Kring Point State Park, photograph courtesy Bill Dillon and Pat Watt.

An array of public recreation places, nature preserves, and historic sites enrich life on the river. These resources vary from the extended St. Lawrence Islands National Park to many diminutive village parks. They range from large Ft. Henry at Kingston to little Rock Island Lighthouse off Fishers Landing. Some are on islands, accessible only by boat, whereas most are on the mainland shores.

St. Lawrence Islands National Park is comprised of twenty-one separate sites, located on more than twenty islands as well as the Canadian mainland. This was the first National Park established in eastern Canada.

Thwartway Island, St. Lawrence Islands National Park. Ian Coristine / 1000 Islands Photo Art

We also have fourteen New York State Parks in the region, a few of them on islands serving boaters, but most of them accessible by automobile. Wellesely Island State Park in 2004 was named as one of the Top 100 Campgrounds in the nation. In 2005 it was as one of Reserve America's Top Outdoor Locations.

Wellesly Island State Park, courtesy Qingfeng He

Charleston Lake, one of the Ontario Parks, has many islands and terrain similar to the that on the river, offering several hiking trails. The popular park is about twenty kilometers (twelve miles) north of the Thousand Islands Bridge.

Charleston Lake, photograph courtesy of Friends of Charleston Lake .

Public nature preserves are supplimented by private areas accessible to the public. The Minna Anthony Common Nature Center is the largest nature center not only in the region, but in any New York state park and in all of northern New York. With three miles of shoreline, its six-hundred acre preserve is within 2600-acre Wellesley Island State Park, the largest undeveloped parcel of land in the Thousand Islands. Accessible by automobile, the Nature Center offers a natural history museum, a butterfly house, eight miles of trails for hiking and skiing, and many activities--a 36-foot voyageur canoe program, for instance, and a Thursday evening summer concert series, as well as nature walks, crafts, and family programs daily in season.

White-tailed deer fawn, Minna Anthony Common Nature Center. Randy Caccia photograph.

The Thousand Islands Land Trust protects more than seven-thousand acres of land. Holdings include Potters Beach on Grindstone Island as well as the Grindstone Island Nature Trail between Canoe Point & Picnic Point State Parks. TILT has also developed the Macsherry Trail at Crooked Creek. These are self guided nature trails. TILT also maintains the site of Fort Haldimand on Carleton Island and a twenty-two-mile recreational rail-trail. 

TILT volunteers at Ft. Haldimand, Carleton Island

The Province of Ontario acquired Big Sandy Bay property on Wolfe Island, preserving this largest sand beach in the region for public use.

Big Sandy Bay. Photographer unidentified.

Big Sandy is not primarily a recreation area, however but is a nature preserve, access requiring a 3-km hike as well as an admission fee. The Township of Frontenac Islands manages the Big Sandy Bay reservation.

The Blue Mountain area of Charleston Lake Provincial Park protects flora and fauna such as pitch pine forests, a rare species in Canada, as well others such as distinctive varieties of gentian, fern and sumac. Red-shouldered hawk and osprey appear here. The Perigrene Falcon was reintroduced in 2001 at Charleston Lake, the first program supported by the Canadian Peregrine Foundation in a natural setting. The program has continued each year.

Pergrine Falcon, courtesy Canadian Raptor Foundation

The Mac Johnson Wildlife Area north of Brockville, noted for breeding Trumpeter Swans, also provides hiking and skiing trails as well as picnic facilities. The Catarqui Region Conservation Authority maintains several areas in the region.

Trumpeter swan, courtesy Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority

Trumpeter Swan. Photograph courtesy National Parks Service.

The Landon Bay Centre, a project of the private Barabara Heck Foundation, involves an interesting mix of ecological and resort functions, the latter helping to support the facility financially. The Landon Bay Centre is doubly interesting, not merely for being non-governmental park and preserve open to the public, but for involving volunteers in developing gardens there. These may be individuals or other organizations, such as the Kingston Field Naturalists, which maintains one of the larger gardens. The government and other foundations contribute indirectly to the Landon Bay Centre by providing assistance to participating organizations. The Barbara Heck Foundation offers educational programs for groups of children and adults by special arrangement.

Osprey platform, photograph courtesy of the Landon Bay Centre

Some enlightened private developments are setting aside nature preserves, as Brad Johnson has done with sixty-five acres at Landon Bay East and Tom and Joann Schwalm at their Thousand Islands Country Club development.

Landon Bay, Lisa Johnson photograph courtesy Landon Bay East. Landon Bay Centre appears acoss the water.

Several agencies maintain historic sites in the region. Parks Canada has Bellevue, the Kingston home of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime minister, and Kingston's Martello Towers. Fort Henry at Kingston is operated by the Province of Ontario. The Ontario Heritage Foundation is restoring Fulford Place at Brockville, open to visitors. The Town of Gananoque maintains the fine John McDonald House as its town hall. Other governenmental agencies likewise preserve important public buildings, as do church congregations.

A Martello Tower in winter ice, Kingston. Jonathon Bowman photograph.

The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority owns and operates the premier historic attraction for visitors, Boldt Castle and the many other structures of the Boldt estate. A international company has opened to visitors Dark Island with its furnished "castle," a historic landmark designed for Frederick Bourne, president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, by noted architect Ernest Flagg.

Rock Island with its lighthouse is owned by New York State and managed as a public park near Fishers Landing by the Thousand Islands Region Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, assisted by an active volunteer association which has produced a remarkable website. Such historic sites are described more fully in the Entertainment section.

Endymion Island, St. Lawrence Islands National Park

Thousand Islands parks and preserves confront the same dilemma as encountered elswhere: how to reconcile public accessiblity with natural conservation. Preserves may be "killed by success," as the saying goes. While intended to provide the public contact with nature, that contact may destroy the nature. A case history of this problem is afforded by St. Lawrence Islands National Park, a discussion of Endymion Island being case-in-point. An endangered local plant is Deerberry.

Looking from Camelot towards Endymion Island, St. Lawrence Islands National Park. Photographer unidentified.

Camelot Island. Ian Coristine / 1000 Islands Photo Art