Lake Manitou is the world’s largest lake on a freshwater island.
It lies on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada, the world’s largest freshwater island. Lake Manitou covers about 104 square kilometres and is the largest of Manitoulin’s 108 inland lakes. The lake drains through the Manitou River and reaches depths of roughly 49 metres, or 162 feet.
The geography creates a remarkable nesting of water bodies: Lake Huron surrounds Manitoulin Island, Lake Manitou sits on Manitoulin, and small islands—including Roper Island, Bear Island, and McCracken’s Island—sit within Lake Manitou. That makes some of them islands in a lake on an island in a lake. Lake Manitou is also the deepest lake on Manitoulin Island and supports fish such as lake trout, ling, bass, whitefish, pickerel, and pike. It is sometimes confused with Lake Mindemoya, another prominent Manitoulin lake known for Treasure Island, but Mindemoya is not the world-record holder for this category.