About Georgian Bay Geopark
Mission
By helping residents and visitors discover and understand how Georgian Bay’s unique geology has shaped the entire watershed’s environment, flora, fauna and cultures over the past 2.7 billion years, the Georgian Bay Geopark can inform and inspire a more sustainable future for everyone.
Explore the Geological Past. Create a Sustainable Future.
Vision
By the year 2040, the Georgian Bay Geopark stands as a distinguished role model, successfully preserving and interpreting the area’s globally significant record of 3 billion years of Earth history, its changing landscapes, environmental quality and cultural diversity. This reputation inspires residents and draws both domestic and international visitors who all gain a deeper appreciation for Georgian Bay and the North Channel’s geoheritage and its rich cultural mosaic. Local communities, First Nations and businesses flourish within a genuine nature-based conservation and recreation economy, while Georgian Bay and the North Channel remains—above all—an exceptional place to live, work, and play, supporting a vibrant, sustainable and well-managed resident and visitor economy.
Goals
To create a collaborative, community-driven framework to help Georgian Bay and the North Channel manage growth, protect geological and cultural heritage, fight climate change and build a more resilient future—together.
Key Strategies:
- Improve public understanding, respect and caring for the region through education about the region’s 2.7-billion-year story
- Establish collaborations and partnerships with communities, First Nations and regional organizations
- Provide shared digital tools, educational resources, research and data to support and complement regional efforts
- Promote a sustainable, community centred tourism approach—Geotourism
- Enabled through a Digital-First Operating Model: Georgianbaygeopark.com
- Provides shared tools, information, and standards for coordinated action
Acknowledgement
The Georgian Bay region and the North Channel is a significant place for the Council of the Three Fires Confederacy, Huron-Ouendat Nation, Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and other Indigenous Nations since time immemorial.
The Georgian Bay Aspiring Geopark ( GBAG) recognizes and respects the Treaties signed with the Crown and will not impact aboriginal or treaty rights.
The GBAG will also implement the guiding principles of the Dish with One Spoon, Two Eyed Seeing Process and the Seven Grandfather Gift Teachings and, through consultation and collaboration, establish partnerships with Indigenous Governments and their communities to achieve a balanced perspective to conserve Georgian Bay.
Discover the DEEP TIME geology of the Georgian Bay Geopark
DEEP TIME’ is the themed expression of how exploring and understanding the past helps create a better future. The unique DEEP TIME story and its eight geological chapters encourages both visitors and residents to know the past, celebrate the present and help create a more resilient future for the Bay and its many communities.
DEEP TIME Zone 1
The Huronian
Ocean
2.7 billion years
Sault Ste Marie to Serpent River
The ancient mineral-rich rocks of the North Channel record the breakup of the planet’s oldest supercontinent – and the birth of the Huronian Ocean.
DEEP TIME Zone 2
Continents
Collide
1.8 billion years
Serpent River to Killarney
The Group of Seven’s white rolling quartzite hills are the stumps of mountains formed when landmasses collided to form supercontinent Nuna
DEEP TIME Zone 3
The Ancient
Himalayas
1.3 billion years
Killarney to Honey Harbour
The waterscape of the 30,000 Islands exposes the deep crustal roots of the immense Grenville Mountains formed when North and South America collided.
DEEP TIME Zone 4
Tropical
Seas
500 million years
Manitoulin Island
Much of North America was covered by warm shallow seas, teeming with early marine life that left fossil-rich limestones on Manitoulin Island.
DEEP TIME Zone 5
The Limestone
Coast
350 million years
Tobermory to Wiarton
Within the last 2 million years, the Bruce/Saugeen peninsula was scoured by Ice Age ice sheets that cut deep valleys into the face of the Niagara Escarpment such as at Owen Sound.
DEEP TIME Zone 6
Ice Ages &
Early
Cultures
13,000 years
Collingwood to Wiarton
The raised beaches of glacial Lake Algonquin surround the coast of southern Georgian Bay like staircases and hosted the camps of caribou-hunting Paleo-Indians 11,000 years ago.
DEEP TIME Zone 7
The Meeting
Place
Last 10,000 years
Collingwood to Honey Harbour
The ancient hard rocks of the Canadian Shield meet the softer limestones of the ancient seas creating a stark contrast in landscapes, ecosystems, and a diverse cultural history unique in North America.
DEEP TIME Zone 8
Mindo Gami Great
Spirit Lake
4,000 years to today
Waters of Georgian Bay
In 1615 Samuel de Champlain called Georgian Bay ‘La Mer Douce’ (the sweet water sea). An early map also portrays it as Karegnondi, derived from ‘lake’ in the language of the Petun First Nation.