This property is open for the public to enjoy and appreciate. Before visiting, please review the GBLT Visitor Guidelines for maintaining the environmental integrity of the property.

Manitou Dock Island

Size: 0.5 acres
Location: Manitou
Year Acquired: 2006

Stewards:

Ian Baines – Lead Steward
Darin Buckland – Lead Steward

Property Info

Although small in size, this property helps to protect one of the most historically significant docking sites along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay. Remnants of the docking cribs can still be found along the shoreline. In addition to the historical significance, the property includes small examples of representative vegetation community types ranging from White Cedar forest to small coastal meadow marsh pockets.

Stories

On the earliest National Geographic Society maps of Canada, only one name appeared on the great empty expanse of the eastern shore of Georgian Bay; south of Parry Sound – Manitou Dock. This was the name of the steamboat landing that served just about everyone who cottaged or lived near Twelve Mile Bay and it made us the best known, in fact the only known name on those early maps.

– Darin Buckland

I first came to the Bay in 2000 and discovered a long history both on my island, and on the adjacent Manitou Dock island.

Back in the 1890s folks from Pittsburgh were coming up to fish and camp in the area. I have photos of them in straw hats, long dresses and with steamer trunks on the dock at Kah-She Island, where I reside.

– Ian Baines