Long Point is a

sand spit A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due t ...

and medium-sized

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

on the north shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

, part of Norfolk County in the province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is about long and is about across at its widest point. Lake Erie lies to the south of Long Point, and

Long Point Bay Long Point is a sand spit and medium-sized hamlet on the north shore of Lake Erie, part of Norfolk County in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is about long and is about across at its widest point. Lake Erie lies to the south of Long Poi ...

lies on the north side. The bay is subdivided into the Inner Bay and Outer Bay by a line that runs between Turkey Point to the north and Pottahawk Point to the south. Some of the towns along the bay's north shore include Port Rowan, Turkey Point and

Port Dover Port Dover is an unincorporated community and former town located in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Erie. It is the site of the recurring Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. Prior to the War of 1812, this community w ...

. Long Point is north of and across the lake from Presque Isle and

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

History

Settlers from Europe began arriving in this area in 1790. After the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, many

Loyalists Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

began to settle here but after 1796, land was given to anyone who was capable of developing it. The first

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

was built in 1830. In the 19th century, a powerful storm cut an opening through the middle of Long Point. A lighthouse was built alongside the channel, which was the first of several on the point. The opening became known as "The Old Cut". The cut has since closed along the lakeshore, but boaters continue to use the northern portion to reach the bay, homes and cottages. During the mid-19th century some of local residents saw an opportunity to make easy money by "blackbirding." Blackbirders erected fake lighthouses during times of low visibility. Ships trying to enter the old cut would run aground. When the crew abandoned ship the blackbirders would loot the ship of cargo and other valuables. With law enforcement based in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

, these blackbirders would store their loot on the many hiding spots that Long Point offered.

Abigail Becker Abigail Becker (1830–1905), known as the Angel of Long Point, was a Canadian woman credited with saving the lives of numerous sailors caught in storms along the shores of Long Point. When the storms had passed, she would wade in the water as far ...

on several occasions in the 19th century waded into stormy waters to save crew members of boats that had run aground. Long Point has caused many shipwrecks, with many of the wrecks located right off the tip of the point. More than 400 ships have sunk in an area called "

The Lake Erie Quadrangle Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

". Sport hunting was important after the Long Point Company purchased the Point in 1866 to facilitate this pursuit.

Long Point Provincial Park Long Point Provincial Park is a provincial park on the northwest shore of Lake Erie near Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada. The park is part of a sandy spit of land called Long Point that juts out into the lake. It covers part of the area of Long P ...

was created in May 1921; by 1929, it was connected to the mainland by a new causeway.

Economy and recreation

The year-round population of Long Point is about 450 people, but the population increases in summer months when cottagers and campers visit. Long Point is popular destination for boating, swimming, fishing, waterfowl-hunting and canoeing, attracting between 100,000 and 300,000 visitors each year. A large portion of Long Point is owned by the Long Point Company, a private organization that does not allow the public onto its property. Because of this, most homes, cottages and business are within the first few kilometres of the causeway that carries the road between Long Point and the mainland. Long Point Provincial Park, a popular destination for day visitors and campers, is located on the peninsula

Natural environment

Long Point is an example of

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

and sand-spit formation in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

region. It is the largest erosion deposit formation in the

, created by water-borne sediments swept eastward and deposited in part along an underwater

glacial moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

. Habitats on and surrounding Long Point include

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

s, sand dunes and bluffs,

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

es,

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

es and lakeshore. The complex is the largest biophysical formation of its kind in the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America. North of the peninsula lie several islands, including Ryerson's,

Second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

, and

Snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

. In 1982, the Long Point National Wildlife Area was recognized as a wetland of international significance under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

. In 1986,

Long Point Biosphere Reserve The Long Point Biosphere Reserve is located in southern Canada on the shores of Lake Erie in Norfolk County. The area encompasses a rich mosaic of ecological systems associated with erosion deposit sand spit formations around the Laurentian Gre ...

was designated as a World

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

by UNESCO and as a globally significant Important Bird Area by Bird Life International. The Ontario

Ministry of Natural Resources An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

classifies Long Point as a ''Macrosite'', an area that contains numerous ecological or geological significant zones, such as

Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while ''surface area'' refers to the area of an open s ...

. Inner Long Point Bay covers approximately between the spit and Lake Erie's north shore. The Inner Bay is a diverse sport fishery and continentally important staging area for migratory waterfowl. Immediately adjacent to the coastal reserve is a distinctive terrestrial area of temperate 'Carolinian' broadleaf forests,

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

plantations,

oak savanna An oak savanna is a type of savanna—or lightly forested grassland—where oaks (''Quercus ''spp.) are the dominant trees. The terms "oakery" or "woodlands" are also used commonly, though the former is more prevalent when referencing the Mediter ...

s and diverse agro-ecosystems.

Wildlife

The region is an important location for

bird migration Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...

in spring and autumn. It is a major staging area for a variety of waterfowl. "Long Point itself is one of the most important wetland complexes for migrating waterfowl in southern Canada, and is reported to receive the highest waterfowl use (based on numbers of waterfowl days during spring and fall migration) of any area on the Great Lakes (approximately 4 million days per year). Up to 30,000 Tundra Swans pass through the area in spring, and up to 8% of the world's Canvasbacks congregate in the area on any one day during spring and fall," according to a report by the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve. In 1960, the Long Point Bird Observatory was established to monitor migrant birds on the point. It is North America's oldest bird observatory. As a result of a growing national focus towards saving the birds, the organization was renamed

Bird Studies Canada Birds Canada (formerly Bird Studies Canada) is Canada's national bird Conservation movement, conservation organization. Birds Canada began as the ''Long Point Bird Observatory'' in 1960, changing its name in 1998 to reflect the growing national ...

in 1998. Its national headquarters overlooks Long Point Inner Bay on the western limits of Port Rowan, adjacent to base of the peninsula. The Long Point Biosphere Reserve and surrounding area is home to 1384 species of plant, 370 species of birds, 102 species of fish, 46 species of mammals, 34 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 91 species of butterflies. These include

Species at Risk The List of Wildlife Species at Risk currently has more than 800 entries for Canadian wild life species considered vulnerable; including 363 classified as endangered species, —190 threatened species, —235 special concern, and 22 extirpated ( ...

such as

American ginseng American ginseng (''Panax quinquefolius'') is a herbaceous perennial plant in the ivy family, commonly used as an herb in traditional Chinese medicine. It is native to eastern North America, though it is also cultivated in China. Since the 18th ...

(''Panax quinquefollus''),

American badger The American badger (''Taxidea taxus'') is a North American badger similar in appearance to the European badger, although not closely related. It is found in the western, central, and northeastern United States, northern Mexico, and south-centr ...

(''Taxidea taxus''),

Acadian flycatcher The Acadian flycatcher (''Empidonax virescens'') is a small insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family. Description Adults have olive upperparts, darker on the wings and tail, with whitish underparts; they have a white eye ring, white ...

(''Empidonax virescens'') and

channel darter The channel darter (''Percina copelandi'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It is native to North Amer ...

(''Percina copelandi'').

Climate

According to the Atlas of Canada, Long point has a cool summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

with no dry season (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dfb''). The climate of Long Point is influenced by

, causing spring and summer temperatures to be cooler, and autumn and winter temperatures to be warmer than the adjacent mainland. Winters are relatively cool, with a mean temperature of while summers are warm, averaging . Long Point averages of precipitation per year. It is estimated that Long Point averages 2,000 hours of bright sunshine per year or 45% of possible sunshine.

Gallery

File:Long Point Marshes 2.jpg, alt=The marshes of Long Point, as seen from the Provincial Park., The marshes of Long Point, as seen from the Provincial Park. File:Long Point Beach.jpg, alt=A flock of gulls on the beach., A flock of gulls on the beach. File:Lake Erie from Long Point.jpg, alt=Lake Erie,

File:Long Point Marsh Channel.JPG, alt=View of a channel through the marsh in Long Point Bay., View of a channel through the marsh in Long Point Bay. File:Lake_Erie_Islands_Near_Long_Point_Ontario.png, Map of the

Lake Erie Islands The Lake Erie Islands are a chain of archipelagic islands in Lake Erie. They include Kelleys Island, Erie Island, Pelee Island, the Bass Islands, and several others. The majority of these islands are under the sovereignty of the State of Ohio in t ...

located near Long Point.

References

Sources

* ''Lore and Legends of Long Point'', Harry B. Barrett, Burns and MacEachearn 1977, * ''Long Point: Last Port of Call'', David Stone, Boston Mills Press, 1988, * ''Waters Of Repose'',

Dave Stone Dave Stone (born 12 June 1964) is a British science fiction writer. Biography Stone has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and ''Judge Dredd''. Stone also contributed a number of com ...

and David Frew, Erie County Historical Society 1993,

External links

Long Point Provincial Park

Long Point Provincial Park Campgrounds

{{authority control Beaches of Ontario Communities in Norfolk County, Ontario Landforms of Norfolk County, Ontario Lake Erie Peninsulas of Ontario Ramsar sites in Ontario Spits of Canada Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in Canada Forests of Ontario