Exploring Manitoulin. 3rd ed.

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Shelley Pearen’s guide to Manitoulin Island succeeds in its primary
objective, which is to imbue her readers with the compelling sense of
place and past that objects of a community’s material culture may
evoke. The best travel guides are public historians with a vital
interest in their region’s material history and a capacity to reveal
its significance.

The tour of this island in Lake Huron, the world’s largest in a
freshwater lake, begins on the northern approach from the mainland. As
the traveler wheels through the white and glittering La Cloche
Mountains, Pearen reveals the geological and historical details
associated with observable features and settlements. This pattern is
replicated in tours of Little Current, the north coast, the southern
region, eastern bays, and the two large lakes, Mindemoya and Manitou.
Two contextual chapters, “The Powwow” and “Manitoulin
Architecture,” prepare tourists to grasp the significance of spiritual
and built environments, when sites, programs, and buildings are noted
subsequently in the touring chapters.

The author conveys a sense of place by including historical as well as
contemporary photographs and paintings. She has provided the navigator
with excellent maps of towns and tours. Nature lovers and shoppers will
appreciate how a view might change with the seasons; where and when to
see trilliums, bur oaks, or chicory; where to watch birds, or buy the
Island’s famous honey, or pick up bundles of yarn spun from the wool
of local sheep. Even a large swamp (Manitoulin has many) such as the
Honora is interesting, because our guide explains not only how it was
crossed by a corduroy road, but also how such roads were constructed.

The guide fails at that point where “pure” history replaces public
history. Chapter 2, “A Century and a Half of Touring Manitoulin,”
reads like a sincere undergraduate essay whose notes are showing. It
might better have been placed at the back, with an appropriate
introduction, for the book ends rather abruptly and could use such a
retrospective. Browsers who persist beyond this chapter, however, will
appreciate this small volume for its utility and pleasing presentation.