Lake Temagami is a lake in Nipissing District
in northeastern Ontario
, Canada,
situated approximately 80 km north of North
Bay
. The lake's name comes from
Te-mee-ay-gaming, which means "deep water by the shore" in
the
Ojibwa language.
Geography
The lake is irregularly shaped with long north, northeast and
southwest arms, shorter northwest and south arms and several
smaller bays.
The town of Temagami
is located
at the end of the northeast arm of the lake. It extends
almost 50 km from north to south and about 35 km from
east to west. There are approximately 1,259 islands, the largest of
which is
Temagami Island. The lake's
outflow is the
Temagami River which
in turn flows into the
Sturgeon River.
The lands surrounding the lake are part of the
Canadian Shield, one of the largest single
exposure of
Precambrian rocks in the
world which were formed after the Earth's crust cooled.
Part of
Lake Temagami lies in the Temagami Magnetic Anomaly
, an egg shaped geologic structure stretching from
Lake
Wanapitei
in the west
to Bear
Island
. It has striking similarities to the Sudbury Basin
, which is one of the richest mining camps in the
world. The hills in the Temagami area are remnants of the
oldest
mountain ranges in
North America, that date back during the
Precambrian era. These enormous
mountains were taller than any that exist today. The uplifting was
accomplished as enormous pressure caused the earth to buckle in a
process called
folding. Other
processes, such as
volcanic
activity and
geologic faulting in
which the earth cracks open also contributed to the formation of
these mountains. Over millions of years, these enormous mountains
were gradually eroded to the land we know it today in
Temagami.
The rocks that form Temagami to this day are
igneous,
metamorphic
and
sedimentary. The area has good
potential to host
diamondiferous kimberlites and more diamond bearing kimberlites
may continue to be discovered in the area. The Temagami area also
contains some
pillow lava about 2
billion years old, indicating that great
submarine volcanoes existed during the
early stages of the formation of the
Earth's
crust.
The northeast arm of Lake Temagami is underlain by a strong
fault zone of sheared
felsic to intermediate
metavolcanic that is approximately wide.
The fault zone is associated with the
Saint Lawrence rift system which
remains seismically active while the metavolcanics are associated
with the
Temagami greenstone
belt, an
Archean greenstone belt characterized by
felsic-
mafic volcanic rocks. The faults are related to the
opening of the
Iapetus Ocean.
Lake Temagami and its surrounding lakes provide endless
opportunities for
canoe camping. There
are over 2,000 km of interconnecting canoe routes.
The region contains some of the largest remaining stands of
old growth red
and
white pine forests in
Ontario.
History
Lake Temagami
In 1834, the
Hudson's Bay
Company opened a
fur trading post on
the lake, which operated during the 19th century. The Forest
Reserves Act of 1898 established the Temagami Forest Reserve on the
shores and adjacent lands of the lake in 1901. It was created to
reserve the forests for future logging by restricting settlement.
In 1904 it was increased to 15,000 km² (5,900 square miles).
As a result of this reserve, the building of
cottages and
resorts was only
permitted on the lake's islands. This restriction is still in force
today. Lake Temagami is popular for cottage vacationing: the number
of cottages on Lake Temagami are estimated between 630 and 746. In
addition there are 9
youth camps, and 12
commercial lodges.
Keewaydin Canoe Camp is based on
Devil's Island, in
the shadow of
Devil's Mountain and
across from
Granny's Bay in the
northern section of the lake. Keeywaydin, founded in 1892, is one
of several camps on Lake Temagami whose focus is on wilderness
canoe trips using traditional equipment such as cedar and canvas
canoes and wannigans. Camp Wigwasati, on the southwest arm, began
running canoe trips in the Temagami wilderness in 1930. Wigwasati
is now known as
Camp Temagami. A few kilometers south of Keeywaydin,
Camp Wabun has
run canoe trips in the area since 1933. Keeywaydin, Temagami and
Wabun were boys camps when founded but have since all become co-ed.
Appleby College
's northern campus is located on Rabbit Nose island,
opened in the mid 1970s it provides a launching point for their
Northward Bound program which takes place in January, February, May
and June.
Kayaks on Lake Temagami
A
copper mine opened on
Temagami Island in 1954 called
Copperfield's Mine.
It produced 34,000,000
dollars Canadian and was considered to
mine the purest copper
ore in Canada
. The
mine closed in 1972.
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
