Despite its proximity, Manitoulin Island is not well known in the United States, even in Michigan, its closest neighbor. Perhaps one reason for this is a quirk in the design of the highway maps for the State of Michigan. Drummond Island and Cockburn Island are usually shown, but Manitoulin is usually unnamed and unseen. To further obscure things, Michigan has its own Manitou Islands, two located west from Leland in Lake Michigan and one in Superior. The vast majority of my fellow residents of the Great Lakes region probably still remain unaware.
All islands seem to evoke feelings of mystery and timelessness.
Their physical separation from the mainland often produces a cultural separation as well. Islands are always a little rustic and behind the times, it seems, from the mainlander's point of view. When travel to them is difficult, the feeling of separation increases. Hard to Reach Manitoulin approaches the mainland of Ontario only at the island's extreme northeast corner, and, even then, it actually only makes contact with two other islands, reachable only at the end of a mountainous peninsula. To reach Manitoulin from Mackinaw City in Michigan's lower peninusla, you must cross the Straits of Mackinac, travel 50 miles across Michigan's upper peninsula, cross the international border at Sault Ste.