Harcourt Park is a nonprofit cottaging corporation in the municipality of

Dysart et al The United Townships of Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde, commonly known as the Municipality of Dysart et al, is a municipality in Haliburton County in Central Ontario, Canada. Shows the area of the mu ...

Haliburton County Haliburton is a county of Ontario, Canada, known as a tourist and cottage area in Central Ontario for its scenery and for its resident artists. Minden Hills is the county seat. Haliburton County and the village of Haliburton are named after Tho ...

in Central

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

established in by the Sumcot Development Corporation.

Geography

Harcourt Park is located in Harcourt Township near the small community of the same name ( Harcourt, Ontario) in the north of Haliburton County, with the Town of Bancroft being the closest nearby community with a population exceeding 1,000. The park is approximately northeast of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and approximately west of Ottawa. It has of land, 18 lakes, and 600 surveyed properties that are individually leased in favour of private ownership.

Ownership

Ownership of property within the park is titled to Harcourt Park Inc., and is subject to private lease, granting a membership in the corporation, a single vote, and the eligibility to become a member on the volunteer Board of Directors in charge of managing the corporation's business. Annual lease fees are used to provide services within the Park, including road maintenance, fish stocking, community events, and security. Only eight lakes in the Park have cottages, and of them, only four permit motorized watercraft: Straggle Lake, Little Straggle Lake, Allen Lake, and Kennaway Lake. Personal watercraft such as jetskis and Sea-Doos are prohibited.

Recreation

The Harcourt Park Marina, located on Little Straggle Lake, serves as a local grocery store, hardware store, and marine mechanic. Nearby, the Harcourt Park Community Center serves cottagers' many recreational and social needs. A network of over worth of trails extends its way through Harcourt Park, including the northern terminating end of the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs’ "E" Trail.

Natural history

Harcourt Park is situated on the

height of land A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

between the two

drainage basins A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

: spring and rain water alone feed into its lakes, which empty into either the Trent River or the Madawaska River systems. Due to extensive logging of the region in the early portion of the twentieth century, the majority of Harcourt Park's interior is made up of new-growth

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

; along with a scattering of fir, hemlock,

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...

, and

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

. Wildlife within the Park is extensive and diverse because of its proximity to

Algonquin Provincial Park Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Can ...

and its relative isolation, and includes

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

, coyotes, otters, beavers, and a number of other smaller mammals, birds, insects and reptiles. A variety of fish are found within the Park's various lakes, including Smallmouth bass,

Largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

Rock bass The rock bass (''Ambloplites rupestris''), also known as the rock perch, goggle-eye, red eye, and black perch, is a freshwater fish native to east-central North America. This red eyed creature is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish fa ...

Lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

, and Rainbow trout. Harcourt Park is protected from further cottage development and owns all logging rights, ensuring the natural habitats within it remain protected.

References

External links

* {{coord, 45.1, N, 78.2, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, format= dms, display=title Parks in Ontario Geography of Haliburton County