Manitoulin Island

Manitoulin Island is a Canadian lake island in Lake Huron, in the province of Ontario. It is the largest freshwater lake island in the world. In addition to the historic Anishinaabe and European settlement of the island, archeological discoveries at Sheguiandah have demonstrated Paleo-Indian and Archaic cultures dating from 10,000 BC to 2000 BC.The current name of the island is the English version, via French, of the historic Odawa name "Manidoowaaling", which means "cave of the spirit." It was named for an underwater cave where a powerful spirit was 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, 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 Mnis .Manitoulin Island contains a number of lakes of its own. In order of size, its three most prominent lakes are Lake Manitou, Lake Kagawong and Lake Mindemoya. Each of these three lakes in turn have islands within them, the largest of these being Lake Mindemoya's 82-acre Treasure Island, located in the centre of Manitoulin.