Nottawasaga Bay is a sub- bay within

Georgian Bay Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To ...

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

located at the southernmost end of the main bay. The communities located on Nottawasaga Bay are Meaford, The Blue Mountains, Collingwood,

Wasaga Beach Wasaga Beach (or simply Wasaga) is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. Situated along the longest freshwater beach in the world, it is a popular summer tourist destination. It is located along the southern end of Georgian Bay, approximate ...

and Tiny. The western shore of Nottawasaga Bay is determined by the Niagara Escarpment, which reaches Nottawasaga Bay between Collingwood and Thornbury. The southern shore is flat limestone plain, with cedar marshes. The

Nottawasaga River The Nottawasaga River is a river in Simcoe County and Dufferin County in Central Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Great Lakes Basin, and is a tributary of Lake Huron. The river flows from the Orangeville Reservoir in the town of Orangeville, ...

flows into Georgian Bay near the southern end of the bay, and onward to the east the shore is predominantly sand dunes and marshes created by the strong predominant northwest winds. This part of Nottawasaga Bay is heavily built up with summer homes. Nearer to Thornbury and the Beaver River Valley there are some vineyards; many apple orchards also dot the area. The river takes its name from the

Ojibwe 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 ...

word "Nottawasaga". ''Nottawa'' (or ''Naadowe'' in modern orthography) means "Iroquois" and ''saga'' (''zaagi'' in modern orthography) means "mouth of the river"; the word "Nottawasaga" (''Naddowe-zaagi'' in modern orthography) was used by Algonquin scouts as a warning if they saw

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

raiding parties approaching their villages. Thus, the name of the river, in Ojibwe, is ''Naadawe-zaagiing'', "At the Iroquois River-mouth.Translate Ojibwe, Ojibwe-English Dictionary
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Tributaries

''(from west to east)'' *

Bighead River The Bighead River is a river in Grey County in southern Ontario, Canada, that flows from the Niagara Escarpment between the communities along Ontario Highway 10 of Arnott and Holland Centre in the township of Chatsworth to empty into Nottawas ...

* Beaver River *

History

In the early and mid-17th century, Nottawasaga Bay was adjacent to two indigenous

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

territories: Huronia to the east, which was the territory of the

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...

or Wendat people, and the "Petun Country" to the south, which was the land of the

Petun The Petun (from french: pétun), also known as the Tobacco people or Tionontati ("People Among the Hills/Mountains"), were an indigenous Iroquoian people of the woodlands of eastern North America. Their last known traditional homeland was sou ...

, who were their close allies and relatives. In March 1649, during the Beaver Wars, Huron refugees fled across the bay, which was frozen over with ice, to take refuge among the Petun.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Other map sources: * * * {{Great Lakes Bays of Ontario Bays of Lake Huron Georgian Bay