that wanted to see them dead.  Early game wardens and rangers did indeed put their lives on the line to protect the lands and life they were assigned to guard, usually by poachers and rogue lumbermen out to let the governments know what they thought of their preserves.  On the legal front, newly created parks and reserves were often lobbied against by timber, mining, millinery, fur, and private land advocates.  Algonquin was unique in that its creation was actually encouraged by the timber industry, as the park was technically created to encourage better forest management.  In the United States, despite a rallying against the concept by American timber interests, the national forests and reserves were created for precisely this reason, and to this day they remain public lands meant for multiple use: resource management and extraction, ecological preservation, and recreation.

The last word is especially significant in understanding what Algonquin would become.  No sooner did the railroad come to Algonquin than tourists started clamoring for holiday options in the wilderness, including luxury hotels set in the middle of the wilderness.  While this might seem a bit at odds with what we envision state/provincial and national parks to be today, there were already grand hotels (to rival the finest accommodation in New York or even Paris) in parks such as Banff by the 1880's.   The truth was, the economic world of the turn of the 20th century still largely catered to the wealthy, and such people were hardly interested in camping in tents and frying up their own dinner, even when in hunting parties.  While this has not remained the case, the fact that early park recreation enthusiasts were wealthy meant that they had considerable influence over the development of parks across the continent.  They did want to see the park exist as a wilderness, for that is why they came to sit on the grand verandas of their fancy hotels.  They wanted to see nature in all her beauty, even if it was from the comforts of civilization.   Most of the larger parks in North America still contain at least one lodge of decent quality, even if Algonquin has largely disbursed itself of this heritage.  Still, my mother's family often raced to the other side of Cedar Lake to enjoy a great dinner and social evening at Kish-Kaduk lodge until the 70's, which now lies in ruin awaiting a possible reclamation as a zone of historic interest.

The economic situation of the continent would slowly change, but the legacy of influence that the rich would pass on to new generations of hikers, canoeists, fishermen, youth groups, and campers never got lost.  Even as the hotel era was slowly winding down, government programs were set in place to encourage cottagers to set up residences on the more accessible lakes.  Hundreds of people still maintain residences in Algonquin as a legacy of such promotional efforts, providing a valuable base of income to the park, as well as assistance to storm-bound canoeists and an extra, tax-free eye to assist the rangers.  While logging interests continue to be important in Algonquin, they are restricted to harvest areas where they cannot be seen or heard by park visitors.  Nearly every year, more and more areas of Algonquin are reverted to a wilderness setting as preserve zones are widened and new studies are set up.  The interest groups still collide at times.  Timber interests and cottagers are often seen as being "in the way" by conservationists who promote visions for Algonquin that seem largely ignorant of how it became preserved in the first place.  Algonquin survived thousands of years of human activity thus far, so hopefully it will be able to survive yet more politics on the part of industry, recreation, and conservation.  One thing is certain, and that is that this land ignites passion in the hearts of everyone who had ever been there.

Keep coming by for a look on what makes Algonquin special from a natural perspective.