Massacre Island
A cross placed on Massacre Island’s highest point honours the memory of the 1736 murders of Lake of the Woods’ explorer La Veréndrye’s son Jean Baptiste, Father Aulneau and 19 others.

A Rose is a Rose
A flour milling company suggested a name change in the early 1900’s at Rat Portage. The new name, Kenora, established in 1905, takes the first two letters Keewatin (an adjacent town), Norman (another nearby community) and Rat Portage

Tourism Boom
Lake of the Woods is famous for being a great place for fishing – Northern Pike, Walleye, Bass and Muskellunge have attracted tourists to the area since the early 1900’s. Also, perhaps many Americans favoured the area during the 1920’s when the use of liquor and beer was prohibited in the United States. The Lake of the Woods was a busy route for the illegal transport of whiskey to the United States during the 1920’s era of prohibition. Oak Island is thought to have been central to the bootlegging “industry”; today it is a tourist enclave, famous for remote beauty and great fishing.

Visit Tomahawk Lighthouse
Built in 1900, the Tomahawk Lighthouse in Morson helped steer watercraft that carried passengers and goods from Kenora to Rainy River ports safely. It was operated by lighthouse keepers until it was automated in 1946. It has been restored and contains a museum devoted to early travel on Lake of the Woods.

Stanley Cup Winners
In 1907, the Kenora Thistles won the Stanley Cup. Hockey, being a truly Canadian sport, was a favourite activity for men of the north, and the amateur team brought home the Cup, kept locally for a mere two months.

WWII German P.O.W. Camp
Like other remote spots in Canada, the Lake of the Woods area had a prisoner of war camp. Camp #61 housed as many as 150 men. They cut wood, built roads, worked the bush and earned half a dollar per day. When they weren’t working, they played – games, hunting, fishing and boating. The camp closed in 1946.

(For more information about Canada in WWII, please visit www.junobeach.org, a Digital Wizards / Juno Beach Centre Association web site detailing Canadians’ contributions to the war. The site features an interactive centre, text, images, movie clips and information about the Juno Beach Centre museum, located in France.)