Description Of Proposed Geosites

  1. THE FOSSILARIUM: Notre-Dame-Du-Nord. With an Interpretation Centre to house regional and international fossil exhibits, and a geologist who is specialized in Paleontology available, Fossilarium has been providing educational tourism experiences since 1997. This attraction provides both indoor activities and “safari’s” to fossil beds on both sides of the Provincial border. This is the only museum in Quebec that allows a (limited and selective) harvest of fossils on real fossil sites. Note : activity fee.
  1. ROCKWALK PARK: Located on the grounds of Northern College in Temiskaming Shores (the former Haileybury School of Mines).  Almost 200 geological exhibits of massive size await your inspection. Designed as a Millennium project for the community, the display samples (up to 45 Tonnes, but averaging about 3 to 5 Tonnes in weight) represent geology from across Canada, from Labrador to B.C., and north to Baffin Island. The site is free for visitors, and has display panels at many exhibits. Open all year.
  1. TOBURN OPERATING AUTHORITY: Visit the grounds of Kirkland Lake’s original mine site. The Toburn office, hoistroom, headframe, dry, and compressor house are available for tours on summer Sundays. Outdoor self- guided tours available anytime. Over 20 geological exhibits and period mining machines are present. A motion activated video presentation is always available. The project is funded by private, corporate, and public sources.
  1. COBALT MINING MUSEUM: The prime tourist attraction in Cobalt, “Ontario’s Most Historic Town”, this museum boasts one of the world’s largest native silver displays, as well as mineral specimens from around the world. Also available indoors are paintings, photographs, and newspaper clippings from Cobalt’s 1st century, depicting the life of early miners and the social aspects of the community. There is an amazing fluorescent rock display. The Museum also hosts the guided Colonial Adit Underground Tour, the Right-of-Way Headframe Tour, the Cobalt Walking Tour, and the Heritage Silver Trail Driving Tour.  Note: Activity fee for some components.
  1. COBALT MINING DISTRICT NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE OF CANADA: Coleman Twp. & Cobalt, Ontario. Formally recognized in 2001, the site does not yet have any formal management structure. The public is free to access all (unfenced) areas to view vestiges of mine properties and community structures from the pre-1930 period. The designated area includes much of the Cobalt townsite and selected parts of the Township of Coleman. “Anthroposolic” soil is developing on mine tailings.
  1. LA GRAND CHUTE (Kipawa River): Fabre and Laniel, Quebec. This geosite is currently known for a photograph of its waterfall on the 2017 Canadian $10 bank note. As a geosite, it is important as the rock under the waterfall is the leading edge of the Grenville Front Tectonic Zone. The free access site is summer accessible by a sandy road and designed forest trails. The Kipawa River itself is famous as a world class kayak run, from Laniel to the river’s outlet on Lake Temiskaming. It is also the site of early 20th century American movies.
  1. DEVIL’S ROCK: Temiskaming Shores, Ontario. Free access hiking trails from Highway #567 lead to this iconic land mark of the Temiskaming Rift Valley Aspiring Geopark. An intrusive contact of Quartz diabase (Nipissing Sill), this escarpment fronts on the Lake Temiskaming West Shore Fault, rising 100 metres above waterline. The face and crest of the structure is a candidate site “Area of Natural & Scientific Interest” (ANSI). The view across the Ottawa River (a Canadian Heritage River) brings focus on the limestone cliff of another local candidate ANSI site, Dawson (Wabi) Point.
  1. OTTAWA-TEMISKAMING HIGHLAND HIKING TRAIL: Latchford, Ontario. Starting on the shore of the Montreal River, flowing over the Fault zone of the same name, this is the primary (non-motorized) hiking trail in Temiskaming, Ontario. The 100 km trail, which takes a week to navigate, exits near Témiscamingue, Quebec. Access is free at any time, but guided tours of specific short sections are available on most weekends throughout the year. Participants help clear the brush from the trail. Managed by Nastawgan Trails Inc., the trail is one of their many experiences offered.
  1. RECRE-EAU-DE-QUINZE: Notre-Dame-Du-Nord, Quebec. A hard surface cycling and hiking trail, 27 km. in length, was made possible by a unique partnership between Quebec Hydro and local community volunteers. Free fantastic views of 3 hydro installations along the upper Ottawa River (a Quebec heritage site) in semi-wilderness. Geologically, the trails (and river) cross the Quinze Dam Fault, the eastern boundary of the Temiskaming Rift Valley. Cycling trails connect with the Velo Quebec “La Route Vert” at Angliers.
  1. MILE OF GOLD HERITAGE TOUR, Kirkland Lake: A unique, social media based tour of this famous mining town, sponsored by the Province of Ontario, Laurentian University, Dynamic Earth, and Natural Resources Canada. Includes 6 stops, starting with the Toburn Mine, a visit to the original “discovery outcrop”, and ending at the Museum of Northern History. Use provided coordinates on internet to locate sites. (Internet search: Mile of Gold Heritage Tour)
  1. KAP-KIG-IWAN PROVINCIAL PARK: Englehart, Ontario. Entrance fees are charged by day or season. Situated in the gorge of the Englehart River, a fault line, the River cuts through the glaciolacustrine silts and clays of pro-glacial Lake Barlow, tumbles over the Intermediate & Mafic Metavolcanics of the “Superior Precambrian Province”, and cuts into the contact rock of the Paleozoic Lower & Middle Silurian rock found in the “Cobalt Embayment” of the “Southern Precambrian Province”.
  1. ESKER LAKES PROVINCIAL PARK: Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The most northerly geosite in the Temiskaming Rift Valley Aspiring Geopark, this geosite abuts the Arctic Watershed at an undefined location as all surface water is contained in dozens of kettle lakes. Tourism features include excellent beaches and cold water fishery. The southern- most lakes in the park do have creek drainage to the Atlantic Watershed. The landform is part of the nationally significant 250 km Munroe Esker, a glacial river bed formation, that is known for “provincially significant” dune complexes. Daily entrance fees required.
  1. LADY EVELYN-SMOOTHWATER PROVINCIAL PARK (and adjacent Conservation Reserves):  Featuring submerged aeolian sand dunes and accessing 2400 km of interconnected wilderness canoe passages, the primary launch point is at Mowat’s Landing on the Montreal River, just west of Temiskaming Shores. The Montreal River runs along the defining Montreal River Fault. The Ishpatina Ridge, Ontario’s highest point, is located 32 km further west, and is accessible by trail.
  1. MAPLE MOUNTAIN: is located within Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park. One of the best known mountains in Ontario, its vertical rise over the surrounding landscape,  approximately 350m (1150 feet), is one of the highest in the province. Because of this, it is often mistaken as being the highest mountain in Ontario, however Maple Mountain is actually ranked seventeenth. A 100 foot intact fire tower stands on the summit and can be reached via A 3.3 km long hiking trail. The indigenous Temagami First Nation called the mountain Chee-bay-jing, which means “the place where the spirits go” and considered it a sacred site. The mountain was named by Dr. Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1888. Bell was the first known non-aboriginal to scale the mountain.
  1. OPEMICAN NATIONAL PARK (Parcs Québec): Témiscamingue, Quebec. Located primarily on the Grenville Mountain peneplain, the Park features a magnificent landscape of massive cliffs along the Lake Temiskaming Rift Valley.  The Harricana Moraine (the largest glaciofluvial complex in North America) crosses the Park and reaches its terminus in nearby Jocko Rivers Provincial Park (Ontario). It is also noted for its flora and fauna, as well as a cultural heritage of forestry and the log drive.
  1. PARKS CANADA FORT TÉMISCAMINGUE: Duhamel-Ouest, Quebec.  Featuring a re-built 17th Century fur trading post at a former Algonquin First Nation encampment site, the location at a narrows allowed control of all waterway traffic on the Ottawa River during the fur trade era, and is therefore of cultural significance.  Offshore circular “kettle basins” at the bottom of Lake Temiskaming, interpreted to be of “glaciotectonic” origin, have recently been discovered.
  1. PREMIER CHUTE HYDRO GENERATING FACILITY: Notre-Dame-Du-Nord. Sir William Edmond Logan, founder and first director of the Geological Survey of Canada, visited Lake Temiskaming in 1845, passing Devil’s Rock on October 31. He travelled the Ottawa River as far as the current site of the Premier Chute hydro-electric development. Quebec Hydro currently provides tours of this facility as well as access to Recre-Eau-des-Quinze cycling trail.
  1. AGRITOURISM TEMISKAMING: Agriculture is always dependent on soil quality, and the soils formed under pro-glacial Lake Barlow are among the best in the world. Visit the Little Claybelt Homesteaders Museum to learn the pioneering techniques involved in farm development of the past century. Evaluate modern farm implements at the annual Earlton Farm Show in April. Enjoy field crop tours with the regional farmers in July. Participate in a livestock tour in August.  Attend Fall Fairs in September.
  1. LOCAL & REGIONAL MUSEUMS: Small community museums hold a treasure trove of insight that emphasizes the origins of the local and regional culture. The Train Station Museum of Témiscaming, Quebec has a focus on transportation and hydrology, while the Guerin Museum views life through the eyes of the Catholic Priests in a small farming community. The Haileybury Heritage Museum explores the results of uncontrollable wildfire in an isolated community, while the Northern Ontario Firefighters Museum in Cobalt focuses on putting those fires out.
  1. HILLIARDTON MARSH RESEARCH & EDUCATION CENTRE: Englehart, Ontario.  Located in the heart of the “Little Claybelt”, this facility is designated as a “Wetland Centre of Excellence” where bird banding, research and education are undertaken.  It is wheelchair accessible, with hands-on activities for school children and the public occurring at scheduled events throughout most of the year.  The banding of Northern Saw-Whet Owls is an attraction for international tourists.
  1. WHITE BEAR OLD GROWTH FOREST: Temagami, Ontario. A protected Ontario “Conservation Reserve”, the focus is on the stands of ancient red and white pine that adorn the rock knob uplands in the typical landscape of the region. This geosite also traces the origin of indigenous forest paths that have prevailed for 5 to 6 thousand years, and the public is encouraged to walk them! Some White Pines date back to the days of Christopher Columbus, while the flora and fauna of the forest floor is renewed annually and described by your guide.
  1. HILL’S LAKE FISH CULTURE STATION: Charlton, Ontario. At first view, this location appears to be a life science attraction, but it has a clear geological connection, as the lifeblood of the operation is the pristine water flowing from an underground aquifer, a hydrological geofeature. The station is famous for its “Aurora Trout”, a subspecies of Brook Trout. Extirpated from the wild due to acid rain in the 1950’s, the species has been restocked in their original lakes. Free tours for groups of visitors throughout the year (by arrangement).
  1. URBAN GEOLOGY: Architects and builders of the early decades in the 20th century made use of local rock in their construction projects. The rail station at Temagami and the Catholic seminary at Angliers were built of local glacial debris that originated further north. The basement of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in New Liskeard was collected from glacial debris on Chief Island at the north end of Lake Temiskaming. The Catholic Church in Belle Vallee was made of carefully selected glacial rock debris and rock from local mines and quarries. The Catholic Church in Haileybury (and other structures) were made of limestone that was quarried on Mann Island, in the middle of Lake Temiskaming.
  1. FERGUSON HIGHWAY: #11 RIGHT-OF-WAY: km 377 to km 595. The original “Ferguson Highway” of 1927 ran over or around the rock knobs of the landscape. A “Ferguson Highway Heritage Tour” is in development.  Over the past 90 years, the highway has been renewed by blasting through the bedrock and levelling the road base. This has exposed sheer walls of geologic history. View a cross section of the Grenville Front, a pegmatite dike, the Gowganda Formation, the Temagami 2.2 billion year old banded iron formation, diabase dike swarms, Lorraine Formation conglomerate, Ordovician and Silurian limestone, Superior Precambrian Province nepheline syenite and pyroclastic volcanic flows, as well as glacial striations and grooves on glacial “rock pavement”.
  1. ARCTIC WATERSHED: Ontario Hwy. 11 at km 595. This “Height of Land” is both a physical and cultural geosite. It is considered to be the approximate dividing point between the south flowing pro-glacial Lake Barlow and the north flowing pro-glacial Lake Ojibway, during the break-up of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (8,000-10,000 years ago).  In 1670, the Rupert’s Land agreement gave all land to the north of this to the Hudson’s Bay Company.  In the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850, the Ojibway First Nation ceded all land to the south of this point to the British colonists. This point is the northern limit of the Temiskaming Rift Valley Aspiring Geopark.