World Class

1000 Islands

The 1000 Islands Region has an amazing 1,864 islands located in a 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch along the St. Lawrence River between Canada (Ontario) and the United States (New York State). For well over a century, the 1000 Islands has been a vacation destination. The region also has 24 inland lakes.

There is an archipelago of islands that range in size from very large (Wolfe Island, about 40 square miles) to quite small. Thousand Islands National Park of Canada oversees about 20 islands for camping. The St. Lawrence Parks Commission manages award-winning attractions and outdoor recreational areas along the river between Kingston and the Quebec Border.

Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Canadian Heritage Site. This 19th-century engineering marvel covers 202 kilometres of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa south to Kingston on Lake Ontario. It was built for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied for control of the region.

It is the best-preserved example of a slack water canal in North America, demonstrating the use of a large-scale European technology. It is the only canal dating from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century to remain operational along its original line with most of its structures intact.

Frontenac Arch Biosphere

Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve representatives signed the National Geographic Society's GeoTourism Charter in 2010, only the 9th such charter in the world and the third in Canada. This vast landscape was designated a UNESCO site in 2002. The Thousand Islands, the southern half of the Rideau Canal, much of the Land O' Lakes, the upper St. Lawrence River; and the towns, villages and farms make up this globally significant region.

Five forest regions merge and intermingle on the Frontenac Arch, perhaps the most bio-diverse region in Canada. It has more than 40 per cent forest cover, another 30 per cent is made up of lakes, rivers and streams. It is the site of Canada's first glassworks, Ontario's oldest standing stone bridge and Upper Canada's first iron foundry. First Nations' settlements can be found here dating back to just after the last ice age.