Point Pelee National Park is going back to the days when automobiles ruled the park.
As part of its year-long centennial celebration, Point Pelee is hosting a vintage car show Saturday. Parks Canada says the event will give gearheads a chance to go down memory lane by going back to a time when car culture was a part of the park's mystique.
At the height of the cruising craze of the 1960s, spring and summer weekends at Point Pelee were marked by numerous automobiles parked at the park and cruising through it. Parks Canada spokesperson Rae Hingdon says the park was very popular with car enthusiasts, who would park along East Point Beach and drive bumper-to-bumper along the park's roads. The practice eventually fell out of favour.
"While it is clear to us today that that type of park use was far too intense to maintain the park's conservation values, many visitors will still have fond memories of those days of parking on the beach at the Tip, and cruising through the park," said Hingdon.
The vintage car show will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Point Pelee National Park Visitors' Centre parking lot. Participants will not be charged a fee to enter the park and registration itself is free.
Registration is limited to the first 200 participants with pre-1980s vehicles, and is on a first-come, first-served basis.
The official Point Pelee National Park website has complete information on the park and any 100th birthday events.
