Sho’aríshon Park — Town Of Lincoln

A new park in Jordan Hollow in Lincoln is an invitation to travel hundreds of thousands of years, exploring Niagara geology, First Nations, and settler history, in a single afternoon.

Sho’aríshon Park, opened by the Town of Lincoln in November 2025, is a beautiful park in a lovely location, but it’s also a place of “crosscultural understanding, community gathering, and ceremony,” said Oliva Rozema, Senior Curator, Museum Operations and Events at the Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre. “It strengthens our identity as a culturally inclusive and welcoming destination.”

Translated to “He is Shaking a Net” the park was supported by a $43,000 grant from Niagara Community Foundation’s David S. Howes Fund and is dedicated to the Neutral Nation, a people group that vanished from Niagara after 1651 due to the introduction of European illness and conflict with Haudenosaunee people. Very little attention has been paid to the Neutrals, but there are at least 40 archeologically documented Neutral villages in Niagara.

It’s also a place where Indigenous voices will be “centered and honoured for generations to come,” Rozema said, which is why decision-making for the project was Indigenous-led, with guidance from Tim Johnson, senior advisor for Plenty Canada. Indigenous language specialists, artists and advisors will continue to be involved in the ongoing operation and stewardship of the park. Elements in the park include a depiction of a Two Row Wampum Belt, a longhouse, a sacred fire, and a palisade, along with interpretative signage explaining the structures, people, plants, animals, and activities that are represented. You can hear the names of eight native species of animals spoken in English, Anishinaabemowin, Kanien`kéha and French.

“The location of the park is very important,” said Courtney Corbeil, curator of education, visitor engagement and partnerships at the Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre. “In Jordan Hollow, it’s between the Lincoln Museum, which has two historic buildings about settler history. And then our modern museum building, which tells the broader story of Lincoln and Balls Falls Conservation Area, which tells the story of hundreds of thousands of years of geologic history, but is also a settler site.”

A trail connects the three sites and allows school groups and other visitors to travel through time to explore the three sites and their cultural, geological, and historical connections. The shaken net in the name refers to the fishing of salmon in Twenty Mile Creek, which connects all three locations, and which are depicted through stainless steel sculptures along the trail, created by Indigenous artist Ryan Woodruff in the Woodland art style to honour the deep connection between the land, the water, and Indigenous peoples of the region.

“It’s a cultural corridor,” said Rozema. “People will be able to start their day at the museum, learn about settler history and the history of Lincoln, make their way through hundreds of thousands of years of geological history to learn about the Neutral Nation and 10,000 years of human history (at Sho’aríshon Park) before making their way up to Balls Falls.

“It’s not just a park, it’s a living, breathing space,” said Rozema. “People are going to learn, and see, and do, and smell, and touch, and taste when they are here. And the funding we received was instrumental in that.”