Land
Geology
Between 78,000 and 10,000 years ago, most of Canada was covered in up to three kilometres of ice. As this continental glacier ripped and scraped across the landscape, faults became exposed and the glaciers were able to dig deep into the splintered rock along the faults. Much of the topographic variation in the Haliburton Highlands can be attributed to the interplay between the glaciers and the broken rock along faults.
The Haliburton Highlands has about 600 lakes, numerous streams and rivers, and countless wetlands. This abundance of water and how it flows across the landscape is explained by the character of the bedrock found in this area. The rock is mostly metamorphic rock called gneiss, which also makes up most of the Canadian Shield. With respect to the flow of water, it is important to note that there is almost no open space within the structure of this type of rock. As a result, very little surface water in the Haliburton Highlands seeps down into the bedrock. The well-sealed bedrock bottoms of Haliburton’s lakes and wetlands keeps the water on the surface instead of allowing it to drain downward.
The bedrock in the Haliburton Highlands is made even more significant by the thin soil cover. Where soil exists at all, it consists of only a very shallow layer on top of the bedrock. Therefore the shape of the landscape is determined, not by mounds of soil as in other areas, but by the bedrock beneath it. How water makes its way downstream — its flow and speed, as well as the shape of lake basins — are all controlled by the same bedrock topography.
A unique physical feature of the Lake Kashagawigamog basin is the Lochlin Esker. An esker is a surface deposit of mixed sizes of rocks and sands that were dropped within melt waters of retreating glaciers. Eskers are therefore long and winding features on the landscape. The Lochlin Esker is the only esker in the region. It extends across the lake basin winding along the east extent from an area just south of the Minden Hills-Dysart boundary and towards the hamlet of Lochlin.
The earliest accounts of the natural resources in the area came from Samuel de Champlain who noted that the area is “a fine place to hunt stag and caribou.” It was noted by early settlers too that the best fur area was from Haliburton to Algonquin Park, and further that the Lake Kashagawigamog basin specifically had excellent elm, maple, birch and beech, being larger than two people could wrap their arms around.
When water control was established to support new and extensive lumbering operations in the 1860s, with pine trees being the primary extraction, the forests were changed. Logs were driven from Head Lake through Lake Kashagawigamog to the Burnt River and then on to Cameron Lake.
These forestry operations and infrastructure significantly altered the forest cover and directly and indirectly began changing the hydrology of the area. It was noted in 1912 surveys (before major roads and land development) that Barnum, Head and North Kashagawigamog (Grass) Lakes were all connected through rivulets and basin wetlands which have since been filled in.
Sources: Hawk Lake Interpretive Kiosk; Kashagawigamog Lake Report, Lake Kashagawigamog Organization, 2012
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Site Plan
Click here for a PDF of the Chandler Point Cottages site plan.
Land Acknowledgement (DRAFT)
We acknowledge that the land on which the Chandler Point cottage community is situated in the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Mississauga adjacent to Haudenosaunee Territory and in the territory covered by the Williams Treaty.
We honour the original inhabitants of the land. We are grateful for the opportunity to visit and be on this land on which we enjoy recreational activities and spiritual renewal with our family and friends. We thank all the generations of people who have taken care of this land before us – for thousands of years. We recognize and deeply appreciate their historic connection to this place.
We also recognize the contributions of Métis, Inuit and other Indigenous peoples of Canada, both in shaping and strengthening this community and country as a whole.
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