# Memorial in Point Pelee National Park



## Michael OLeary (8 Aug 2010)

Today my wife and I visited Point Pelee National Park in southwestern Ontario. This monument caught my eye when I recognized the maple leaf motif, it is designed after the maple leaf used on soldier's gravestones who died in the First World War (and later conflicts). The monument is located in Point Pelee National Park near the entrance to the Marsh Boardwalk.


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## LineJumper (8 Aug 2010)

I'm very moved by random monuments such as this. Does this one have specific meaning?

read Regimental, Societal, etc.


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## Spanky (8 Aug 2010)

I haven't been to the Point in a few years.  From the pictures this looks fairly new.  I'll have to check it out.  It has a great message however.


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## Maelstrom (8 Aug 2010)

Hmm perhaps there are 3 more at the other most outwardly points of our nation?


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## SeanNewman (8 Aug 2010)

Maelstrom said:
			
		

> Hmm perhaps there are 3 more at the other most outwardly points of our nation?



Very intelligent deduction.

Michael, was the monument on the southern tip?


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## Journeyman (8 Aug 2010)

Petamocto said:
			
		

> Michael, was the monument *on the southern tip*?
> 
> 
> > Point Pelee National Park *near the entrance to the Marsh Boardwalk*


The Boardwalk entrance is 6 km north of the southernmost tip


....based on aboout 17 seconds with Google.
Go on, try it; type "map" "Point Pelee National Park" "Marsh Boardwalk."


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## armyvern (8 Aug 2010)

Maelstrom said:
			
		

> Hmm perhaps there are 3 more at the other most outwardly points of our nation?



If there is one in Alert, it has been placed since 1998 - so anything is possible.

There are markers in Alert, albeit for those who have lost their lives at that location in various air crashes that have occured over the Station's history vice for "Canadians lost overseas". Each year, on November 11th, Rememberance Day services take place in front of the markers on the northern tip of the runway; it's bone chillingly cold, windy, desolate ... but absolutely worth it - every minute. It is one ceremony that will remain at the forefront of my mind.


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## REDinstaller (8 Aug 2010)

I was in Alert in '99 and there was no plinth there of that type at the time.


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## Michael OLeary (8 Aug 2010)

LineJumper said:
			
		

> I'm very moved by random monuments such as this. Does this one have specific meaning?
> 
> read Regimental, Societal, etc.



The lower plaque on the base of the monument (see the first photo) indicates that it was placed by a National level authority.

Edit to add:

I also posted the photos in the Canadian Expeditionary Study Group Forum, and this came from the discussion there:



> Yes, this memorial is specific to our National Parks. I've seen it at Cape Breton Highlands (along the Cabot Trail, as mentioned above), in Banff, and near Wickanninnish on Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park. It really underscores our deep appreciation of what our ancestors did for us, and gives us time to pause and think of them, and to focus on how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful, peaceful, and free country.


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## SeanNewman (8 Aug 2010)

Journeyman said:
			
		

> ....based on aboout 17 seconds with Google.
> Go on, try it; type "map" "Point Pelee National Park" "Marsh Boardwalk."



One must be careful how they use Google-Fu on this website.

I have witnessed a few people use it, post links from references they found, and then get belittled because all they do is use Google.


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## George Wallace (8 Aug 2010)

Petamocto said:
			
		

> One must be careful how they use Google-Fu on this website.
> 
> I have witnessed a few people use it, post links from references they found, and then get belittled because all they do is use Google.



 :

Depends on how one uses their Google Fu.  If one can find credible sources and articles they have done well.  If they don't find credible sources and articles, and don't know what they are talking about, then they will get the ridicule they may deserve.  One has to have some knowledge and ability to filter the information that they are presenting.  This is exactly what any university student has to do in researching and preparing a Paper.  This is what one would expect a "professional" to do in any credible presentation and/or discussion.  Simply, don't present garbage and you won't be ridiculed.   Be discriminatory in what you research and present.  

At the same time, we often shake our heads when questions are asked and the simple solution would have been to JFGI before asking the question.


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## Michael OLeary (8 Aug 2010)

Petamocto said:
			
		

> One must be careful how they use Google-Fu on this website.
> 
> I have witnessed a few people use it, post links from references they found, and then get belittled because all they do is use Google.



Not that it has anything to do with this topic, but that would be because some people get in the habit of posting Google links as the majority of their contribution, and do not exercise any diligence to ensuring that useful connections between the discussions and their posted links.


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## armyvern (8 Aug 2010)

Michael O'Leary said:
			
		

> I also posted the photos in the Canadian Expeditionary Study Group Forum, and this came from the discussion there:



Nice find Michael. It'd be wonderful if site-users in the area of the other monuments were able to obtain some pics of the others and post them up for us.


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## George Wallace (8 Aug 2010)

I imagine that these are all a "generic" monument and will all be identical in size and shape.


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## armyvern (8 Aug 2010)

George Wallace said:
			
		

> I imagine that these are all a "generic" monument and will all be identical in size and shape.



I'm sure you are probably correct. I was thinking more along the lines of setting. Rock, snow, trees ... accross this great land of ours.


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## George Wallace (8 Aug 2010)

It may have been a Parks Canada, or their bosses at Heritage Canada, initiative.


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## Blackadder1916 (8 Aug 2010)

In trying to ascertain the origin or author of the inscription on the monument pictured in the OP, found this site of another (?) war memorial in Point Pelee National Park bearing the same inscription.

_Edited to add_

And this photo of the similar monument on the Cabot Trail.  Click on photo to link to larger size.


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## Sythen (8 Aug 2010)

Sort of a "bucket list" goal of mine to visit every Canadian military memorial in the world.. When I go in to KAF, I will try to get some pictures of the one there, and for my HLTA I am going to Korea, so will get some of the one in Gapyeong.. On that note, is there anywhere anyone knows of to find a complete list of them?


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## Michael OLeary (8 Aug 2010)

Memorials to Canadians' Achievements & Sacrifices
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials



> This is a guide to the memorials erected for Canadians throughout the world. Since Confederation, Canadians have served around the world in military actions for the cause of peace and freedom. More than 116,000 gave their lives in the wars of the past century and their final resting-places are located in some seventy-five countries.


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## aesop081 (8 Aug 2010)

The one in Pacific Rim National park :


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## Sythen (8 Aug 2010)

Thanks a ton for the link, its exactly what I was looking for.. When I get back to Canada, have a ton of road trips planned lol


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## Spanky (8 Aug 2010)

Blackadder1916 said:
			
		

> In trying to ascertain the origin or author of the inscription on the monument pictured in the OP, found this site of another (?) war memorial in Point Pelee National Park bearing the same inscription.
> 
> _Edited to add_
> 
> And this photo of the similar monument on the Cabot Trail.  Click on photo to link to larger size.



The photo in the link stating that the memorial was in Point Pelee, I don't believe is very accurate.  It looks nothing like the Park.


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## armyvern (9 Aug 2010)

Spanky said:
			
		

> The photo in the link stating that the memorial was in Point Pelee, I don't believe is very accurate.  It looks nothing like the Park.



I think that the pic at the link may be the war memorial in the actual township.


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## Fishbone Jones (9 Aug 2010)

The picture in the link is somewhat grainy, however, it should be familiar to anyone from Windsor Ontario, if I'm not mistaken.


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## armyvern (9 Aug 2010)

recceguy said:
			
		

> The picture in the link is somewhat grainy, however, it should be familiar to anyone from Windsor Ontario, if I'm not mistaken.



Wow. Talk about being a bit off in their website geography.  :-X


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## Fishbone Jones (9 Aug 2010)

ArmyVern said:
			
		

> Wow. Talk about being a bit off in their website geography.  :-X



They got the same county, completely opposite ends, but the same county.

Better picture here: http://www.citywindsor.ca/000353.asp?park=hallsquare


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## Blackadder1916 (9 Aug 2010)

Having never visited Point Pelee National Park, I use that as an excuse for my error in not questioning the accuracy of the website to where I directed fellow participants of this forum.  However, I must admit that I was somewhat puzzled that the design of the monument in that photo did not seem to fit with the date noted in the description.


> Point Pelee, Ontario
> This monument was unveiled on *July 1st, 1985* in memory of Canada's Fallen Warriors.
> 
> The inscription reads:
> ...



As for the actual location of the monument in that photo being Windsor . . . well, my familiarity with that city has been only as a transit point northward to the USA (or southward back into Canada) and one odd trip to deposit a psychiatric patient in a local hospital.

A further analysis of that site, particulary its list of Ontario War Memorials, has the memorial listed as "Point Edward Cenotaph" linking to the "Point Pelee" page and the memorial in Windsor listed by its formal title of Essex County War Memorial and includes the same photo.

I 'suspect' that the description given for the "Point Pelee" memorial is correct (at least from whatever reference material they used) despite the other errors on their site. Unfortunately, I haven't found any link to report these errors and as is noted on their mainpage; 





> Please note that funding for this project ended in October 2000 and no further updates are being made.


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## OnTrack (10 Aug 2010)

As best as anyone around here can remember, there was a cooperative program (Millennium Monument Project Committee) in 1985 between Parks Canada and the Department of Veterans Affairs to put these memorials at our National Parks and National Historic Sites.  1985 was the centennial year of our National Parks system.  There were about a dozen or so of the memorials established across the country.

Jack Alexander
Director of Canal Operations
Trent-Severn Waterway
Parks Canada Agency


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