SHUNIAH — The Lakehead Region Conservation Authority (LRCA) held a Silver Harbour Day at the Silver Harbour Conservation Area on Saturday.
“LRCA gets involved in these type of events. It’s to support the community and we work in partnership with the municipality of Shuniah,” said Donna Blunt, the LRCA’s chair and a municipal councillor.
Blunt said it’s a real fun day with lots of events planned.
Some of these family-friendly events included face painting with the Superior Mermaids at the dive park, a Shuniah Youth Group barbecue fundraiser hosted by Shuniah Fire and Rescue, informational scuba diving sessions with Thunder Country Diving and newly added disc golf.
Families also had the chance to tour a Canadian Coast Guard search and rescue vessel, the Cape Chaillon.
“I think it’s a real fun thing for kids to actually get to go on the boat. I hear the horn honking and they get to see what it looks like both inside and out. And they usually come each time we hold this event,” said Blunt, who also represents Shuniah on the board.
Overall, she said it’s a great event.
“Maybe they haven’t been here before, they can come and see what the Silver Harbour Conservation Area looks like and it’s a real nice area,” said Blunt, referencing the area’s boat launch, dive park and walking trails.
Gene Kent, a Thunder Bay Field Naturalists volunteer, who primarily assists with youth programs, also displayed some information about the geological history of Thunder Bay, dating back 2.7 billion years, to give an overview of how the area formed over time.
“If you had been here just a billion years ago, there would have been a big break in the earth occurring, very much like an East African rift, which is splitting Africa apart from Asia as we speak,” said Kent.
While the break stopped and healed before it could potentially split and separate the United States into a different continent, it released magma from deep within the Earth and out of volcanoes that spread between layers of sedimentary rock and formed cap rocks.
Once everything else wore away in the last billion years, Kent said, it left the mountains seen on the top of Sleeping Giant, Mount McKay (Anemki Wajiw) and all the mountains around the area.
“Where we’re standing here today is definitely part of that story because those really hard cap rocks or igneous rocks, that are called diabase, formed this flat layer at this conservation area and extended probably for 1000 ft between the quarry face and the road that you take on the way in,” said Kent.
When the quarry was exhausted and there was no longer a need to mine the rock for Thunder Bay’s breakwater and harbour, he said the conservation authority took over the land so that it would be protected and there would be a boat launch where people could access the lake.
“Every kid you know generally will look at a rock and pick up a pebble and wonder what they found,” said Kent.
“And we just want people’s natural curiosity coming out about what they see around them, how did the mountains form, how did Lake Superior form and just kind of knowing the natural history of our area, so that they feel that this is an area that they’re part of and that they want to protect.”
With Silver Harbour, one of the LRCA’s Northwestern Ontario properties within the municipality of Shuniah and the LRCA sometimes putting on events in the municipality, Hannah Terejko, the municipality’s community services and events coordinator, said they want to support what they’re doing and support using the natural spaces within Shuniah — one of its “greatest strengths.”
“We like to come out and show our support and put on a nice little barbecue, have some activities and get people out to the community and the natural spaces to enjoy the weather and all the strengths of Shuniah,” said Terejko.
While fall events and a yard sale are planned, she said she will be looking at what else the municipality can run through the summer and what other programs they can run through the pavilion: “It’s a great shelter space for lots more programs to happen.”