Lake Wanapitei


Lake Wanapitei is an impact crater lake within the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and Wahnapitae First Nation. Adjacent to the nearby but unrelated [Sudbury Basin|Sudbury impact crater], it is one of the worlds largest lakes entirely located within the boundary of a single municipality.
The crater itself is in diameter, with an estimated age of 37.2 ± 1.2 million years, dating it to the Eocene period. The Anishinaabemowin name for the lake, Waanabidebiing, means "place where the water is shaped like a tooth" and refers to the shape of the lake from above.

Geography

The Lake Wanapitei impact, which created the crater lake, was estimated to have been formed 37.2 ± 1.2 million years ago during the Eocene period. A 2003 study proposed that the crater itself is between three and four kilometres in diameter, while also proposing that it may have been formed by large scale faulting. Another study in 2006 compared the crater to the Popigai, Chesapeake Bay, Mistastin and Haughton impact craters.
The Wanapitei River flows through the lake, and the lake itself is located within the Lake Wanapitei Subwatershed of the Great Lakes Basin watershed. The subwatershed includes of forests, of lakes, and of wetlands. Within the subwatershed is the Chiniguchi Waterway Provincial Park#Wolf [Lake Forest Reserve|Wolf Lake Forest Reserve] covering of old growth red pine forest. The reserve contains trees estimated to be around 300 years old.

Human history

Lake Wanapitei is part of the traditional territory of the Wahnapitae First Nation, a signatory to the Robinsion Huron Treat of 1850. The fur trade and later logging brought Europeans to the region, with the towns of Boland's Bay and Skead settled on its southern shore. In the 1960s, six RCMP officers drowned in the lake during a training exercise.

Recreation

Wanapitei Provincial Park, a non-operating natural environment park, is located on the northern shore of the lake. The lake is a popular recreational area in the region, with activities including fishing, snowmobiling, and camping. The lake has 370 permanent residents and 180 seasonal residents on its shores, including islands.