At the request of our composer Sarah Quartel, who has many happy memories of childhood holidays there as a child, Sing the North are travelling on our virtual choir tour bus to beautiful ALGONQUIN PARK in South Eastern Ontario.
Algonquin is one of Canada's most beautiful wild open spaces, home to thousands of species of plants and animals, and the first park to be designated in Canada.
A site of some 7,653 square kilometres (2,955 sq mi), the park contains over 2,400 lakes and 1,200 kilometres of streams and rivers. Some notable examples include Canoe Lake and the Petawawa, Nipissing, Amable du Fond, Madawaska, and Tim rivers. These were formed by the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age
It was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1992 in recognition of several heritage values including: its role in the development of park management; pioneering visitor interpretation programs later adopted by national and provincial parks across the country; its role in inspiring artists, which in turn gave Canadians a greater sense of their country; and historic structures such as lodges, hotels, cottages, camps, entrance gates, a railway station, and administration and museum buildings
SING THE NORTH travelled to Algonquin on the STN Virtual Tour Bus, where we had a fantastic tour of the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station with Station Manager, Kevin Kemmish.
We send special thanks to Kevin, whose enthusiasm for the birds, large animals, and especially the turtles of the park inspired us to sing Sarah Quartel's beautiful piece with even greater joy in the natural world.