Rock Point Provincial Park is a park located on the north shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

near the mouth of the Grand River in the

Carolinian zone The Carolinian forest refers to a life zone in eastern North America characterized primarily by the predominance of deciduous (broad-leaf) forest. The term "Carolinian", which is most commonly used in Canada, refers to the deciduous forests which s ...

of southwestern

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 ...

. It occupies an area of . Habitats within the park include wetlands, forests and dunes. Trees include the uncommon Big Shellbark Hickory.

Limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

shelves along the lake shore contain the

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s of marine animals from the Devonian period. There is also a sandy beach for

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

. Located above the fossil beds is a red clay bluff which separates the campgrounds from the Lake. There is a bird banding station in the park for monitoring bird migration. The fossil beds also contain deposits of

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a ...

, a stone similar to flint which was worked to produce stone points. An archeological survey of the park revealed a late paleo-Indian camp. The camp showed evidence that the people were working the chert as well as fishing in the lake.

External links

* Provincial parks of Ontario Parks in Haldimand County Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in Canada Forests of Ontario Protected areas established in 1990 1990 establishments in Ontario {{Canada-protected-area-stub