Rondeau Provincial Park

Rondeau Provincial Park, located in southwestern Ontario, Canada is the second oldest provincial park having been established with an order in council on 8 September 1894. The park is located on an 8 km long crescentic sand spit extending into Lake Erie. In a 1930 soil survey most of the spit was mapped as Berrien sand, which is imperfectly drained. There are only two sand spits like this one in all of North America, one in Rondeau and one in Florida. Rondeau was established in 1894 as a response to demand for cottaging opportunities by residents of nearby Chatham. It is the second-oldest provincial park in Ontario (after Algonquin Provincial Park). Until recently it was recognized as the largest tourist destination in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Rondeau is also home to the largest area of Carolinian forest in Canada, a long sand beach, a large marsh, approximately half of Rondeau Bay, campgrounds and a cottage community. Most of the park is natural environment; the cottage community takes up less than 1% of the park area and is practically invisible from the air. The name of the park comes from the French words "ronde eau" or "round water" which describes the shape of the harbour sheltered by the peninsula.