Designated in 1986 as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, it is one of only three in Ontario and one of six in all of Canada. With most of it now under the ownership of the Canadian Wildlife Foundation, the reserve consists of the core protected zone, and a wider buffer zone that extends into the lake as well as along the shoreline.
As Lake Erie’s shoreline continues west from Long Point, the bluffs resume once more. But among them lies one striking anomaly, the Houghton Sand Hills. Unlike the uniformity of the cliffs to this point, silt and sand, the sand hills are nothing but sand. It has earned its local nickname, Ontario’s “biggest sand pile.” For a stretch of about two kilometres, these mounds of pure sand loom nearly one hundred metres above the lake. As with much of the Erie shore, the sand pile traces its origins to the massive stream of meltwater which poured from the glaciers into the higher waters of Lake Whittlesey.
The Turkey Point marshes contain a vital ecosystem and form part of the Long Point UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.
Again, the bluffs lower until they reach yet another of the Erie spits, Point aux Pins. This 1,800-hectare peninsula of early Carolinian forests curves eight kilometres into the lake enclosing a large, shallow bay known as Rondeau Bay.
The stretch of shoreline between these two points is also notable for the lack of rivers or major creeks that flow into the lake. A series of beach ridges and remnants of Lake Whittlesey force most drainage northward into the Thames River watershed, which parallels the Erie shoreline in this area.
The next Erie spit is probably the lake’s most famous, better known than even Long Point. That is Point Pelee. It is known especially for being the most southerly point of mainland Canada, with a latitude more southerly than northern California. It is known too, even among non-naturalists, as being one of the most spectacular gathering places for the monarch butterfly as they annually migrate to the mountains of central Mexico.
At ten kilometres long, it extends almost straight into the lake, formed by currents that attack it from both east and west. Beaches line both sides, culminating in a pencil point of sand that stabs into the lake before narrowing and slipping beneath the waves. The length of this spit can vary from year to year. It can stretch two kilometres from the edge of the forest, or it can disappear entirely as it did in 2007, following a particularly stormy spring.
The Houghton Sand Hills were once a massive sand delta when Lake Erie’s water levels were much higher.
Its natural makeup is outstanding. It contains dense Carolinian forests of silver maple, black walnut, red cedar tulip, and honey locust trees, many of them wrapped in vines of Virginia creeper and poison ivy. Open savannahs display rare grasses and cactuses. An enclosed marsh is covered with water lilies, bulrushes, and the hop tree, a member of the citrus family, which can be found even as far south as Mexico. While the once numerous bear and deer population is much reduced (the bears are gone), the animal population contains several species of frogs and turtles, snakes and bats, and the reintroduced southern flying squirrel, which weigh in at little more than seventy-five grams.
Although Point Pelee counts as the most southerly point of mainland Canada, Canada’s actual southernmost shores lie farther out in the lake. Pelee Island is visible from Point Pelee only as a pencil-thin line on the watery horizon. Once part of a land bridge connecting the north and south shores of the lake, Pelee Island remains a low-lying limestone shelf, much of it at, or even below, the level of the lake itself. Inundation is prevented only by a circle of dunes and beach ridges. Even farther south, and now a nature reserve, is tiny Middle Island, Canada’s most southerly territory. And although only a few hundred hectares in area, it would play a prominent and dark role in the history of Lake Erie.
The shifting sands of Point Pelee reflect the currents of Lake Erie.
Because of Lake Erie’s vicious easterly winds, Pelee Island’s lakeside homes use stilts to protect them from the storm surges.
From Leamington west to almost the mouth of the Detroit River, the cliffs return, although much reduced in height. West of Colchester they dwindle once more, and disappear near the river.
While the waters of Lake Erie have shaped its shores over a long period, those waters can create short-term havoc, as well. It’s little wonder that the first written account of the lake likened it to a storm-tossed ocean. Because of its shallowness, strong persistent winds can churn the waters into giant waves in short order. Again, the shallowness also means that the crests of the waves tend to be closer together, making them even more deadly. It is not surprising that these waters hold the bones of so many doomed vessels.
But even the shores are not safe during the lake’s fury. Winds that whirl the length of the lake push the water into high surges, which can raise the water level quickly. At times the surges can resemble a tidal wave. On one occasion a four-and-a-half-metre wall of water raced through Buffalo, levelling the homes in an entire neighbourhood and hurtling a schooner several blocks inland. But that is not the end of it. When the winds switch to the opposite direction, as they so often do, the wall of water races back down to the opposite end of the lake, where the water was lowered, and can wreak even more havoc.
But, potentially even more unsettling, beneath the storm-tossed water may lurk the form of Lake Erie’s very own “monster” — South Bay Bessie. Said to measure anywhere from five to twenty metres, “Bessie” has been the subject sightings dating as far back as 1793. In the 1870s “Bessie” was again sighted near Buffalo, prompting a posse to gather at the shoreline and begin shooting at anything that moved in the water.3
Sightings of “Bessie” (so named in the 1980s) has been reported off and on throughout the twentieth century, enough that the city of Huron Ohio declared itself to be the “live capture control centre” for the monster, while a group of local businessmen offered $150,000 for its capture.
Most sightings have likened Bessie to a large sea serpent, with a snakelike head and, in some accounts, “blazing eyes.” In 1993 a fisherman near Port Bruce reported being chased ashore by the thing, while the Weekly World News in the same year published a “photo” of the monster wrapped around a sailboat under a headline that read “Monster Sinks Sailboat.”
The latest additions to the myth occurred at Port Dover in 2001 when several swimmers reported being bitten by some large, unknown creature. A local doctor who examined the large bites offered the opinion that the attack came, not from a mystery monster, but rather from a bowfin, a large fish that was attempting to protect its own territory.
If Bessie lives anywhere, it is unlikely to be in Lake Erie’s “dead zone.” This was a region of the lake identified by scientists in the 1970s. The dead zone generally is confined to the central section of the lake where the waters are neither at their deepest nor at their shallowest. Here, while the lowest layers remain cold, the upper layers warm to a degree that they absorb most of the oxygen. As plankton dies, it sinks to the bottom and uses up the little oxygen that remains. Contributing significantly to the dead zone were the excessive amounts of phosphorous being dumped by farms and industries. Stiff new regulations imposed during the 1970s eliminated much of the problem, at least for a time. Then, in the 1990s, the province of Ontario not only ended its pollution-control programs, but simply stopped measuring the phosphorous levels in the lake entirely; cutbacks similar to those that contributed to the E. coli tragedy in Walkerton Ontario.