Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park, Provincial park on islands in Lac La Biche County, Canada.
Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park consists of several islands in the east basin of Lac la Biche, in east-central Alberta. Big Island, the largest, holds most of the park and is joined to the shore by a causeway, as is Long Island, which has small rentable cabins. The remaining islands are undeveloped and reachable only by boat. An Old Growth Alley trail leads through 300-year-old mixed-wood forest of balsam fir, jack pine, trembling aspen and white spruce.
The islands were traditionally used by Cree and Chipewyan peoples and later by settlers from the Lac la Biche Mission, who farmed cucumbers and sheep on Birch and Currant islands. From April 28 to May 12, 1885, nuns and the children in their care stayed on Black Fox Island during the North-West Rebellion. The park was established on September 29, 1952, as Big Island Provincial Park and renamed in 1962 after Winston Churchill; in 2009 it was expanded to include seven more islands.
The park lies on the traditional lands of the Cree and Chipewyan peoples. The name Lac la Biche comes from the French for "elk lake", and the lake's whitefish fed local fisheries. On Black Fox Island, nuns of the Lac la Biche Mission and the children in their care stayed from April 28 to May 12, 1885, during the North-West Rebellion.
Big Island and Long Island are linked to the shore by a causeway, so they can be reached by road; the remaining islands are boat-access only and undeveloped. Campground and group camping areas sit on Big Island, while Long Island holds small rentable cabins. A viewing platform on Big Island looks toward the Pelican Islands.
The sand bar between Long Island and Big Island was the main source of whitefish for local fisheries in the 1920s; in the shallow water, spawning fish were caught with spears, about a thousand a night. The American white pelican colony sits on the Pelican Islands, two small sandy islets visible from a viewing platform on Big Island.
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