The Sleeping Giant is a series of

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

s formed by the erosion of thick,

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic sills on

Sibley Peninsula The Sibley Peninsula is a long and wide peninsula in Ontario, Canada, on Lake Superior. It projects into the lake from Superior's north shore, and separates Thunder Bay to the west from Black Bay to the east.''Sleeping Giant Background Informat ...

which resembles a giant lying on its back when viewed from the west to north-northwest section of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

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. As one moves southward along the shoreline toward Sawyer's Bay the Sleeping Giant starts to separate into its various sections. Most distinctly in the view from the cliffs at Sawyer's Bay the Giant appears to have an

Adam's Apple The Adam's apple or laryngeal prominence is the protrusion in the human neck formed by the angle of the thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx, typically visible in men, less frequently in women. Structure The topographic structure which is e ...

. The formation is part of

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, established in 1944 as Sibley Provincial Park and renamed in 1988, is a park located on the Sibley Peninsula in Northwestern Ontario, east of Thunder Bay. The nearest communities are Pass Lake, in the township o ...

. Its dramatic steep cliffs are among the highest in Ontario (250 m). The southernmost point is known as Thunder Cape, depicted by many early Canadian artists such as William Armstrong. One

Ojibway The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

legend identifies the giant as Nanabijou, who was turned to stone when the secret location of a rich silver mine now known as

Silver Islet Silver Islet refers to both a small rocky island and a small community located at the tip of the Sibley Peninsula in northwestern Ontario, Canada. A rich vein of pure silver was discovered on this small island in 1868 by the Montreal Mining ...

was disclosed to white men. Sleeping Giant is the namesake and general setting of the 2015 Canadian film ''Sleeping Giant''.

Seven Wonders of Canada

It was voted number one for a list of

Seven Wonders of Canada The Seven Wonders of Canada was a 2007 competition sponsored by CBC Television's '' The National'' and CBC Radio One's ''Sounds Like Canada''. They sought to determine Canada's "seven wonders" by receiving nominations from viewers, and then from on- ...

, with a total of 177,305 votes, beating the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...

and

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

by almost 90,000 votes.CBC's Seven Wonders of Canada Results Page, accessed 6 June 07
/ref> Ultimately it was not selected by the panel of judges,

Ra McGuire Ramon Wayne "Ra" McGuire (born June 13, 1950) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and founding and longtime member of the rock band Trooper. Ra (pronounced "Ray") has performed with Trooper and Brian Smith from 1975, when their first album was ...

Roberta Jamieson Roberta L. Jamieson, OC is a Canadian lawyer and First Nations activist. She was the first Indigenous woman ever to earn a law degree in Canada, the first non-Parliamentarian to be appointed an ''ex officio'' member of a House of Commons committe ...

and Roy MacGregor, who decided their vote by geographic and poetic criteria .

References

* Ontario Parks
Sleeping Giant Background Information
' (2003) Queen's Printer for Ontario. . Retrieved on 26 September 2007. {{reflist

External links

Information on the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park

Sleeping Giant Background Information

Information from the City of Thunder Bay on the Park
Landforms of Thunder Bay District Anishinaabe mythology Sills (geology) Rock formations of Canada Igneous petrology of Ontario

Seven Wonders of Canada

See also

References

External links