Online Lecture: Algonquin Park and the Railways

Join us! “Algonquin Park and the Railways” on June 16th at 7 pm EST.

Roderick MacKay, a historian of Algonquin Provincial Park, will use mainly archival images to provide a Powerpoint overview of some aspects of Park history as influenced by proposed and constructed railways, including two cross Park railways and a number of smaller logging railways. He will briefly examine what became of the larger railways, and discuss some of their effects on the environment and vice versa.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE TICKET.

Tickets for this event are free, although registration is required.

Attendees will get access to our exclusive Zoom meeting room, where they can engage directly with the presenter and museum historians in a post-lecture Q&A. The event will begin at 7pm Eastern Standard Time, and will end at 8:30pm EST.

ABOUT RODERICK MACKAY

Roderick (Rory) MacKay of Harrowsmith was born in Toronto and raised in Toronto and at his family summer cottage in Algonquin Park. A childhood activity shared with his father and brother Niall was watching trains at Leaside Station. While taking a degree in Biology at Queen’s University in Kingston he spent summers from 1972 to 1978 working as a seasonal interpretive naturalist at the Algonquin Park Museum. In 1989 he was hired to set up the Algonquin Park Archives, with which he is still associated as a volunteer. He worked as a Kingston area secondary school teacher of science and history from 1978 to 2008. He is a licensed research archaeologist particularly interested in logging camps. He is also co-author of “Algonquin” (1993), and author of “Spirits of the Little Bonnechere” (1996 revised 2017), “More about J. R. Booth” (2015), “More About the Camboose Shanty” (2015), “A Chronology of Dates and Events of Algonquin Provincial Park” (2018), and “Algonquin Park – A Place Like No Other: A history of Algonquin Provincial Park” (2018) available from The Friends of Algonquin Park. He is a recipient of the Friends of Bonnechere Provincial Park Directors’ Award (1998), The Friends of Algonquin Park Directors’ Award (2008), and the Ontario Archaeological Society Peggi Armstrong Public Archaeology Award (2021).

ABOUT THE TORONTO RAILWAY MUSEUM (TRM)

The Toronto Railway Museum (TRM) brings people together by telling stories of Toronto’s railway heritage. The Museum is located in the heart of downtown Toronto and is typically open year-round. TRM presents exhibits, tours, educational programs and publications that broaden the understanding and appreciation of Toronto’s rich railway history. TRM is committed to telling the stories of the railways, and welcoming conversations of its varied experiences through its lecture series, exhibits and integrated programming with a mission to learn from the past to make the future better.

The Toronto Railway Museum would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Community Building Fund. More information is available here.