Blackstone Lake, in the Archipelago of the Parry Sound District in Ontario, is primarily a small, boat-access lake containing nine islands. The lake is approximately three and a half miles long and a little over two miles wide, when the northwestern and southeastern bays are included. A large portion of the land surrounding the lake, as well as the lake's beautiful islands, are privately owned, although a good section of the western lake property along the lower edge of the lake has been established as part of a perservation trust and will remain uninhabited. Strict water-vessel enforcement keeps the water potable, and water quality assessments are conducted several times each year. Avid canoers can travel through the river, traverse Crane Lake, and reach the open waters of the Georgian Bay about nine miles later.
Since December 1968, Rhinoceros had been living in Graymanse, a former summer estate of a marine welding executive in Lake Mahopac, New York, and Edwards and Leishman both remember a degree of friction when they moved in (Alan Gerber was still residing in the house and Billy Mundi was a close neighbour.
The final version of the group based itself in Toronto and played exclusively in Ontario (Fonfara knew he could book consistent work for the band there) but it did not last long; in October 1971 the group members decided to call it a day and went their separate ways.
Blackstone Rangers (featuring Finley, Fonfara, Hodgson and Leishman from the final Rhinoceros line-up) came together in July 1972, with the help of Frazier Mohawk (now based in Canada) and his business partner, Gary Howsam.