What's in a name?

The Trans Canada Highway winds along the northern end of Lake Superior from Thunder Bay (at least that’s where we first encountered the great expanse of blue water) to Sault Ste. Marie. If you’ve never driven the Trans Canada Highway in Ontario, you must! It’s a lovely drive, with lake, after lake, after lake – the GPS map is more dark blue (water) than light (land)! And, strangely, it’s only a two-lane highway – not four-lane divided like so much of the rest of Canada, so you must slow your pace a bit, and take in the scenery as you drive along.

So – back to the lakes. There are so many lakes, I think they started to run out of ideas for names. Some are original: Banning Lake, Cedar Lake, and Crystal Lake. Then there are names like McCauley Lake, Little McCauley Lake, and North McCauley Lake. Big Lake, Little Lake, Long Lake. Even Lac de Milles Lacs.

There are also plenty of First Nation names – Lake Wabigoon, Kagiwiosa Lake, Kenogamisis Lake… I could go on and on.

We stayed at Pukaskwa National Park (not named after a lake, and not pronounced the way it is spelled), after stopping at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, on our way to “The Soo” (otherwise known as Sault Ste. Marie).

The Kaministiquia River at Kakabeka Falls

Hattie's Cove at Pukaskwa Nat'l Park

Looking out at Lake Superior

I'm curious about all the names... it would be interesting to do some historical research on the lesser-known place names of Canada – if something like that hasn’t already been done. Someday, maybe, I’ll investigate that.