Princess Point is located in the south east corner of

Cootes Paradise Cootes Paradise is a property of the Royal Botanical Gardens at the western end of Lake Ontario, and a remnant of the larger 3700 acre Dundas Marsh Crown Game Preserve established by the Province of Ontario in 1927. It is a 600 hectare environment ...

marsh in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...

, and is the principal access point to the surrounding natural areas. The property is part of the Cootes Paradise Nature Sanctuary owned and managed by the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG). The low waterside peninsula has made Princess Point a natural gathering place for people for thousands of years. Archeological discoveries have indicated that between 1000 and 800 AD the Middle

Woodland Culture In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeolog ...

brought agriculture in the form of corn production to the region. The discovery of this has given rise to the term the

Princess Point Complex The Princess Point complex (also called the Princess Point culture) is an archaeological culture of the Middle to Late Woodland period of northeastern North America. The complex marked a transition between the latter part of the Middle Woodlan ...

, referring to this archeological group of native people that cover a large region of eastern North America. The current parking area was created in the 1950s by the RBG through substantial infilling of the marshland, and for several decades the area was manicured parkland. The site has never been farmed and so a number of unusual species of oak trees remain. The site continues to be used as an archeological field school in a collaboration between the RBG and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

. The site provides both canoe access to Cootes Paradise and starting point for the waterfront and natural trails of the area.

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Further reading