Originally published in Lake of the Woods Area News, Volume 54, Number 5, Winter 2024
This past July, I conducted an informal survey with a select group of 29 people who I knew were familiar with the lake. The survey consisted of one question: What are the three landmarks on Lake of the Woods, natural or man-made, that immediately come to your mind?
The 18 responses I received came back quickly and they were both expected and surprising. As expected, at the top of the list was the Devil’s Gap Rock. It was followed by Husky the Muskie. Then came the surprises. There were 27 other landmarks mentioned and most were noted by one individual only.
What became apparent was that many landmarks were identified based on what part of the lake people were most familiar with. Their well-travelled routes brought them through Rocky Narrows or the Manitou, through the Hades or west to S Island.
Those who had ventured further down the lake mentioned the Sable Islands, Tranquil Channel Narrows, Whitefish Bay, Turtle Portage boat lift, and the Northwest Angle.
In a number of instances, the landmarks noted were personal. A couple of people mentioned their own camps or islands, or a place that had significant personal meaning. One respondent talked about a rock off the Keewatin Beach Road. “My uncle had a little cabin next to ours on Keewatin Beach Road and beside it was a rock about a foot off the mainland and, as a kid when I wanted to be alone, I would climb the path to his place and jump across the water and sit on that rock. After some seventy years, it is still there.” Someone mentioned Balancing Rock, and I recalled the many family picnics we had in my Dad’s spacious Thompson boat. We’d pull into the slip beside Balancing Rock, unfold our metal picnic table in the middle of the boat and snack on sandwiches and pop before swimming. Scotty’s Beach and Coney Island were mentioned, I suspect, because of the memories they evoke of fun times at the beach.
While some landmarks denote special places, some are used strictly for navigational purposes, helping to pinpoint just where we are on this vast lake—the red and green buoys at the western entrance to Keewatin Channel, Keewatin Bridge, and the ever-leaning pine tree on the southwest side of Crowe Island.
Then, there are just the curiosities, like Devil’s Gap rock and the metal giraffe sculpture on a tiny island situated between the southwest point of Corkscrew Island and Copper Island in Clearwater Bay. Or the Kenora buildings that stand out from the streetscape as one approaches the town from the lake—
the Kenricia Hotel, the Whitecap Pavilion, the hospital.
Some of the landmarks mentioned, like the pictograph on Annie Island, have both historical and sacred significance. Another, Roche Rouge, receives no formal recognition on the lake charts, however it’s mentioned in the journals of early lake travelers (1795 and 1823). Its location on the northeast corner of Big Island was confirmed by David Malaher who was the one who noted it in the survey. According to him, “Roche Rouge outcrop extends 3/4 to 1 mile along the shoreline rising 150-170 feet…The granite has a strong hue of pink.” As he has noted, the importance of Roche Rouge is that it marks a point on the fur trade route through the centre of Lake of the Woods, with other reference points being the mouth of the Rainy River, French Narrows Portage, and Rat Portage (Kenora).
Whether the landmarks have historical, aesthetic, navigational or personal significance, each is a touchstone for someone who travels and enjoys this lake. What are your three landmarks?
