Long Point
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- This article is about the Long Point located on the north shore of Lake Erie. For other places named Long Point, see Long Point (disambiguation).
Long Point is a sand spit located on the north shore of Lake Erie, located in Norfolk County in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 40-km long and averages 3 km in width. On the South side of Long Point is Lake Erie, on the North side is Long Point Bay. Some of the towns that border the bay include Port Rowan, Turkey Point and Port Dover. Long Point is directly across from Erie, Pennsylvania.
It has an all year population of somewhere between 400 and 500 people, but in the summer it can have a population of as many as 5,000 because of all the cottagers and campers. Long Point is a popular boating, fishing, duck-hunting and canoeing area, and sees over a hundred thousand visitors each year. A large portionof Long Point is owned by The Long Point Company, a private organization which does not allow the general public onto its private land. However, the first few kilometres are open to everyone.
A famous story about Long Point concerns Abigail Becker, a woman in the 19th century who waded into stormy waters to save the crew of a boat that had run aground. Long Point is a hotbed for shipwrecks, with many of the more fascinating wrecks being right off the tip. In an area designated "The Lake Erie Quadrangle", there have been over 400 shipwrecks.
The region is an important location for bird migration in both spring and autumn, including half of the eastern North American Tundra Swan population. There is a large bird observatory, and the Bird Studies Canada headquarters can be found in nearby Port Rowan. Long Point is an outstanding example of sand dune and sand-spit formation in the Great Lakes region. In 1982, Long Point National Wildlife Area was recognized as a wetland of international significance under the Ramsar Convention.
It was designated as a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1986. Long Point Provincial Park is a park located on long Point, and there has been talk about a National Park opening, but nothing has come of it.
