INTRODUCTION Nick Eyles Georgian Bay (15,000 km2) is the sixth Great Lake, often forgotten as such and the only one not named after indigenous peoples. It is a place that straddles major geologic, climatic, ecological and cultural boundaries; what has been called the 'land in between' along the southernmost margin of the seemingly sterile Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield with the much softer sedimentary rocks and farmlands to the south. As such Georgian Bay is a unique aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem. Georgian Bay's west coast is dominated by the cliffed limestones of the Niagara Escarpment defining the backbone of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island with prominent glacially-carved gaps allowing its waters to interchange with Lake Huron. The limestone plains of the Bay's west coast contrast with the 'Thirty Thousand Islands district' (there are closer to 100,000 islands at the last count) on its opposing eastern shore that form the most extensive freshwater archipelago anywhere in the world. Georgian Bay straddles the boundary between the boreal Shield to the north and the St. Lawrence Lowlands. It is what ecologists call an 'ecotone' sharing many elements of north and south, and is consequently more diverse than either.

The myriad islands and protected shallow inlets along the eastern shoreline of Georgian Bay, where the waters of Georgian Bay have flooded the bumpy, glacially-scoured surface of the Canadian Shield, contrasts greatly with the opposing coastline along the Bruce Peninsula dominated by the imposing Niagara Escarpment that drops precipitously into deeper open water. This book To date, there has been no systematic effort to describe the ecology, geology and landscapes of Georgian Bay and its aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, its organisms and the history of human occupancy. Elizabeth Campbell lamented in ' The West Wind ' (published in 2005) on Georgian Bay that ' it seems odd that no one has asked why and how an iconic landscape was created. ' The 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Georgian Bay Land Trust in 2016 has been the impetus for this book which brings together geologists, ecologists, historians, archeologists and artists to tell the unique story of Georgian Bay. Starting 2 billion years ago and ending with the ice ages this book traces the origins of its rocks, landscapes, waters and ecosystems. Humans arrived from Asia 11,500 years ago just as the last ice sheet was receding northwards exposing more and more of the Bay. These skillful hunters formed a stable sustainable culture on the southern margins of the Canadian Shield that lasted some 9,000 years until their agricultural descendants built settled communities trading corn with northern hunter gatherers; the foundation of the fur trade after 1600. We emphasize in the pages that follow the profound impacts of accelerated European settlement after 1840, the challenges facing the early settlers, the impact of the railways and loggers and the great changes currently underway as the area moves away from being viewed as a resource to be exploited to a unique geological, ecological and cultural icon to be conserved.

The book ends appropriately enough with a review of conservation measures taken over the last 100 years and outlines what needs to be done to keep this land an icon while balancing public accessibility with protection. This then is the story of Georgian Bay.