[4] Its size, combined with its proximity to the major urban centres of Toronto and Ottawa, makes Algonquin one of the most popular provincial parks in the province and the country.

Some notable examples include Canoe Lake and the Petawawa, Nipissing, Amable du Fond, Madawaska, and Tim rivers.

Algonquin Park was named a National Historic Site in 1992 in recognition of several heritage values including: its role in the development of park management; pioneering visitor interpretation programs later adopted by national and provincial parks across the country; its role in inspiring artists, which in turn gave Canadians a greater sense of their country; and historic structures such as lodges, hotels, cottages, camps, entrance gates (the West Gate was designed by George H. Williams, Chief Architect and Deputy Minister of Public Works for the Province of Ontario), a railway station, and administration and museum buildings.

The commissioners remarked in their report: "the experience of older countries had everywhere shown that the wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter of forests brings a host of evils in its train.

Wide tracts are converted from fertile plains into arid desert, springs and streams are dried up, and the rainfall, instead of percolating gently through the forest floor and finding its way by easy stages by brook and river to the lower levels, now descends the valley in hurrying torrents, carrying before it tempestuous floods."

Although much of the area within Algonquin had been under license for some time, it was intended to make the park an example of good forestry practices.

Researchers believe that smoke from a forest fire in Algonquin Park was responsible for New England's Dark Day of May 19, 1780.

[7] This is based on investigations into scar marks which are left in the growth rings of trees that survive forest fires.

The boundaries of the park included 18 townships within the District of Nipissing, covering an area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi) of which 10% was under water.

The tract of land was to be set apart, as a public park, health resort and pleasure ground for the benefit, advantage and enjoyment of all the people of the province.

He liaised with timber operators, oversaw the removal of settlers and their homes, and notified local Algonquin natives that they could no longer hunt, trap or live in the area.

Thousands of people had visited the great pleasure resort and it was said to be undeniably one of the most beautiful natural parks in the Dominion, if not on this continent.

There was no fee for camping permits, though a nominal charge was introduced for fishing and guides' licenses when "an Act to establish the Algonquin National Park of Ontario" was again passed by the legislature, March 19, 1910.

He eventually became deputy minister for the provincial Ministry of Lands and Forests, and the portion of Highway 60 which passes through Algonquin Park has been named the Frank A. MacDougall Parkway in his honour.

The village of Mowat on the west side of Canoe Lake was first established in 1893 as a logging camp for the Gilmour Lumber Company.

Park headquarters were also relocated in 1897 from Mowat to a point of land on the north shore of Cache Lake, adjacent to the railway.

To the west side of Highland Inn, land was cleared and raised wooden platforms erected, on which tents (supplied by the hotel), were put up to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing tourist trade.

Nominigan Camp, consisting of a main lodge with six cabins of log construction, was established on Smoke Lake.

The beginning of the end of rail service in the park happened in 1933 when a flood damaged an old Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway trestle on Cache Lake.

Many of Thomson's most significant paintings are of Algonquin Park, including The Jack Pine and The West Wind.

Friends of the painter erected a cairn and totem pole memorial on Hayhurst Point, near the north end of the lake.

A large and detailed relief map of southern Ontario is displayed to enable a visitor to be oriented to the size and geography of the park.

In a flow-through style, exhibits continue with many taxidermied species set in their native surroundings, then progresses, in a chronological manner, through an extensive collection of artifacts relating to human intervention in the park.

Other activities include fishing, mountain biking, horseback riding, cross country skiing, and day hiking.

The park also publishes a visitor's newsletter, The Raven, six times a year – two issues in spring, two in summer, one in the fall, and one in the winter.

One annual feature worthy of note at the museum is "Logger's Day", typically held in late July or early August each year.

[17] This festivity includes musicians, a logger's old style lunch, activities for children, interpretive actors, and forest industry representatives.

[18] Although there are numerous drive-in campgrounds in Algonquin, the park is better known for its interior camping; that is, campsites which are only accessible by canoe or hiking in the summer, or ski or snowshoe in the winter.

Glaciation during the Pleistocene epoch left a mantle of glacial till plus sandy and gravelly outwash deposits.

[29] Animals that inhabit Algonquin include moose,[30] black bears,[31] white-tailed deer,[32] Canada jays,[33] beavers,[34] red foxes,[35] great grey owls,[36] and Eastern wolf.