On Saturday we had a picnic at Point Farms Provincial Park near Goderich, Ontario. It’s now a campground with beach and trails, but in the Victorian period it was a summer resort.

Here’s a picture of the Point Farms hotel that was posted on Flickr by the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol.

I learned some of the history of the park in the Point Farms Provincial Park Master Plan from the Ministry of Natural Resources (1977).

In the 1830s the land was owned by the Canada Company, a British land development company that aided the colonization of Upper Canada (Ontario). The land was sold to Baron Carel Lodewyn de Tuyle “and from the 1830s this area underwent a pattern of agricultural use characteristic of much of Southern Ontario.”

A summer resort hotel was built by J.J. Wright in 1871. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of the historical info provided at the site, but I remember that the hotel burnt down and was rebuilt within a few years. Also, the royal family visited in 1875. According to the Master Plan, “Because of the increased prosperity in the county during the 1870s, the hotel became a summer resort for city families and a dining facility, picnic ground and holiday resort for Huron County residents until 1915 when its success declined and operations halted.” The remains of the hotel were removed by wreckers in 1924.

Between November 1963 and January 1964 most of the land was acquired by the then Ontario Department of Lands and Forests (the rest in 1966). “The reasons behind its selection for provincial park development included its fine beach, lake access potential and location equidistant from Inverhuron Provincial Park to the north and Pinery Provincial Park to the south.” The first campground opened in 1965. A controlled pheasant hunt took place every fall until 1972.

So that’s what I learned about the history of this provincial park. And here are two of my kids eating birthday cookies at the Point Farms picnic area!