Michael's Bay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael's Bay | |
|---|---|
Ghost town | |
  Michael's Bay | |
| Coordinates: 45°36′08″N 82°06′06″W / 45.6022°N 82.1017°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| District | Manitoulin |
| Municipality | Tehkummah |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
Michael's Bay is a ghost town in Tehkummah, Ontario, Canada. It was located on the namesake bay at the mouth of the Manitou River.[1]
Certain areas of Manitoulin Island were covered under the Treaty of 1862 and Indigenous peoples relocated after it was signed.[2] Michael's Bay was the first area to be used by settlers,[3] eventually becoming the largest settlement on the island.[4] The town was known for its prominent lumber industry from the 1860s to the early 1900s.[4] At its height, Michael's Bay had a post office, two boarding houses,[4] a lighthouse, a lath mill, a sawmill, and a shingle mill. A school was established in 1874.[3] While the industry was quite lucrative at first, financial prospects dwindled once Americans began charging tariffs on Canadian exports. By 1890, most of the town's residents had moved.[2] A 1914 fire ruined the bulk of the remaining infrastructure.[3]
The original lighthouse stopped functioning in 1947. Members of the Michael's Bay Historical Society successfully campaigned for a replacement that was built in 2006. The new lighthouse is solar-powered and has a historical plaque at its base.[5] In 2005, a property in Michael's Bay was subject to a criminal investigation by Belgium, which alleged that a Canadian couple had been using it to sell bovine growth hormone, and successfully encouraged the Canadian government to seize the land.[6] Some of the land remained unsold until 2021, when it was bought by the Michael's Bay Historical Society.[7]
