Rock Lake Station

Over the last 10 years Gaye I. Clemson, a resident of Algonquin Park, has been collecting stories and manuscripts from fellow Algonquin Park residents in an ongoing effort to capture the voices of over 100 years of leasehold experience. One such set of experiences are those from what now is a public campground on the east side of Algonquin Park, but in former days was a railway station called Rock Lake Station.


Established in 1896 with the coming of the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, Rock Lake Station was for over forty years a bustling center for Algonquin park tourism and commerce. At its' peak in 1910, history indicates that up to six trains a day passed through. Most were freight trains moving wheat and other products from western Canada to markets in mid-western United States, Ottawa and Montreal. Unfortunately the building of a highway through the park in the 1930's led to the demise of the railway in the late 1940's. These events sealed Rock Lake Station's fate and today there are no signs of its existence, unless one knows where and how to look. This book is the third in a series of narratives designed to bring to life the human history of Algonquin Park with specific focus on the active and vibrant Rock Lake and Whitefish Lake community.