Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron. The main body lies east and northeast of the Bruce Peninsula The North Channel extends further west to St. Joseph's Island and divides Manitoulin Island from the mainland of Northern Ontario. The Main Channel divides Manitoulin Island from the Bruce Peninsula and connects Georgian Bay with the rest of Lake Huron.

Georgian Bay is about 320 kilometres long by 80 kilometres wide. It covers over 15,000 square kilometres. making it almost as large as Lake Ontaio.

Georgian Bay is part of the southern edge of the Canadian Shield, a geological formation carved out by the retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, almost 11,000 years ago.The granite rock formations and windswept Eastern White Pine are characteristic of the islands and much of the shoreline of the bay adding to the beauty of the area.

Lying on the edge of the Canadian Shield. This "edge effect" is evident with the barren, glacier-scraped rock and windswept pines that fired the imagination of the Group of Seven artists dominate the northern islands.  The landscape is dominated by the hard Shield rock and by a few hardy plant species suited to rigorous conditions: lichens, white pines, junipers and red oak. Yet there are also small but dense stands of sugar maple and beech. Scattered among the rock outcrops are hundreds of small bogs and ponds.
The islands and shorelines of Georgian Bay belong to an area of mixed coniferous and hardwood forest known as the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Forest Region. It is a transition zone between the hardwood forests which extend into the United States and the boreal forests of the Canadian north.

The first Europeans to visit this area, the French explorers Samuel de Champlain and Étienne Brûlé, arrived in the 17th century. French Jesuits established the mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, Ontario's first European settlement, in 1649 at what is now the community of Midland.Georgian Bay was first charted in 1815 by Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen who called it Lake Manitoulin. In 1822, it was named after King George IV by Captain Henry Bayfield. There are tens of thousands of islands in Georgian Bay, collectively known as the "Thirty Thousand Islands," including the larger Parry Island and Christian Island. Manitoulin Island, in the north end of the bay is the largest freshwater lake island in the world.

Sailing Vessels

In 1679 the French explorer Robert-Cavelier Sieur de LaSalle commissioned the building of the Griffon. The Griffon was a three-masted galleon and may have been the first true sailing vessel the to navigate the waters of Georgian Bay and the Upper Lakes.

Building the Griffon

In the mid-19th century trading routes on the Great Lakes were dominated by schooners. By the early 1850's schooners were carrying lumber and coal to ports in the United States. In the 1880's grain was coming to Midland from Michigan ports and attracting large sailing vessels, including three-masted schooners.

"Map shewing the route of the Montreal Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal. also some of the subsiduary routes branching from it". By G.L. Bourchier, C.E. (Late Asst. Engr. P.W.D. Canada). Ottawa Canada Febry 28th 1898 - Archives Of Ontario

The advantages of this shorter and more direct route had adherents as early as the 1830's and as late as 1915, and various attempts were made to promote it. Early in the 20th century Public Works Canada made an extensive survey of the project. The scheme foundered eventually, mainly on the inability of this route to handle the larger ships that were being built during the course of the 20th century.

In 1814, during the War of 1812, one of the battles was fought in Southern Georgian Bay. On August 17, at the mouth of the Nottawasaga River near Wasaga Beach, the British schooner HMS Nancy was sunk by three American vessels. Several weeks later, the Nancy was avenged when two of the American vessels were surprised and captured by British boarding parties in the Detour Passage.

Huron Indian legend tells of a God called Kitchikewana, who was large enough to guard the whole of the Georgian Bay. Kitchikewana was known for his great temper and one day, in a fit of rage, he dug a giant hand into the ground and flung the dirt he pulled up into the Great Lakes. Thus the 30 000 Islands were created. The indentations left behind by his fingers form the five bays of Georgian Bay: Midland Bay, Penetang Bay, Hog Bay, Sturgeon Bay, and Matchedash Bay. He then lay down to sleep and sleeps there still as Giant's Tomb Island.