Rabbit Lake (Temagami)

Last updated
Rabbit Lake
Rabbit Lake (Temagami) in spring 2007.jpg
Hub of Rabbit Lake in the spring
Canada Ontario relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Rabbit Lake
Canada relief map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Rabbit Lake
Location Temagami, Ontario
Coordinates 47°00′04″N79°38′19″W / 47.001°N 79.6385°W / 47.001; -79.6385
Part of Ottawa River drainage basin
Primary inflows Cassells Lake, Rabbit Creek
Primary outflows Matabitchuan River
Basin  countriesCanada
Surface elevation288 m (945 ft)

Rabbit Lake (known as "Waw-bos Nah-mat-ta-bee" in Ojibway) is a lake in the Temagami region of Northeastern Ontario, Canada, and lies within the townships of Askin, Riddell, and Eldridge. The lake is the largest and southernmost in a chain of lakes including Cassels Lake, Snake Island Lake, and Obashkong Lake.

Contents

Importance to First Nations

Rabbit Lake was an important trade route to the Natives, and even saw a fight or two.

There is a story about a short fight involving Temagami natives and Iroquois. The story goes that there were some Iroquois camping on an island on the lake, and at night some "Temagami's" went ashore and slit the bottoms of their canoes. The next morning the Iroquois were picked off one by one as their canoes sank in the water.

Geography

Forest

Another Temagami summer sunset. Grass in sunset at Rabbit Lake Temagami.jpg
Another Temagami summer sunset.

The forest surrounding the lake has been actively logged since the early 20th century. This is most noticeable north of Rabbit Point, where the forest still has not fully grown back after nearly a century. On the western shore just north of Rabbit Point, lies a 491 hectare area that has never been touched by logging, and has become the Rabbit Lake West Conservation Reserve. The reserve is the least known and the most untouched of its kind in Ontario. This old growth stand is closer to the original Temagami Boreal forest than even the White Bear Forest to the north.

Ecosystem

Like the other lakes in the region, Rabbit Lake is an oligotrophic ecosystem. While the fish population has steadily declined over the years, the lake is still home to pike, walleye, trout, whitefish, perch, bass, etc.

Geology

White Pine in the conservation reserve. White Pine in conservation reserve at Rabbit lake, Ontario.jpg
White Pine in the conservation reserve.

The lands surrounding the lake are part of the Canadian Shield, the largest single exposure of Precambrian rocks in the world which were formed after the Earth's crust cooled. The hills in the Temagami area are remnants of the oldest mountain range in North America that date back during the Precambrian era. These heavily eroded mountains would have rivaled the Himalayas in grandeur. The uplifting was accomplished as enormous pressure caused the earth to buckle in a process called folding. Other processes, such as volcanic activity and geologic faulting in which the earth cracks open also contributed to the formation of these mountains. Over millions of years, these enormous mountains were gradually eroded to the land we know today in Temagami. While Rabbit Lake is a fairly quiet lake dotted with cottages, the forest is continually logged and the threat of mining is looming ever closer with the discovery of kimberlite, a volcanic rock notable as a diamond indicator. [1] This in turn forms part of the Temagami Greenstone Belt, an Archean greenstone belt characterized by felsic-mafic volcanic rocks.

Hollywood

Rabbit Lake South Southern channel Rabbit Lake, Temagami.jpg
Rabbit Lake South

Hollywood has also visited the lake when scenes from the James Cagney movie "Captains of the Clouds" were filmed at Matabitchuan Lodge, a wilderness lodge in the north-east bay, on Rabbit Lake. Props from the movie can be seen on display in the lodge. This movie was also the first Hollywood movie to be filmed entirely on location in Canada.

Geography

Sunset on Rabbit Lake 1997-08-tema-rab-sunset-pan.jpg
Sunset on Rabbit Lake
Morning on Rabbit Lake 1997-08-tema-morning-fog.jpg
Morning on Rabbit Lake

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Shield</span> Geographic and geologic area of North America

The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton, the ancient geologic core of the North American continent. Glaciation has left the area with only a thin layer of soil, through which exposures of igneous bedrock resulting from its long volcanic history are frequently visible. As a deep, common, joined bedrock region in eastern and central Canada, the shield stretches north from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, covering over half of Canada and most of Greenland; it also extends south into the northern reaches of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenstone belt</span> Zone of variably metamorphosed rocks occurring in Archaean and Proterozoic cratons

Greenstone belts are zones of variably metamorphosed mafic to ultramafic volcanic sequences with associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Temagami</span> Lake in Ontario, Canada

Lake Temagami, formerly spelled as Lake Timagami, is a lake in Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada, situated approximately 80 km north of North Bay. The lake's name comes from dimii-agamiing "tih-MEE-uh-guh-MEENG", which means "it is deep water by the shore" in the Ojibwa language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jumping Cariboo Lake</span>

Jumping Cariboo Lake, sometimes incorrectly spelled Jumping Caribou Lake, is a lake located within the Municipality of Temagami, in the Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada. It contains small islands and hidden bays. Ojibwa natives of the area have given the lake its name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park</span> Provincial park in Ontario, Canada

Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park is a remote wilderness park in northeastern Ontario, Canada, north of Lake Temagami. This operating park, requiring permits for all visitors, encompasses "rugged topography, clear lakes, stunning waterfalls, and rushing rivers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temagami</span> Municipality in Ontario, Canada

Temagami, formerly spelled Timagami, is a municipality in northeastern Ontario, Canada, in the Nipissing District with Lake Temagami at its heart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanichee Mine</span>

The Kanichee Mine, also less commonly known as the Ajax Mine, is an abandoned base metal and precious metal mine, located in the Temagami region of northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is near the small unincorporated community of Temagami North, accessed by the Kanichee Mine Road from Highway 11. The Kanichee Mine zone has been explored and mined discontinuously from as early as 1910. During the 20th century, it operated and closed down at least three times, with the most recent being from 1973 to 1976. To date, the discontinuous operation of Kanichee Mine has produced 4.2 million pounds of metal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volcanism of Canada</span> Volcanic activity in Canada

Volcanic activity is a major part of the geology of Canada and is characterized by many types of volcanic landform, including lava flows, volcanic plateaus, lava domes, cinder cones, stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes, submarine volcanoes, calderas, diatremes, and maars, along with less common volcanic forms such as tuyas and subglacial mounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volcanic belt</span> Large volcanically active region

A volcanic belt is a large volcanically active region. Other terms are used for smaller areas of activity, such as volcanic fields or volcanic systems. Volcanic belts are found above zones of unusually high temperature where magma is created by partial melting of solid material in the Earth's crust and upper mantle. These areas usually form along tectonic plate boundaries at depths of 10 to 50 kilometres. For example, volcanoes in Mexico and western North America are mostly in volcanic belts, such as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt that extends 900 kilometres (560 mi) from west to east across central-southern Mexico and the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province in western Canada. In the case of Iceland, the geologist G.G. Bárdarson in 1929 identified clusters of volcanic belts while studying the Reykjanes Peninsula.

The White Bear Forest is an old growth forest, located in Temagami, Ontario, Canada. The forest is named after Chief White Bear, who was the last chief of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai before Europeans appeared in the region. In some parts of the White Bear Forest trees commonly reach 200 to 300 years in age, while the oldest tree accurately aged in White Bear Forest was a red pine that was 400 years old in 1999. The White Bear Forest contains one of Canada's oldest portages, dating back some 3,000 years. Today, more than 17 km (11 mi) of trails access the White Bear Forest. A trail guide is available online at http://ancientforest.org/whitebear.html.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cassels Lake</span> Natural freshwater lake in Temagami, Ontario

Cassels Lake is a lake located within the Municipality of Temagami, in the Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada. It contains numerous portages, campsites and is one of three lakes on the eastern edge of the White Bear Forest. The lake is named in honour of Sir Walter Cassels, President of the Exchequer Court of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temagami Greenstone Belt</span> Greenstone belt in Northeastern Ontario, Canada

The Temagami Greenstone Belt (TGB) is a small 2.7 billion year old greenstone belt in the Temagami region of Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It represents a feature of the Superior craton, an ancient and stable part of the Earth's lithosphere that forms the core of the North American continent and Canadian Shield. The belt is composed of metamorphosed volcanic rocks that range in composition from basalt to rhyolite. These form the east-northeast trend of the belt and are overlain by metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. They were created during several volcanic episodes involving a variety of eruptive styles ranging from passive lava eruptions to viscous explosive eruptions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volcanism of Eastern Canada</span>

The volcanism of Eastern Canada includes the hundreds of volcanic areas and extensive lava formations in Eastern Canada. The region's different volcano and lava types originate from different tectonic settings and types of volcanic eruptions, ranging from passive lava eruptions to violent explosive eruptions. Eastern Canada has very large volumes of magmatic rock called large igneous provinces. They are represented by deep-level plumbing systems consisting of giant dike swarms, sill provinces and layered intrusions. The most capable large igneous provinces in Eastern Canada are Archean age greenstone belts containing a rare volcanic rock called komatiite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beanland Mine</span>

Beanland Mine, also known as Clenor Mine, is an abandoned surface and underground mine in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located about 1 km (0.62 mi) west of Arsenic Lake and 4 km (2.5 mi) northwest of the town of Temagami in central Strathy Township. It is named after Sydney Beanland, who first claimed the mine site in the 1920s and was a director for the mine from 1937 to 1938.

Barton Mine, also known as Net Lake Mine, is an abandoned surface and underground mine in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located about 0.50 km (0.31 mi) north of the Temagami Arena in Temagami North and just east of the Ontario Northland Railway in northwestern Strathy Township. Dating back to the early 1900s, it is one of the oldest mines in Temagami. Barton was the site of a fire in the early 1900s, after which it never had active mining again.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algoman orogeny</span> Late Archaean episode of mountain building in what is now North America

The Algoman orogeny, known as the Kenoran orogeny in Canada, was an episode of mountain-building (orogeny) during the Late Archean Eon that involved repeated episodes of continental collisions, compressions and subductions. The Superior province and the Minnesota River Valley terrane collided about 2,700 to 2,500 million years ago. The collision folded the Earth's crust and produced enough heat and pressure to metamorphose the rock. Blocks were added to the Superior province along a 1,200 km (750 mi) boundary that stretches from present-day eastern South Dakota into the Lake Huron area. The Algoman orogeny brought the Archean Eon to a close, about 2,500 million years ago; it lasted less than 100 million years and marks a major change in the development of the Earth's crust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Dan Mine</span>

Big Dan Mine is an abandoned underground mine in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located about 1 km (0.62 mi) southwest of Net Lake and just west of the Ontario Northland Railway in east-central Strathy Township. It is named after Dan O'Connor, who first claimed the site in the 1890s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northeast Arm Iron Range</span> Area of iron ore in Nipissing District of Northeastern Ontario, Canada

The Northeast Arm Iron Range, also called the Temagami Iron Range, is an elongated area of iron ore in Nipissing District of Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It parallels the western side of Lake Temagami's Northeast Arm near the village of Temagami at its northern end. One of many small iron ranges in the Temagami area, the Northeast Arm Range consists of alternating bands of iron-rich and iron-poor sediments. It was discovered in the 1890s and has since seen sporadic mining and mineral exploration activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Ontario</span> Geologic features of the Canadian province

The geology of Ontario is the study of rock formations in the most populated province in Canada- it is home to some of the oldest rock on Earth. The geology in Ontario consists of ancient Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock which sits under younger, sedimentary rocks and soils.

The geology of the Northwest Territories has been mapped in different quadrangles by the Canadian government. The region has some of the oldest rocks in the world and among the oldest in North America, formed from several sections of stable craton continental crust, including the Slave Craton, Rae Craton and Hearne Craton. These rocks form the Archean and Proterozoic Precambrian basement rock of the region and are the subject of extensive research to understand continental crust and tectonic conditions on the early Earth.

References