Shaped by the West Wind Nature And History in Georgian Bay

Along the east shore of Ontario's Georgian Bay lie the Thirty Thousand Islands, a granite archipelago scarred by glaciers, where the white pines cling to the ancient rock, twisted and bent by the west wind - a symbol of a region where human history has been shaped by the natural environment. Over the last four centuries, the Bay has been visited by some of the most famous figures in Canadian history, from Samuel de Champlain to the Group of Seven. This book traces the history of Canadians' reactions to and interactions with this distinctive and often intractable landscape. Beginning with a revealing analysis of the cartographic history of the Bay, Campbell proceeds to examine changing cultural representations of landscape over time, shifts between resource development and recreational use, recurring motifs of water and rock in landscape design and representation, the evolution of regional identity, and the environmental politics of place read through debates about resource management and parks. Each chapter presents a different type of encounter - the varying ways in which people approached or interacted with the Bay. The book also includes many illustrations, including historical maps, archival and contemporary photographs, and paintings by the Group of Seven and other Canadian artists. Shaped By the West Wind is not a narrowly conceived local history but a focused argument about how places take on shifting cultural meanings over time. It speaks to a wide variety of interests, including geography, art and design, literary criticism, environmental studies, and history.Campbell, Claire Elizabeth is the author of 'Shaped by the West Wind Nature And History in Georgian Bay', published 2005 under ISBN 9780774810999 and ISBN 0774810998.