Page 29 - Searching for the Highlands National Park, 1934

ISSUE : Issue 43

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1986/8/1

dicated in the foregoing report, or such amended conditions as may be approved, I beg to recommend that the Cape Breton site be established as a National Park of Can? ada for the following reasons: (1) The site includes outstanding scenic attrac? tions of rugged coast line and mountain grandeur which is the best of its type within the Province of Nova Scotia. (2) The approaches to the Park site pass through magnificent scenery of an entirely different kind which is unsurpassed anywhere and which adds great? ly to the value of the site itself as a potential? ly world-famous tourist resort. (3) The geographical location of the proposed site is such that the stimulus to the general tourist business of Nova Scotia through its establishment as a National Park will benefit a larger number of people in the Province than the adoption of any other available site. It is worthy of note that every car which follows the Cabot Trail must of necessity pass through a large part of Nova Scotia twice • both coming and going. Hence every 1,000 cars that visit the Park will mean 2,000 cars on the Provincial Highways. (4) It is the only area of anything like the pro? posed size which can be established as a National Park in Nova Scotia without sacrificing the devel? opment of natural resources within the site which might be a source of greater revenue to the people of Nova Scotia than any which the establishment of a Park may be expected to provide. In this connection, it may be noted that: (a) the population affected is extremely small; (b) that the timber resources of the proposed site are of secondary value • due largely to the diffi? culty of getting timber out to the coast and the lack of harbours, and (c) that a study of the geological map of Nova Sco? tia. . . indicates that the geological formation of the northern part of Cape Breton Island is barren of all precious minerals, except that a trace of argentiferous galena is found at one point near Pleasant Bay. (5) Owing to the large area of the proposed site, and its wild character, it will make a splendid wild-life sanctuary. It also affords scope for re? stocking the territory with moose and cariboo, both of which were originally found in large num? bers throughout the district, but have been exter? minated. Within the site, there is good salmon and trout fishing which is capable of considerable further development, while various kinds of sea fishing may be engaged in from its coasts. (6) Finally, I respectfully submit my opinion that a Cape Breton National Park of Canada would prove to be a successful National venture; that it has within itself the requisite elements of a National Park; that it would attract an ever-increasing num? ber of tourists through that final test of popular? ity, namely the accumulated advertising done by those who have visited it, and that it will be a source of pride, as well as profit, to the people of Nova Scotia. (Sgd) R. W. Cautley, D.L.S. THE CAPE BRETON HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK WAS CREATED ON JUNE 23, 1936. OUR FRONT COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Our front cover photograph • taken at Cap Rouge in 1933 • was printed by Owen Fitzgerald and will be part of his new book of old photographs. Early Cape Breton: a Photo Essay 1860-1935. The book will be published this year by the University Col? lege of Cape Breton Press. The Cap Rouge photograph is from the collection of Willie a Auguste LeBlanc. With him in the picture are Simeon a George LeBrun, Willie a George LeBrun, Mrs. Cassidy, and Miss Moore (Mrs. Clayton Tim? mons) . This information accompanies the photograph in Cap Rouge: Sur les Traces des Habitants by Re- jean Aucoin, a short picture and word portrait (in French) of the 15 families who inhabited the Cap Rouge region before the coming of the Highlands National Park. It is available from Les Amis du Plein Air, C.P. 42, Cheticamp, N. S. BOE IHO, and from the bookstores at the Park entrances. The photographs in this article came from the Clara Dennis Collection, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, and the Beaton Institute, U.C.C.B. The text of this article is taken from R. W. Caut? ley *s 1934 "Report On Examination of Sites For a National Park in the Province of Nova Scotia." It was published as an appendix to R. H. McDonald's Transportation in Northern Cape Breton, Parks Can- ada Manuscript Report Number 363 (1979). Bell Buoy Restaurant Seafood * Steaks * Poultry * Sandwiches Fully Licensed * Luncheon & Children's Menus Baddeck, KS. 295-2581 Suppliers of Commercial Recreational Fencing P. 0. Box 98. King St., North Sydney. N. S. B2A 3M1 794-4773 nncEL "Have our auger truck dig your holes." I Take a Value home today- ' CAPE BRETON SHOPPING PLAZA - SYDNEY RIVER '''SJISSfSS'' I KlnVA/WpArPf' MAYFLOWER MALL - GRAND LAKE ROAD, SYDNEY ??n?iiH??rrjw?wr n INV'VV VY'rAI' VJ pQ['' HAWKESBURY SHOPPING CENTRE - PORT HAWKESBURY '4>' B

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