BOSHKUNG LAKE HISTORY

Location: Stanhope Township

Officially Named by Geographic Board of Canada. (15th Report, gazette 1962, CBGN June 6, 1952)

Aboriginal names ending in “ung” mean “at the place of”. Many lake names depict a certain place where something happened.

"Boshkung, translated from the Indian meaning 'Three Waters' or 'Meeting of the Waters"' (Source: Reynolds, N. (1973) In Quest of Yesterday: Haliburton County. Minden, Ontario: The Provincial County of Haliburton, 300).

According to researcher Elinor Whitten’s personal communication with Liz Cowen, Boshkung is "Mississauga Indian meaning ‘Meeting of the Three Waters'. Mississauga Indians had land cleared between Big and Little Boshkung and grew native veggies" (Sourc e: Cowen, L  personal communications, 1998.  Liz Cowen responded by letter to Whidden’s ad in the localpaper looking for origins of lake names in Haliburton.)

According to Craig Macdonald, an expert on Aboriginal languages who knows much of the history of First Nations people in the Haliburton and Muskoka regions "The name means ‘The place of the Grassy Narrows'. The word 'Oba' means narrows, and apparently Aboriginal people farmed squash, pumpkin, com and other things at the narrows between Big and Little Boshkung" (Source: Macdonald, C. (personal communications with researcher Elinor Whitten, 1998). Craig Macdonald is connected to Friends of Algonquin Park.)

Also Known As:
• Big Boshkung Lake (MNR archives)
• Big Bushkonk Lake (MNR archives)
• Buskung Lake (MNR archives)
• Bushkonk Lake (MNR archives)
• Boskung Lake (MNR archives)
• Big Boshkong (MNR archives)
• Bushkung Lake (MNR archives)
• Big Bushkung (MNR archives)
• Big Bushkonk (MNR archives)
• Boshkong Lake (MNR archives)

The above information came from: Discovering the (Hi)story of Haliburton Through Its Lakes' Names by Elinor Whidden, a student report prepared for Trent University- Bioregionalism Course, 1998. From the U-Links Centre for Community-Based Research Collection.

Lake Associations:
• Boshkung Lake Property Owners' Association (www.blpoa.ca)
• Twelve Mile Little Boshkung Lakes Association (https://www.tmlb.ca/)