Thorah Island
Thorah as well as three other islands in Lake Simcoe were ceded by the Chippewa Indians in 1856 to the British Crown on the agreement that the land would be sold and the proceeds invested for the descendants of the ceding chiefs. Following this sale William Napier made the first survey of the island in 1856.
Thorah was originally used as a recreational destination in the late nineteenth century by a group of four businessmen from Toronto who came to the island to camp and fish. The island currently (2005) has a seasonal population of 147 that include several descendants of the original group.
Today the island is used by the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph as an isolated mating station for the Buckfast Bee lines maintained by the research centre.
The island was also named Canise (or Kanise) Island by Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1793 to honour a local native chief by that name. In the above-mentioned treaty between the natives and the British the island is known as Plum Island. Neither of these names is in popular use today.
References
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2005-03-13. Retrieved 2004-04-12.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Isolated Buckfast Mating Island in Ontario" (PDF). Wicwas Press. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
External links
- The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources provides a technical description of the Island's environmental characteristics.