The Georgian Bay Explorer -
The Giant, Kitchikewana

Four hundred years ago, the area around Penetanguishene was called by the Hurons the “place of the shining white sands.” It was here that the giant
Kitchikewana (kitch-key-wana) protected the Hurons who were constantly threatened by the marauding Iroquois. He was indeed a giant. His head towered above the pines, in his hands he could lift the largest boulder, and with a few strides, walk completely across Huronia. With a headdress made of the feathers of a 1,000 birds, around his neck was a necklace of tree stumps. Kitchikewana was a great man and a legendary protector of his people. But he had one fault – a fearsome temper. When he lost it, the Huron quaked with fear. Maybe marriage would calm the giant. A suitable bride was found and a wedding date set. The Hurons had a great celebration, feasting and dancing for days. And then it was time for the marriage. It was then that Kitchikewana’s bride-to-be shocked the gathering. “No,” she exclaimed. She would not marry the giant.

The gathered celebrants turned in horror to Kitchikewana, fully expecting his great wrath to come boiling up. And boil it did! In one angry stride the giant mounted a rock cliff and dove far out into the blue waters of Georgian Bay. With two strokes he swam to an island and there, standing and reaching back across the waves, he gouged out great mountains of earth that he threw far out into the lake. The marks of his fingers along the shore can still be seen in the five bays of Penetanguishene, Midland, Hog, Sturgeon, and Matchedash. The huge clumps of earth fell into the lake. So many were they that they began to protrude above the surface of the water. And so the 30,000 islands of Georgian Bay were formed. After his anger abated, Kitchikewana swam further out to a great island and there died, his great heart broken. Today, that island is known as the Giant’s Tomb.