Nagagamisis Provincial Park

Nagagamisis Provincial Park is a provincial park in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is located 32 km north of Hornepayne, along Highway 631. It protects a large piece of land surrounding Nagagamisis Lake, as well as long linear sections along the Foch and Nagagami Rivers.

Nagagamisis Provincial Park is an operating park, with 107 car and 19 RV camps sites. Amenities include nature trails, boat launch, docks, store, playground, and equipment rentals. Permitted activities include boating, canoeing, camping (also backcountry camping), hiking, biking, swimming, fishing, and hunting.

Description
The park is located at the western edge of the Great Clay Belt in Northeastern Ontario. Its landscape is characterized by moraines with spruce and jack pine forests, and lacustrine deposits with coniferous and mixed deciduous trees. Many wetlands are present throughout the park. Nagagamisis Lake, with an area of 2330 ha, is the largest lake within the park. It is in the Albany River watershed.

Although the park's original area around Nagagamisis Lake has never been logged, its forests have been disturbed by large wildfires. It completely burned down in the early part of the 20th century, resulting in even-aged stands and a relatively simple vegetation pattern in 1980.

The park is part of the Nagagamisis Central Plateau Signature Site, an area which has both natural and cultural significance. This site also includes the 1650 ha Nagagami Lake Provincial Nature Reserve and the 27532 ha Nagagamisis Lake Enhanced Management Area.

History
Historically, the park's area was visited seasonally by small bands of Cree people, living of fish and small game. A few Cree and Ojibwe families lived on Nagagamisis Lake from the early 1900s until the 1930s, and continued to use the lake as a winter campsite for some time afterwards.

The park was established in 1957, with an original area of 1530 ha at the west end of Nagagamisis Lake. It went through a few configuration and size changes. Although reduced in size in 1958 by deregulating land on the lake's north shore, it was enlarged to 4810 ha in 1963, following increased use that resulted from the completion of Highway 631 to Hornepayne. In 1970 and 1978, it was enlarged again to 5850 ha and 8131 ha respectively. At that time, the park included almost all of Nagagamisis Lake (except a portion of the north shore with private properties).

Under Ontario's Living Legacy Land Use Strategy, the park became part of the newly designated Nagagamisis Central Plateau Signature Site, and saw a four-fold expansion in 2005, when 32680 ha were added that joined the park to the Nagagami Lake Provincial Nature Reserve, and that protects a 200 m strip of land along both banks of the Nagagami River all the way to near its confluence with the Kenogami River (in Cochrane District). It also includes a non-contiguous section along the banks of the Foch River (from the Canadian National Railroad tracks to its outlet at Nagagami Lake).

Future park extensions are being considered as well, or additional land may be protected in the proposed Nagagamisis and Nagagami Lake Park Addition.