New Book: The Last Forest Ranger - Algonquin Park Memories

The Friends of Algonquin Park (a non-profit Canadian registered charity for those passionate about Algonquin Park) is pleased to announce its publishing of The Last Forest Ranger: Algonquin Park Memories by Tom Linklater. This 174-page softcover book portrays Tom’s compelling personal story and adventures, while vividly revealing a bygone era in Algonquin Park. 

Tom’s long life has featured some amazing experiences. His early years were spent on an isolated island in Northern Ontario’s Lake Temagami during the Great Depression. As a nine-year-old he had to break trail on snowshoes for about 14 kilometres ahead of the family dog team pulling a sleigh bearing his injured father down the lake for transport to hospital by train. Much of Tom’s career was involved with fighting forest fires. He survived a helicopter crash while firefighting where the rotor blade missed shearing off his head by only 10 centimetres. Tom and three other Algonquin Park employees had to spend four days without food in a remote ranger cabin during a massive snowstorm that prevented the park plane from returning to rescue them. These are just a few of the events in this book described by a remarkable man in a very different time.