Rock Point Provincial Park
Encyclopedia
Rock Point Provincial Park is a park located on the north shore of Lake Erie
near the mouth of the Grand River
in the Carolinian zone of southwestern Ontario
. It occupies an area of 1.87 km²
.
Habitats within the park include wetlands, forests and dunes. Trees include the uncommon Big Shellbark Hickory. Limestone
shelves along the lake shore contain the fossil
s of marine animals from the Devonian
period. There is also a sandy beach for swimming.
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
, 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.
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
near the mouth of the Grand River
Grand River (Ontario)
The Grand River is a large river in southwestern Ontario, Canada. From its source, it flows south through Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Caledonia, and Cayuga before emptying into the north shore of Lake Erie south of Dunnville at Port Maitland...
in the Carolinian zone of southwestern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. It occupies an area of 1.87 km²
1 E6 m²
To aid in the comparison of sizes of different geographic regions, areas between 1 km2 and 10 km2 are listed below. See also areas of other orders of magnitude.* Areas smaller than 1 km2...
.
Habitats within the park include wetlands, forests and dunes. Trees include the uncommon Big Shellbark Hickory. Limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
shelves along the lake shore contain the fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s of marine animals from the Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
period. There is also a sandy beach for swimming.
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
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
.
The fossil beds also contain deposits of chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
, 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.