Audio Excerpt

If you look to the North, you’ll see a forested area with some picnic tables… oh and if it’s summer you’ll probably see some tents too! You’re looking at Craigleith Provincial Park! The park opened in 1967, with the goal of preserving the historic oil shale beach. Oil shale is an organic-rich sedimentary rock containing Kerogen. 

 

Kerogen contains liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil that can be extracted and turned into oil. Basically... it’s a bunch of fossils that make oil.  The shores of Craigleith Provincial Park contain fractured oil shale plates with fossils a staggering 455 million years old! In 1859, the Craigleith Shale Oil Works plant opened and began extracting the oil shale, however only 4 years later it closed due to inefficiency. 

 

If you want to learn more, there’s some historical plaques located in the park! If you do stop though, make sure you bring your scuba gear! Just off the shore, there’s parts of an old ship that crashed in 1872!! Can anyone guess why the ship crashed?

 

The steamer Mary Ward, carrying coal oil, salt and passengers, crashed just off the shores of the park.  The Captain thought he was heading right for the Collingwood Harbor light, but it was really just a local tavern. The ship ran ashore and tragically, 8 people lost their lives… on the positive side, at least the survivors were close to a bar!