Lake Simcoe
Lake Simcoe is a lake in southern
Ontario,
Canada, the fourth largest lake in the province. At the time of the first
European contact in the
17th century the lake was called
Ouentironk ("Beautiful Water") by the
Huron natives. It was also known as Lake Toronto. Early
French traders named it
Lac aux Claies, the "lake of
weirs", after the many
fishing weirs found there. It was renamed by
John Graves Simcoe, the
Lieutenant-Governor of
Upper Canada in the late
18th century for his father.
The lake is about 30 km long and 25 km wide. Its area is roughly 725 km²
[http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/nam/dnam42.html]. It is shaped somewhat like a fist with the index finger and thumb extended. The thumb forms
Kempenfelt Bay on the west, the wrist
Cook's Bay to the south, and the extended finger is
Lake Couchiching on the north. Couchiching can be considered a third bay of Simcoe, but the narrows between the two separate them enough to be considered two lakes. The narrows, known as "the place where trees grow over the water" was an important fishing point for the
First Nations peoples that lived in the area, and the
Mohawk term,
toran-ten eventually gave name to
Toronto by way of the portage route running south from that point, the
Toronto Carrying-Place Trail.
Lake Simcoe contains a large island, Georgina Island, on which there is a
First Nations reserve. The lake is dotted with several smaller islands including:
Thorah Island (a cottage destination), Strawberry Island (a Basilican retreat), Snake Island and Fox Island.
Pope John Paul II stayed on Strawberry Island for four days just before
World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto.[
1] A number of major rivers of southern Ontario flow, generally north, into the lake, draining 2581 km² of land. The
Trent-Severn Waterway is the most important river system draining into Lake Simcoe, connecting the lake with the
Great Lakes:
Georgian Bay, part of
Lake Huron and
Lake Ontario (Simcoe itself is not a Great Lake).
The lake is bordered by
Simcoe County,
Durham Region, and
York Region. The city of
Barrie is located on Kempenfelt Bay, and
Orillia is located at the entrance to Lake Couchiching. The watershed draining into the lake contains a population of roughly half a million people, including the northern portion of the
Greater Toronto Area.
The northern shore of the lake contains thousands of cottages, and is one of the most popular vacation areas in Ontario.
The Town of
Georgina (the northernmost part of
York Region, about a one-hour drive from
Toronto to the south), lies along the entire south shore of Lake Simcoe, and contains smaller residential towns and communities including
Keswick,
Sutton,
Pefferlaw and
Udora.
Ecologically, there has been some concern about Lake Simcoe. Although it is sometimes known as Canada's
ice fishing capital, the lake no longer supports a naturally breeding coldwater
fishery.
Phosphorus emissions from both urban and rural sources have upset the lake's ecosystem and fostered excessive aquatic plant growth, raising water temperatures, decreasing oxygen levels and thereby rendering limited breeding grounds inhospitable. Several initiatives; the Lake Simcoe Environmental Management Strategy (LSEMS), the Lake Simcoe Conservation Foundation and the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority are making efforts to rectify some of the lake's environmental woes. Several towns and communities on the lakeshore depend on Lake Simcoe for their drinking water.
Lake Simcoe is a remnant of a much bigger,
prehistoric lake known as
Lake Algonquin. This lake's basin also included
Lake Huron,
Lake Michigan,
Lake Superior,
Lake Nipigon, and
Lake Nipissing. The melting of an ice dam at the close of the last
ice age greatly reduced water levels in the region, leaving the lakes that we know today.
*
Lake Simcoe Conservation Foundation*
Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority*
Map of Lake Simcoe*
Satellite view of Lake Simcoe (interactive)
*
State of the Lake Simcoe Watershed 2003
