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 The French River Visitor Centre. -- Photos courtesy of Ontario Parks |
Here's something new to enjoy if you happen to be driving up towards Sudbury this summer.
On Friday, July 14, the Ontario Government is opening its stunning new $5.5 million French River Visitor Centre where Hwy. 69 crosses the French, about 86 km north of Parry Sound and about 315 km from Toronto. The good news is that admission is free and there's no charge for parking.
Don't plan just a 10-minute washroom stop at this attraction. My guess is that once you've had a look inside you'll be hooked for at least an hour, maybe two.
With the aid of the latest in electronic gadgetry, lots of truly original design and imagination, the centre tells the fascinating story of Ontario's first Heritage River and the Provincial Park that has been created for 110 km along its banks from Lake Nipissing down to Georgian Bay. The new centre is just upstream from the Recollet Rapids where a party of early French missionaries were wrecked in the 1700s.
For centuries the French River was the Hwy. 401 of its day -- the route where practically everybody passed to get from the St.Lawrence Lowlands to the centre of the continent. If you walk a kilometre or so downstream from the visitor centre to Recollet Rapids,you'll be treading the same narrow portage path that Brebeuf and other Jesuit martyrs, fur-traders and explorers walked on their way to Georgian Bay and the interior.
After six years of research, planning,consultation with First Nations communities and construction, the centre opens its doors to the public on July 14 but the official opening probably will not take place until mid-August. I had a preview in June with Leslie Joynt, a young Geography grad from Guelph University. She is deputy superintendent of the French River park and also Killarney Provincial Park. I liked the computer-activated scenes, the huge pictorial displays, the big fur-trade canoe and the place where I walked on glass over a simulated river-bed. Below were trade-goods and artifacts lost in canoe upsets 200 years ago and recovered by divers in the 1960s.
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Most of all,though, I remember the Voices of the River: Recordings in English, French and Ojibwa of people reading the journals and recollections of those who moved up and down the river or lived beside it.
From July 14 until October, the new building will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Seven guides will be on hand to tell you about the river and its history. For information you can also visit ontarioparks.com and follow links to French River, or call 705-690-8088.
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FRENCH RIVER
To get there, take Hwy. 400 north to Parry Sound and continue north on Hwy. 69 for about 86 km. About 300 metres south of the French River bridge, look for a new road on the left leading in to the new centre. There's also an amazing new snowmobile suspension bridge across the river beside the centre.