Rabbit Lake (Ontario)
Encyclopedia
Rabbit Lake 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 southern most in a chain of lakes including Cassels Lake
, Snake Island Lake
, and Obashkong Lake. 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.
The forest surrounding the lake has been actively logged since the early 20th century, and 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. 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.
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
.
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 mountain
s 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 fault
ing 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 cottage
s, 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. This in turn forms part of the Temagami greenstone belt
, an Archean
greenstone belt
characterized by felsic
-mafic
volcanic rock
s.
Temagami, Ontario
Temagami, formerly spelt as Timagami, is a region and a municipality in northeastern Ontario, Canada, in the District of Nipissing with Lake Temagami at its heart....
region of Northeastern Ontario
Northeastern Ontario
Northeastern Ontario is the region within the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and east of Lakes Superior and Huron.Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timiskaming, Nipissing and Manitoulin; and the single-tier municipality of Greater...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and lies within the townships of Askin, Riddell, and Eldridge. The lake is the largest and southern most in a chain of lakes including Cassels Lake
Cassels Lake
Cassels Lake is a lake located within the Municipality of Temagami, in the Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada...
, Snake Island Lake
Snake Island Lake
Snake Island Lake is a lake in the Ottawa River drainage basin in Strathy Township, Municipality of Temagami, Nipissing District of Northeastern Ontario, Canada....
, and Obashkong Lake. 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
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
. 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.
The forest surrounding the lake has been actively logged since the early 20th century, and 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
White Bear Forest
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...
to the north. 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
Esox
Esox is a genus of freshwater fish, the only living genus in the family Esocidae — the esocids which were endemic to North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Paleogene through present.The type species is E. lucius, the northern pike...
, walleye
Walleye
Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...
, trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
, whitefish
Freshwater whitefish
The freshwater whitefish are fish of the subfamily Coregoninae in the salmon family Salmonidae. Along with the freshwater whitefish, the Salmonidae includes the freshwater and anadromous trout and salmon species as well as graylings...
, perch
Perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus Perca, freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which there are three species in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Perciformes, from the Greek perke meaning spotted, and the...
, bass
Bass (fish)
Bass is a name shared by many different species of popular gamefish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species. All belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes, and in fact the word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch."-Types of basses:*The temperate...
, etc.
Hollywood has also visited the lake when scenes from the James Cagney movie "Captains of the Clouds
Captains of the Clouds
Captains of the Clouds is a 1942 Warner Bros. war film in Technicolor, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney. It was produced by William Cagney , with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer. The screenplay was written by Arthur T. Horman, Richard Macaulay and Norman Reilly Raine,...
" 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
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Geography
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, or Bouclier Canadien , is a vast geological shield covered by a thin layer of soil that forms the nucleus of the North American or Laurentia craton. It is an area mostly composed of igneous rock which relates to its long volcanic history...
, the largest single exposure of Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
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
Mountain range
A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
that date back during the Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
era. These heavily eroded mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
s would have rivaled the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
in grandeur. The uplifting was accomplished as enormous pressure caused the earth to buckle in a process called folding
Fold (geology)
The term fold is used in geology when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of permanent deformation. Synsedimentary folds are those due to slumping of sedimentary material before it is lithified. Folds in rocks vary in...
. Other processes, such as volcanic activity and geologic fault
Geologic fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of tectonic forces...
ing 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 cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
s, the forest is continually logged
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
and the threat of mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
is looming ever closer with the discovery of kimberlite
Kimberlite
Kimberlite is a type of potassic volcanic rock best known for sometimes containing diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an diamond in 1871 spawned a diamond rush, eventually creating the Big Hole....
, a volcanic rock
Volcanic rock
Volcanic rock is a rock formed from magma erupted from a volcano. In other words, it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin...
notable as a diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
indicator. This in turn forms part of the Temagami greenstone belt
Temagami greenstone belt
The Temagami greenstone belt, also known as the Temagami volcanic belt and the Temagami metavolcanic belt, is a small 2.7 billion year old greenstone belt in the Temagami region of Northeastern Ontario, Canada...
, an Archean
Archean
The Archean , also spelled Archeozoic or Archæozoic) is a geologic eon before the Paleoproterozoic Era of the Proterozoic Eon, before 2.5 Ga ago. Instead of being based on stratigraphy, this date is defined chronometrically...
greenstone belt
Greenstone belt
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....
characterized by felsic
Felsic
The word "felsic" is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium....
-mafic
Mafic
Mafic is an adjective describing a silicate mineral or rock that is rich in magnesium and iron; the term is a portmanteau of the words "magnesium" and "ferric". Most mafic minerals are dark in color and the relative density is greater than 3. Common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine,...
volcanic rock
Volcanic rock
Volcanic rock is a rock formed from magma erupted from a volcano. In other words, it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin...
s.