Little Manitou Lake

Little Manitou has no outflow, so minerals washed in from the surrounding glacial deposits have concentrated over thousands of years: the water carries a heavy load of magnesium, sodium and potassium salts at roughly five times ocean salinity, about half as salty as the Dead Sea, which makes the density high enough that a person floats on the surface without treading water. Comparisons to the Dead Sea are standard. Indigenous people were bringing the sick to the lake by the nineteenth century, the earliest story being of Assiniboine people said to have been cured of smallpox, and a resort and spa grew at Manitou Beach from the early twentieth century, with a mineral pool drawing the lake water indoors and a dance hall from 1928 still operating.

History

The lake is named after the spirit Manitou, and Indigenous people have brought the sick to it since the 19th century; the earliest known story is of Assiniboine people with smallpox said to have been cured after drinking and bathing in its water. From the turn of the 20th century and through the depression of the 1930s Manitou Beach was a resort for its mineral waters, and since the late 1980s the claimed health benefits and the buoyancy of the water have made it popular again (Wikipedia, Little Manitou Lake).

The landscape

• The effortless float - water dense enough to hold a swimmer on the surface.
• The indoor mineral pool - lake water heated in a spa on the shore.
• Danceland - a 1928 dance hall with a horsehair-cushioned floor.
• The salt shoreline - mineral crust and low vegetation around the lake.

When to go

June to September for swimming; the spa is open year-round. The lake level fluctuates significantly with wet and dry cycles, which changes the shoreline considerably.

Good to know

The water stings eyes and cuts badly and there are no showers on some beaches. Levels vary by year and a low year makes access awkward. The village is very small.

Nearby

Saskatoon lies northwest; Regina is south.

Key facts