Sleeping Giant

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Today we moved to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.  Wowee, the fog this morning during our journey was unbelievable!  So where is the park you ask?  If you look at an Ontario map, you will see a peninsula just east of Thunder Bay, in fact that peninsula forms the eastern side of the bay.  The park is located near the end of that peninsula.

The park gets its name from the shape of a rock ridge creating a profile, according the Ojibwa, of a sleeping giant.  Legend has it the giant was Nanabosho, son of Kabeyun (the west wind), who led the Ojibwa to the North Shore of Lake Superior to save them from their enemies, the Sioux.

One day Nanabosho found silver.  Being worthless to the Ojibwa, he ordered it buried in Sibley Bay (current location of Silver Islet, see below) and its location remain a secret.  They were concerned the white man would steal their land for the silver.  Well, word got out and one day two white men were paddling a canoe to where the silver was buried.  Nanabosho disobeyed the Great Spirit and raised a storm which sank the canoe and the men drown.  As punishment Nanabosho was turned to stone.  To this day he lies on his back looking toward the location of the silver (Silver Islet).

Due to it’s size and the continuous fog and haze, we have only viewed the Giant in photographs at the Visitor Center.  It takes some serious imagination, and notations on the picture to see the Giant.   

There are a bunch of trails in the park we are hoping to hike, but today we went to Silver Islet.  A little town from the long gone silver boom in this area.  Silver was mined out of a small island off shore for 16 years in the 1860s.  More than 1100 people lived here in it’s heyday. Today there are less than 100.

Most of the old miner’s shacks have been restored into summer cottages, but still retain the old character from 140 years ago.  There is no electricity, water, or sewer here.  Many of the cottages have solar panels for electricity and amazingly, satellite dishes for TV.  Got to have the necessities, right?  Water is pumped from the lake, but sewer is an unknown.  Rock doesn’t perk very well for septic systems, so not sure how they manage that.

The only store here maintains irregular hours and was closed today.  They are known for great homemade pies. Rats!  Here are a few shots of the town.

So, what is the attraction?  Checkout the million dollar view.

If things go as planned tomorrow, we will visit a canyon and do some mining for amethyst.