South River - Machar Union Public Library

08/28/2026

Welcome home Carl! His final destination was none other than SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO!

A big thank you to everyone who participated in WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARL? this summer.

The winning entry has been pulled and we have messaged the winner!

08/20/2026

Carl had a great time exploring all that ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, USA had to offer. The time has come again however, for him to continue on the last leg of his trip!

Carl can't reach his final destination by boat, so he decides to drive. He leaves Anchorage heading east on the Alaskan Highway. His GPS tells him his journey will be approximately 6280km. Good thing he has Spotify! He eventually enters Canada. Continuing south east he travels through 6 provinces and territories. His final destination is Canada's second largest province, and contains over 250,000 lakes. That's approximately one fifth of the world's fresh surface water! Whoa!

His destination has deep ties to legendary artist Tom Thomson, is a popular paddling entrance to Algonquin Park, and at one point in history was the charcoal capital of Canada!

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARL GOING? Message us or drop by with your guess for this week. Limit one guess per patron per week, open to all ages!

Submissions will be open until THURSDAY, AUGUST 27th - and our draw for the prize will be held on FRIDAY, AUGUST 28th! Prize TBA!

08/14/2026

Carl enjoyed his stay exploring the Forbidden City in BEIJING, CHINA. Just for fun, can you find Carl in the photo below? New week, new adventure! He is feeling extra cheeky this week, and left us a few different breadcrumbs to find out where he went!

First he departed Beijing by sea northeast bound along the coast, snaking around both sides of North and South Korea, heading further north (still along the coast) until he finds something called the Bering Land Bridge. He crosses the ocean navigating eastward across the land bridge, traversing the Bering Sea. Once he starts to hit the mainland he finds himself in another country!

The city he finds himself in is the northernmost major city of this country, but the population is only about 289,000! Here you can really see the northern lights... except in summer where you can get up to 22 hours of daylight.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARL GOING? Message us or drop by with your guess for this week. Limit one guess per patron per week, open to all ages!

08/07/2026

Carl had such a great time during his visit in TOKYO, JAPAN, he forgot to let us know where he was going next... jeeze Carl!

Carl said he will be heading southwest from his last destination until he hits the mainland. He wanted to check out the capital city of this country, so he heads to the Forbidden City - one of the largest preserved royal palace complexes still standing in the world. It was the centre of political power in this country for over 500 years. It's 178 acres big... that's pretty big!

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARL GOING? Send us a message in Messenger on Facebook, call or drop in and tell us where Carl is going this week! Open to all ages!

07/31/2026

Just a notice to our patrons the library will be closed this coming MONDAY, AUGUST 3RD for the Civic Holiday. We will be open for business as usual on Tuesday! Have a great long weekend.

07/28/2026

A new week, a new adventure for Carl! He had a wonderful time swimming amongst the coral at the GREAT BARRIER REEF in QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA!.

He sets off for the land of the rising sun, north by northwest approximately 6500km from the reef. En route, he passes over the Mariana Trench - the deepest part of the ocean! Seriously, it's DEEP! You can fit the entirety of Mt. Everest inside it and it would still be a few kilometres underwater!

He wants to visit the capitol of the country he is going to, which is the largest urban area on earth with approximately 38 million people! That's almost all of Canada in one city - wow!

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARL GOING?

Send us a message in Messenger on Facebook, call or drop in and tell us where Carl is going this week! Open to all ages!

07/20/2026

Our wandering moose leaves the warm beaches of HAWAII, USA aboard his sailboat, crossing the Pacific ocean southwest approximately 8000km. He travels to a place where colourful corals, tropical fish, and turtles create one of the underwater Wonders of the World. It's also the world's largest coral reef system and it's the only living structure on earth visible by space! Whoa! Where in the World is Carl going?!

Send us a message in Messenger on Facebook, call or drop in and tell us where Carl is going this week! Open to all ages!

07/13/2026

Carl has been bitten by the surfing bug during his time at TOFINO, BRITISH COLOMBIA!

He has decided to make his first international destination the birthplace of surfing! He sets off south west from Tofino approximately 4250km to the most isolated population centre on Earth. This archipelago hosts 137 islands and the world's tallest sea mountain Mauna Kea... it's taller than Everest!!

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARL GOING? Message us or drop by with your guess for this week. Limit one guess per patron per week, open to all ages!

07/09/2026

On now at Tom Thomson Park - StoryWalk® is back for 2026! The book that has been selected is Colette: The Solitary Bee by Jean-François Sénéchal, illustrated by Pascale Bonenfant.

The walk starts at the Ottawa Ave entrance to the park and will run for the duration of the summer. Thank you to TD Summer Reading Club_Club de lecture d'été TD for sponsoring StoryWalk®!

07/06/2026

Just a note to patrons that our archives will be unavailable for the foreseeable future while we revamp our Local History and Archives collections. For any information requests we encourage interest in our digital archives, hosted at https://search.ourontario.ca/

This website is an excellent resource as a launch pad into local history requests!

Thank you for your ongoing patience as we work to improve our services.

Research & Browse people, places, events and artefacts from libraries, archives, museums, historical & genealogical societies, and other community heritage collections.