The following is a précis of "Thank God for Rondeau": A Look at the Cottage Community and the Leaseholders' Association, as found in the Associations Centennial book "Rondeau Provincial Park 1894-1994". For nearly the past century, cottaging has been a part of the Rondeau Park community. The cottagers take great pride in the park which they consider their "second home", actively promoting the betterment of the park for cottagers and other users through the Rondeau Park Leaseholders Association. Isaac Gardiner, (Rondeau's first Superintendent), was looking to promote the still mostly empty park as a people place, and in 1894, a cottage survey took place, when twenty lots were surveyed on each the lakeside and the bayside. Park management became involved in a strongly-promoted leasing policy to encourage the establishment of a summer cottage community. The cottage community grew slowly and gradually at first, with the cottages being built on lots leased from the Crown. Additional lot surveys took place in 1906, 1922 and 1924. The first major building boom came in 1922-23, when 140 cottages were constructed. In 1923 an electrical line was installed, with the cottagers paying for most of the expense. Eventually, the number of cottages in the park hit a maximum number of 461, but in 1954, a change in Ministry policy favored the phasing of cottages out of the Park over the next forty years.

This policy change also marked the start of a long, intensive lobbying effort by the Rondeau Park Leaseholders' Association to try to reshape government policy to preserve the cottage community. In fact, this lobbying effort is still ongoing today, nearly fifty years later.

In 1928 the Rondeau Park Leaseholders' Association was formed for the "purpose of promoting the best interests of its members and to assist in the improvement and development of Rondeau Provincial Park as a place of highly wholesome and recreational opportunities." In 2002, the Rondeau Cottagers' Association mission statement echoes these words while placing an added stress towards "protecting, preserving, and promoting the natural and historical environment.