Abstract:

The growth and development of archaeology in Canada during the past decade has created within its own scientific milieu a paradox which needs clarification. The present urgency of salvage archaeology in Canada is directly related to the current awareness by archaeologists of site destruction throughout the nation. There is a view, however, that sites in provincial parks are preserved and protected and thus, salvage efforts are directed elsewhere. This is an unwarrantable assumption and this myth will be maintained as long as provincial parks fail to employ full time archaeologists. The largest park in Ontario, Algonquin Provincial Park, serves as an example of how this paradoxical situation can develop.