For 50 years now the Rockwood Conservation Area has provided countless memories for thousands of individuals and families throughout southern Ontario and beyond.
Last week dozens of guests, dignitaries, politicians and Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) staff and board members gathered at the conservation area for a ceremony to mark its 50th anniversary.
The June 26 event included lunch, a tour of the park and a special ceremony, during which several speakers highlighted the conservations area’s services, recreation opportunities and natural beauty, while others offered personal accounts of time spent at the park.
“I have fond memories of this place,” said Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong. “This is a great facility … generations of kids have enjoyed it.”
Chong talked lightheartedly about day trips to the park in the late 1970s and early 1980s with his family. He said he and his siblings would pile in the back of a Ford LTD station wagon with no seat belts on – and wearing no sunscreen.
Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott called the park “one of our finest summer attractions” and recalled getting in trouble for blasting the Beach Boys too loudly during trips to the Rockwood park as a teenager in the 1970s.
Arnott quipped that he too recently celebrated a 50th birthday, but unlike him, the Rockwood Conservation Area “gets better each and every year.”
Guelph-Eramosa Mayor Chris White said the township is “thrilled” to have the park within its borders.
“This park really is what Rockwood’s all about … it’s the heart of our community,” said White. “It really is a special park.”
Superintendent David Townsend called the Rockwood site “one of the most beautiful parks in Ontario.”
He explained the GRCA’s role at the park is twofold: to protect its natural features for future generations and also to allow responsible access to those features for the current generation.
Townsend said that can be a balancing act at times, but he is confident the Rockwood park has “a bright future ahead.”
Last week’s ceremony was wrapped up with a special presentation of a Rockwood park print to Mike MacIntyre and family from Gilbert MacIntyre and Son Funeral Homes, which since 1999 has donated over $250,000 to the park in memory of all those served at the business’ Guelph and Rockwood locations.
“Their involvement has been absolutely outstanding,” Doug Brock, chairman of the Grand River Conservation Foundation, said of the MacIntyres.
Norm Lundvall, past president of the foundation, played an integral role in the MacIntyres’ first donation.
“People want to give, you just have to ask,” he said with a smile. “It’s a great partnership.”
Mike MacIntyre, who was joined by sons Peter and Mike Jr. and also brought along another $22,000 donation on June 26, thanked the GRCA for the recognition and noted his reason for being involved was simple.
“Everybody likes to see their loved ones’ names in print,” he said of those recognized along the park’s Gilbert MacIntyre Memorial Trail.
Site history
The Rockwood Woolen Mills, which opened in 1867 and peaked in production during the First World War by making blankets for soldiers, closed in the 1920s.
William Harris and his son Edgar created a private park in the area surrounding the mill, calling it Hi-Pot-Lo Park.
The GRCA acquired the old mill and 79 hectares of land from Edgar Harris in 1959, and officially opened the park in 1963. The beach area, picnic areas and campsites were developed in the late 1960s.
Today, over 75,000 patrons visit the Rockwood park every year.
