Georgian Bay

Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay by F.H. Varley

Georgian Bay is about 320 kilometres long by 80 kilometres wide. It covers over 15,000 square kilometres, making it almost as large as Lake Ontario. It was first charted in 1822, and was named after King George IV, although it was first visited by Europeans in the 17th century by the French explorers Samuel de Champlain and Étienne Brûlé. There are tens of thousands of small islands located in the bay, often known as the "Thirty Thousand Islands," including the larger Parry Island and Christian Island. In the north end of the bay is the largest freshwater island in the world, Manitoulin Island. Manitoulin is separated from the Bruce Peninsula in southern Ontario by the Main Channel, which connects Georgian Bay with the rest of Lake Huron; Manitoulin is separated from the rest of northern Ontario by the North Channel. The islands in Georgian Bay are in fact part of the southern edge of the Canadian Shield, and Georgian Bay, like Lake Huron and the rest of the Great Lakes, was carved out by the retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age about 11,000 years ago.

The Trent-Severn Waterway connects Georgian Bay directly to the St. Lawrence River. Further north in central Ontario, Lake Nipissing drains into it through the French River. The town of Midland, Ontario, at the southern end of the bay, is a popular site for summer cottages. Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, the headquarters of the Jesuit mission to the area, can still be seen in Midland, as can the Martyrs' Shrine, a church dedicated to the Canadian Martyrs, Jesuits who were killed around Georgian Bay in the 17th century. Penetanguishene, also located at the southern tip of the bay, was created as a naval base in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe. Collingwood, Owen Sound, and Wiarton, are located on the Bruce Peninsula along the southern and south-western shore of the bay, while Tobermory is located at the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula on the Main Channel. A ferry travels from Tobermory across Georgian Bay to Manitoulin Island. Parry Sound is located on the western shore of the bay.