Lake Ontario

Back to New York to Ontario

Lake Ontario (French: Lac Ontario) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York.

Lake Ontario is the easternmost of the Great Lakes and the smallest in surface area (7,340 sq mi, 18,960 km2),[1] although it exceeds Lake Erie in volume (393 cu mi, 1,639 km3). It is the 14th largest lake in the world.

History
Skilled woodsman, indefatigable pathfinder, sailor, multi-linguist and accused traitor - Etienne Brûlé lived a life of extraordinary exploits and larger-than-life adventures. As a wilderness scout, working on behalf of the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, Brûlé became the first European to see not only Lake Ontario, but also Huron, Superior, and Erie. (Jean Nicollet, another Champlain scout, was the first to sight Lake Michigan.)

The illiterate Brûlé left no written record of his journeys, but Champlain's journals and illustrations detail some of his discoveries and encounters. In 1608, Champlain sent the 16-year-old Brûlé in search of the elusive route to China. Seven years later, the talented scout guided Champlain through the Ottawa River-Lake Nipissing-French River shortcut to Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.

Records
Records may be found in the following location about the use of the lake in migration routes:


 * New York
 * Ontario

Websites

 * The Canadian Encyclopedia
 * Great Canadian Lakes
 * Lake_Ontario