Thousand Islands National Park area to defend the British from American invasion. Inside the park, Cedar Island, a small island visible from downtown Kingston, Ontario, is the site of a Martello tower named Cathcart Tower. The park was established in 1904, the first Canadian national park east of the Rocky Mountains. It was called "St. Lawrence Islands National Park" until 2013, when it was renamed to "Thousand Islands National Park" to reflect the natural area in the name. In 1997, the park was named one of the national parks with the highest levels of ecological impairment. Animals that inhabit this national park are coyotes,
Thirty Thousand Islands kilometres west of Beausoleil Island are four more islands – Giants Tomb Island, Hope Island, Beckwith Island, and Christian Island. To the west of French River Provincial Park are many more islands, including Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater lake island in the world. Many of the Group of Seven landscape paintings feature the Georgian Bay Shoreline and the adjacent windswept islands with their distinctive trees and large boulders, which are characteristic features of the Canadian Shield. Franklin Carmichael, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, A.J. Casson and Tom Thomson all painted extensively along Georgian Bay. At that time, they came