Mariners Park Museum explores the many ways the inhabitants of Prince Edward County have interacted with its surrounding waters, from fishing and ship building to ice harvesting and rum running, and recreational pursuits such as boat racing too.
The lighthouse relocated from False Duck Island beckons visitors to the site at South Bay, where they can also explore Fort Kente (a recreated fort from the 1812 War-era) and enjoy a picnic in the park.
Many shipwrecks have been located in the waters surrounding Prince Edward County and the Mariners Park Museum has become the home of multiple “treasures” retrieved during early diving expeditions.
Mariners Park Museum is also home to a stop on the Arrow Trail. Prince Edward County’s South Shore played a significant role in the story of the infamous Avro CF-105 Arrow. A.V. Roe Canada honed the Arrow’s design through the testing of ⅛ scale free flight models, rather than a full-scale prototype. The free flight models carried important telemetry equipment, which captured and relayed flight data to a team on the ground. Between 1954 and 1957, nine free flight models were launched from the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment test facility at Point Petre (CARDE). This site was used because of CARDE’s experience launching missiles and other test vehicles over Lake Ontario. Recovering these models became the primary objective for the Raise the Arrow campaign, launched in 2017.
