Lake Nipigon (French : lac Nipigon) is the largest lake entirely within the boundaries of the Canadian province of Ontario and is sometimes described as the sixth Great Lake. Lying 260 metres above sea level, the lake drains into the Nipigon River and thence into Nipigon Bay of Lake Superior. The lake and river are the largest tributaries of Lake Superior. It lies about 120 kilometres northeast of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Lake Nipigon has a total area (including islands within the lake) of 4848 square kilometres (compared to 3150 km² for Lake of the Woods). The largest islands are Caribou Island, Geikie Island, Katatota Island, Kelvin Island, Logan Island, Murchison Island, Murray Island, and Shakespeare Island.

The lake is noted for its towering cliffs and unusual green-black sand beaches composed of the fine particles of a dark green mineral known as pyroxene. The lake basin provides an important habitat for woodland caribou.

History

The French Jesuit Claude Allouez celebrated the first mass beside the Nipigon River May 29, 1667. He visited the village of the Nipissing Indians who had fled there during the Iroquois onslaught of 1649-50. In the Jesuit Relations the lake is called lac Alimibeg, and was subsequently known as Alemipigon or Alepigon. In the 19th century it was frequently spelled as Lake Nepigon.

In 1683 Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut established a fur trading post on Lake Nipigon named Fort Tourette after his brother, Claude Greysolon, Sieur de la Tourette. The Alexis Hubert Jaillot map of 1685 (Partie de la Nouvelle-France) suggests that this fort was somewhere in Ombabika Bay at the northeast end of the lake where the Ombabika river and Little Jackfish river (Kabasakkandagaming) empty. (A copy of this map may be viewed at Brock University Map Library) The post remained active to the end of the French regime as part of the pays d'en haut.

After the Treaty of Paris (1763), the area passed into the hands of the British, and the Hudson's Bay Company expanded its trading area to include the Lake. Although it was considered to be within British North America, it was not until 1850 that the watershed draining into Lake Superior was ceded formally by the Ojibwe Indians to the Province of Canada (see Robinson Treaty, 1850 , also known as the Robinson Superior Treaty). A four square mile reservation was set aside on Gull River near Lake Nipigon on both sides of the river for the Chief Mishe-muckqua. In 1871 Lake Nipigon was included in the new Thunder Bay District, Ontario.

The Township of Nipigon was incorporated in 1908. The large Municipality of Greenstone (pop. 5,662) was incorporated in 2001 and includes Orient Bay, MacDiarmid, Beardmore, Nakina, Longlac, Caramat, Jellicoe and Geraldton.

In 1943 Canada and the United States agreed to the Ogoki diversion which diverts water into Lake Superior that would normally flow into James Bay and thence into Hudson Bay. The diversion connects the upper portion of the Ogoki River to Lake Nipigon. This water was diverted to support three hydroelectric plants on the Nipigon River . The diversion is governed by the International Lake Superior Board of Control which was established in 1914 by the International Joint Commission.

Lake Nipigon Provincial Park is located on the east side of Lake Nipigon. In 1999 the park boundary was amended to reduce the park area from 14.58 to 9.18 square kilometres. The area was deregulated and transferred to the Government of Canada for a reserve for the Sand Point First Nation.

• Douglas, R., ed. Nipigon to Winnipeg : a canoe voyage through Western Ontario by Edward Umfreville in 1784, with extracts from the writings of other early travellers through the region. Ottawa : Commercial Printing, 1929.

Transportation

The main line of the Canadian National Railway runs to the north of the lake. Another branch of the CNR touches the southeastern section of the lake at Orient Bay and Macdiarmid before heading inland to Beardmore . Provincial highway 11 also skirts the southeastern section of the lake.

First Nations

The aboriginal population (primarily Ojibwe) include the Lake Nipigon Ojibway First Nation (Rocky Bay), the Rocky Bay First Nation, the Sand Point First Nation, the Lake Helen First Nation, the Flying Post First Nation, and the Gull Bay First Nation.

External links

• Facts about Canada - Lakes
• International Lake Superior Board of Control