Episode 47: PT2 The Great Opeongo Lake - Colonization 1850-1925

ALGONQUIN DEFINING MOMENTS

Episode 47: PT2 The Great Opeongo Lake - Colonization 1850-1925

In this episode, I’m going to focus on recounting the history of the early Lake Opeongo colonization efforts that began in the early 1850s with the building of the Ottawa Opeongo Colonization Road. Then I’ll share some stories about the Dennison Family’s farming efforts and early attempts at leaseholding on the lake until about 1925. Much of the content comes from a now out-of-print 1998 book by S. Bernard Shaw, called Lake Opeongo: Untold Stories of Algonquin Park’s Largest Lake. Other references include:

• Algonquin Park: A Place Like No Other by Roderick MacKay - 2018
• Spirits of the Little Bonnechère by Roderick MacKay 2016 2nd edition
• Algonquin Story by Audrey Saunders 1946
• Protected Places: A History of Ontario’s Provincial Park System by Gerald Killan 1993

This musical interlude is called Courage and comes from Dan Gibson’s 2013 Solitudes CD called Thunder Spirits. It is brought to you with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found where ever you get your music streaming.