The Origins of Point Pelee
We’re kicking off a five-part series about Point Pelee, a world-renowned birding destination. Today we’ll learn how it formed in the first place and find out how it just barely survived to become the thriving national park it is today.
EPISODE NOTES
Two fact-check notes I have to cop to here:
It’s ruffed grouse, not, as I pronounced, ruffled grouse.
The description of the moraine is misleading. Glacial movement scoured the area down to the limestone. That limestone was then covered in layers of sediment. The sediment carried by the front of advancing glaciers is the moraine.
TRANSCRIPT
There’s something strange on the north shore of Lake Erie. Jutting out 15 kilometers into the water, a sharp spit tapering to the thinnest little point of sand.
This is Point Pelee National Park. And every spring, people descend on it by the thousands. Cars line up outside the gate at 4 in the morning. Packed trams rush crowds down its length to gather en masse at the point.
What’s all the fuss about? That’s what we’re going to find out, over the next few videos. Starting with how Point Pelee formed in the first place, and its winding, precarious road to becoming a national park.
The striking sharpness of the point looks almost manmade but like so much of Canada’s topography, it starts with glaciers. 15,000 years ago they deposit the limestone base of Point Pelee, called the Pelee-Lorain Moraine.
Over thousands of years, currents push sediments up against the moraine, building it slowly into the shape it has today. And as it breaks the surface plants and animals begin to colonize.
First Nations have been making use of the land for at least 6000 years. The first colonial explorers to visit are Dollier de Casson and De Brehant de Gallinée, French missionaries who stumble across it in 1670. In their words:
“The woods are open and full of game. Bear, deer, wild turkey, beaver, passenger pigeon and ruffed grouse are abundant.”
They also give it its western name, ‘Pointe-Pelée’, ‘Bald Point’ because the eastern side is barren and rocky.
But in 1799, the British stomp in to take control of the point. They want it for its towering pine and oak trees, to turn them into masts of sailing ships. So they declare it a naval reserve.
Despite that claim, people just keep flooding in. By the 1830s, it has two commercial fisheries and a whole bunch of squatters. And by the 1880s, the government gives in and offers everyone a chance to buy the land and develop it further. By 1891 those two commercial fisheries had become 22. It looks like Point Pelee could wind up as just another suburb.
But a chance visit by naturalist WE Saunders in 1862 would change everything. He shows up to hunt ducks but he’s met with a menagerie of birds unlike anything he’s ever seen. They inspire him to found the Great Lakes Ornithological Club, and to gather support to convert the naval reserve into a national park.
Saunders ropes in conservationist Jack Miner and ornithologist Percy Taverner, who are both equally stunned by Point Pelee’s biodiversity. Jack writes passionate letters calling for its preservation and Percy prepares the official proposal. By their combined efforts, in 1918, Point Pelee becomes Canada’s eighth national park, and the first to be designated in the name of conservation.
And so, all was… not well. Sure, it has its designation now - but a ton of the land is still privately owned. Between its balmy weather and 20km beach, no surprise that more than 300 cottages pop up to welcome swells of summer visitors.
To give you an idea of how bad things got, the park had 6000 parking spots. At peak attendance in 1963, 781,000 people visit Point Pelee. That year it’s both the smallest and most heavily used national park.
There’s actually serious talk at the time of de-listing it as a national park. There’s just barely anything left to conserve. But just as it’s teetering right on the edge, the government decides to fight for Point Pelee. They buy up every lot as it becomes available and remove the buildings from the park, along with roads which they replace with a tram system.
And over decades of incredible effort, they slowly but surely heal the park and return it to its more natural state. Point Pelee made it through by the skin of its teeth.
And thank goodness. Because Point Pelee is one of the most important ecological spots in the country. And next time, we’ll learn about why, through its most famous temporary inhabitants - both wildlife, and human.