NEYS PROVINCIAL PARK

Neys Provincial Park is located 60 km East of Terrace Bay, on Highway 17. It is a Natural Environment Class park and includes the historic Coldwell Peninsula as well as the surrounding island system. The ghost village of Coldwell, which lies just outside the eastern boundary of the park, was home to an old railway and fishing community until the 1960s. All that remains of the village now are a few foundations, shipwrecks in the harbour and a cemetery.

 

The history of Neys also includes the establishment of a Prisoner of War camp, in which hundreds of German inmates lived. These men were imprisoned from 1941 to1946. At the end of the war, Neys became  a processing camp for all POWs detained in Northwestern Ontario and was then turned into a minimum security work camp for prisoners from the Thunder Bay area. The camp was dismantled in 1954, but visitors can view a model at the Visitor Centre.

 

The park features weathered and rounded gray or pink rock along the western side of the Coldwell Peninsula. In fact, Neys is home to one of the hardest and rarest mineral complexes in North America, the Coldwell Alkalic Complex, which formed over 1 billion years ago when magma chambers formed beneath the surface, causing surface swelling to occur.

 

Eventually, the swelling turned into an active volcano! Today, the once hot magma chamber is exposed surface rock on the northern shore of Lake Superior. The park has an interpretive trail (Under the Volcano Trail) with detailed information plaques that explain the process with more detail.

 

Neys is within the Central Boreal Forest Region of Ontario and is home to a predominantly coniferous forest. Neys is home to a wide variety of species of flora and fauna, including the Bunchberry, Labrador Tea, blueberry, larch, and maple. Wildlife includes moose, bear, wolves, foxes, deer, ruffled grouse, loons, woodland caribou, great blue herons and bald eagles.  

P.O. Box 280, Terrace Bay, Ontario P0T 2W0
Phone: (807) 229-1624, Website Link

 

 

 

The park has four campgrounds providing 144 campsites (61 sites with electricity). Toilets, water taps and firewood are available at each campground along with a centrally located comfort station equipped with showers and laundry facilities. Also provided are trails, swimming, a playground and a sandy beach. Popular activities at Neys include hiking, boating, fishing, swimming, canoeing, kayaking and wildlife viewing. There is much to see and do at Neys Provincial Park.