Manitoulin Island
Sign in to saveisland in Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada
Key facts
- Location
- Lake Huron
- Area
- 2,766 km (1,068 sq mi)
- Highest elevation
- 352 m (1155 ft)
- Highest point
- The Cup and Saucer
- Province
- Ontario
- District
- Manitoulin District
- Largest settlement
- Little Current
- Population
- 13,255 (2016)
- Pop density
- 4.56/km (11.81/sq mi)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- island
- Country
- Canada
- Located in
- Ontario
- Population
- 10603
- Area
- 2766
- Elevation
- 352
- Time zone
- UTC−05:00
- Body of water
- Lake Huron
- Image
- Manitoulin Island.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- native label
- Mnidoo Mnising
- Commons category
- Manitoulin Island
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Manitoulin Island (/ˌmænəˈtuːlɪn/ MAN-ə-TOO-lin) is an island in Lake Huron, located within the borders of the Canadian province of Ontario. With an area of 2,766 km (1,068 sq mi), it is the largest lake island in the world, large enough that it has over 100 lakes itself. In addition to the historic Anishinaabe and European settlement of the island, archaeological discoveries at Sheguiandah have demonstrated Paleo-Indian and Archaic cultures dating from 10,000 BC to 2,000 BC.
The current name of the island is the English version, via French, of the Ottawa or Ojibwe name Manidoowaaling (ᒪᓂᑝᐙᓕᓐᒃ), which means "cave of the spirit". It was named for an underwater cave where a powerful spirit is said to live. By the 19th century, the Odawa "l" was pronounced as "n". The same word with a newer pronunciation is used for the town Manitowaning (19th-century Odawa "Manidoowaaning"), which is located on Manitoulin Island near the underwater cave where legend has it that the spirit dwells. The modern Odawa name for Manitoulin Island is Mnidoo Mnising, meaning "Spirit Island".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Manitoulin Island” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.