Place

Wayside: How These Islands Came to Be (SMI)

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

An informational sign that includes the Anishinaabek and geologic creation stories of the islands — "How These Islands Came to Be" wayside sign on South Manitou Island

Audio Description

Background Image

The background image is a photo of Lake Michigan showing North and South Manitou islands.

Caption

The word Manitou comes from the Anishinaabemowin word Manidoo, which means "spirit". These islands are sacred places.

Anishinaabek Story

Oral tradition tells of the sleeping mother bear, a sacred landmark in their homeland.

Manpi agaming bagosend-mowad wibi-jawad.
Over here across the sea they were wishing to come here they.

Mawipi mises-sesnand-monid makonsan.
After a while whimpering with hunger they little cubs.

Miiwi gi-gijen-dang makwa ji-manen-dong jidka-mada-gawad.
So then made up her mind bear to attempt they to swim across.

Once, long ago, in the land called Wisconsin across the great lake, there was terrible hunger and many people died. A bear and two little cubs were trying to leave that place and come around the lake where there would be more food.

They walked for many days on the beach together, but after a while the two little cubs began to whimper with hunger, and so the bear decided to swim across the rest of the lake.

They waded into the water, one cub on each side of the bear, and they swam off into the lake a long way. After a while the cubs began to get very tired, and so the bear said, “Try hard, the land is not very far.” And very soon they did come in sight of land.

But gradually the cubs got weaker, and only ten miles away, one cub sank into the water. Soon after, the other also drowned. The bear’s heart was broken, but she could do nothing. She waded ashore and lay down, looking out on the water where her cubs had died. Eventually, both of them came to the surface as two little islands, and so the bear still lies there atop the dunes, looking after her children.

Accompanying this story there is a watercolor illustration of a bear swimming in the lake, looking back towards two cubs in the water. In the background is a distant shoreline covered in trees.

Geologic Story

This area was formed when continental glaciers, up to a mile thick, moved south, bulldozing rock and soil, carving the earth. As temperatures warmed, the glaciers retreated and melted. North and South Manitou islands, connected to a larger chain of islands to the north, are part of a high ridgeline of limestone tilted and covered by glacial debris—rock, sand, gravel, and clay. Glacial meltwater covered all but the tops of the ridges, creating these islands. Waves, currents, and winds continually rework the land and shoreline, adding in some places, removing in others.

How will these islands change in the future?

Geologic Illustrations

The top illustration shows a glacier in a valley.

The bottom illustration shows the same valley full of water.

Caption (top)

20,000 Years Ago
As the glacial ice retreated northward, the immense volume of meltwater filled the Lake Michigan basin to form postglacial Lakes Algonquin, Nipissing, Algoma, and Chippewa.