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Ernest Thompson Seton Park
Ernest Thompson Seton Park (usually referred to as ET Seton Park) is a large public park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Toronto’s North York District.
The park was named after Seton because Seton spent much of his childhood in the Don Valley near the park that bears his name from the age of ten. The Don River runs through the park, which makes it a popular spot for many activities.
It is a beautiful park along the Don River with many hiking trails. The park contains jogging and cycling paths, an archery range, nordic skiing, and equestrian trails.
The area of ET Seton Park includes the areas that Seton roamed in his youth. It is the area immortalized in Seton’s iconic work, Two Little Savages. In Two Little Savages, the semiautobiographical Yan referred to the area as Glenyan.
The establishment of ET Seton Park can be traced to the efforts of Charles Sauviol (1904–1995), a Canadian ecologist who was inspired by Ernest Thompson Seton. Sauviol maintained correspondence with Seton in the 1930s and 1940s. In Sauviol’s 1981 book, Remembering the Don, he quotes a letter from Seton, “The events given in ‘Two Little Savages’ relate to the Don Valley. That is Part One, which deals with ‘Glenyan.’ The exact site of my shanty was just north of the Government House, that is, tucked under the hill, on the level of the bottom land.” Sauviol also wrote that Seton said in another letter in June 1945: “After the war is over, if I am alive, I shall go to the very spot of ‘Glenyan’ and put up some sort of a monument. This, of course, was the beginning of the Boy Scouts.” Of course, Seton died the following year and was never able to take that trip. But his friend Charles Sauviol crusaded to protect the Don Valley, which resulted in ET Seton Park.
There is an interesting story regarding the archery range in ET Seton Park. The range is free of charge and open seven days a week, 365 days a year. It is widely believed in Toronto archery circles that the land was given to the City of Toronto by Seton in his will with the provision that if it ever ceased to be operated as a free archery range, the property would revert to Seton’s heirs.
This story seems apocryphal for several reasons. The archery range did not open until 1968, 22 years after Seton’s death in New Mexico. He died after enduring the economic ills of World War II, which hampered book sales and lecture tours. The College of Indian Wisdom had closed. It just seems unlikely that Seton would have been inspired in this way. Perhaps some other benefactor made a gift that had strings like this attached.
Seton Centre – Carberry, Manitoba
Seton spent much of his time from 1882–1892 in Manitoba in the area of the small town of Carberry.
Seton’s time in Manitoba was extremely enriching for him as he developed his scientific naturalist skills, art, and writing. His time in Manitoba inspired much of his later writing.
His activities in Manitoba led to his appointment in 1892 as a Naturalist to the Province of Manitoba, an appointment of which he was immensely proud. He returned to Manitoba regularly in the 1890s until he permanently relocated to New York City after marrying Grace Gallatin.
The Seton Centre in Carberry is a small museum with exhibits related to Seton and his time in Carberry.
Click here to visit the Seton Center.
Adjacent to the Seton Centre is Little Seton Park, featuring a historical plaque, a picnic area, and a statue of a wolf.
Seton Provincial Park, Manitoba
Seton Provincial Park is a small (less than four acres) park on the Trans-Canada Highway about nine miles northeast of Carberry, Manitoba. It is essentially a rest area with room for overnight parking.
It is named in memory of Ernest Thompson Seton and features a historical marker.
Seton’s Homes in Ontario
Seton’s family emigrated from England to Canada in 1866. Their first home in Canada was in Lindsay, Ontario (now known as Kawartha Lakes), approximately 80 miles northeast of Toronto. His father, Joseph, established a farm there and built a house known as The Elms. Although the boys loved the atmosphere of living on a farm and being free to explore the outdoors, Joseph was not well-suited to farming. In 1870, he sold the property and moved the family to Toronto.
Seton’s father relocated the family to Toronto in 1870, where he pursued employment as an accountant. The family lived in several homes during this period.
Seton lived in this house at 6 Aberdeen Avenue for a period of time. This house still stands and is marked by a blue plaque. Note the blue plaque on the lower left front of the house.
Later the family moved to a large house at 86 Howard Street in Toronto. This address represented Seton’s permanent address for many years – during his time in London, Paris, and Manitoba, until his marriage to Grace in 1897.
Spruce Woods Provincial Park
Spruce Woods Provincial Park is located in south-central Manitoba, Canada, where the Assiniboine River passes through the delta of sediment left by the last glaciation. The Carberry Sand Hills, sometimes called the Spirit Sands, consisting of open and stabilized sand dunes, are within the park and provide habitat to species of plants and animals not found elsewhere in Manitoba.
The Government of Manitoba designated the area a provincial park in 1964. The park is 104 square miles in size.
Seton explored this enchanting area extensively during his Manitoba years and featured it in some of his works, such as The Trail of the Sandhill Stag.
The park has an extensive trail system, a section of which is called the Seton Trails. The Seton trails have four routes that feature steep inclines and sand hills, named after some of Seton’s artworks and stories – Snowy Owl, Chaska, The Sleeping Wolf, and The Sandhill Stag.
The park has an interpretive center, camping facilities, horseback riding, and other services.
The park is located approximately 16 miles south southeast of Carberry.
6 Aberdeen Ave
