World’s Largest Lake Island Has Lakes Of Its Own – Which Also Have Lake Islands

If you found Inception tricky enough to get your head around, just wait until you hear about Manitoulin Island. Located in Lake Huron, not only is it the world’s largest lake island, but it also has lakes of its own, some of which in turn have their own lake islands. Someone grab us the Advil…

Manitoulin Island is in the Canadian part of Lake Huron, sitting close to the province of Ontario. It has an area of 2,766 square kilometers (1,068 square miles), which is only 30 square kilometers (12 square miles) less than Ottawa, Canada’s capital city.

It’s so big, in fact, that it’s home to over 100 lakes of its own – and if you take a closer look at those lakes, that’s when the mind-bogglement really steps it up a notch. 

For example, the largest of the island’s lakes is Lake Manitou – and at 106 square kilometers (41 square miles), this also happens to be the world’s largest lake within an island within a lake. Besides that, it’s best known for being the deepest of the lakes, which has attracted a range of resident fish, including the deep water-loving lake trout.

Then there’s Lake Mindemoya. It’s not as big as Manitou, sure, but it is the home of Treasure Island, which is the largest island in a lake in an island in a lake. If you need a hot minute to think about that, me too (I’m writing this first thing on a Monday morning).

Treasure Island wasn’t always known by this name; it was originally known as Mindimowenh. This means “old woman” in Ojibwe, and the island is said to be an embodiment of her. As for how she became an island, one story tells that she was the grandmother of the trickster Nanabozho; he was running across Lake Mindemoya with her on his shoulders when he lost his footing, accidentally sending his grandmother into the water.

Besides its various lakes and their own islands, Manitoulin Island is also home to the Sheguiandah National Historic Site of Canada, a prehistoric archaeological site. It was first found by archaeologists in 1951, when they uncovered a wealth of artifacts dating back over a period that lasted 9,000 years.

“The remains found in Sheguiandah represent a series of successive cultural occupations of early inhabitants in what is now Ontario, beginning with the Paleoindian Period circa 11,000 B.C.E. during the recession of glacial Lake Algonquin. The site also contains artifacts from the Archaic period (1000-500 B.C.E.) as well as Point Peninsula culture stone tools associated with the Middle Woodland period (0 – 500 C.E.),” explains Parks Canada.

Artifacts found at the site include stone tools and weapons, chipped down from chunks struck off from the surrounding quartzite bedrock.

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