Manitoulin Day 4-July 23 13

 

Manitowaning was established in 1836 as a plan or a conspiracy to gather the Anishinabec Tribe( Ojibwe,Odawa and Potawatomi ) the latter from the USA into a European type settlement. I put the conspiracy spin here as in 1862 the Canadian Government tried to change the treaty which made all of Manitoulin a Reserve……..apparently they where under pressure to find more land for European settlers and in exchange for giving up this land each family would get 100 acres though in settlements with the sale of the remaining lands to be put into an Indian Trust….ya right……remember it was 1862….Muskoka was frontier land….how can we buy that line……most of western Ontario was unsettled. Jesuit Priests were already in the area but it was the Indian Superintendent, a teacher and an Anglican clergyman who began clearing land and erecting buildings. The community would offer education, religious conversion and agriculture training through the new European immigrants……CONSPIRACY……..for 1862……..all this met with limited success. In 1843 the Government found that of the 300 natives in the community only half where permanent residents, the rest continued their seasonal occupations at isolated camps fishing, sugarbush and farming. In 1843 the Government dismissed all the tradesmen except for The Superintendent and Medical Officer….the model native settlement was a failure. Today, the village appears to be a retirement haven with a few tourist attractions: most notable the Home of the S.S. Norisle…the last passenger ship built in Canada after WWII. It is currently a floating museum docked permanently at the S.S. Norisle Heritage Park.

After breaky I turn left unto the easternly peninsula, 300 Sq miles of UNCEDED LANDS, and headed north towards Wikwemikong, the largest settlement on the Isl…….here I stopped to take a picture of the Jesuit Mission Dormitory likely built around 1845, its walls are stone 2 feet thick and is 3 stories tall. In the Early 1950’s it burned, with only the walls remaining.         Continuing north I ran out of pavement and to reach the north end meant 10 k of gravel …..no accident    Looking out across to the Killarney Shore ?

Turn south as My Ride doesn’t have floats…….thought I might be able to reach the point across from South Baymouth. Riding pavement except the last 23 k, gravel then heavy stone……when I hit sand I came close to going down….at this point I stopped took a few pics and headed back, I had covered the peninsula almost end to end. With no inhabitants in the last 23 k, and riding alone, I felt that I best not push further…though I did snag a pic of the CHi CHi coming out  from South Baymouth   Wilderness ….I did see a sign that said be careful BEARS…….why do they put these signs at the end of the road…yikes….Exiting I had the throttle up a notch…40k,,,lol

The last picture taken just 10 k south of my camp…looking out into the North Channel…

Now for the History Fact….In the revision to the treaty which would rescind the treaty of 1832 the Wikwemikong wouldn’t give up their ancestral lands and thus refused to sign the Manitoulin Treaty of 1862 leaving this area an UNCEDED RESERVE….I believe the only one in Canada.