Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Question: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore gets its name from an Ojibwe legend about a mother bear who swam across Lake Michigan and climbed a bluff to wait for her two cubs. According to the legend, what did the two cubs become?

Answer: The North and South Manitou Islands. As the mother bear kept watch from the bluff, the Great Spirit raised her two lost cubs from Lake Michigan as the two islands, which sit offshore to this day.