(D. G. H.)
MANISTEE, a city and the county-seat of Manistee county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Manistee river (which here broadens into a small lake) near its entrance into Lake Michigan, about 114 m. W.N.W. of Grand Rapids. Pop. (1890), 12,812; (1900), 14,260 (4966 foreign-born); (1904, state census), 12,708; (1910), 12,381. It is served by the Père Marquette, the Manistee & Grand Rapids, the Manistee & North-Eastern, and the Manistee & Luther railways, and by steamboat lines to Chicago, Milwaukee and other lake ports. The channel between Lake Manistee and Lake Michigan has been considerably improved since 1867 by the Federal government. There is a United States life-saving station at the harbour entrance. The city has a county normal school, a school for the deaf and dumb, a domestic science and manual training school, a business college, and a Carnegie library. Manistee is a summer resort, with good trout streams and well-known brine-baths. One mile from the city limits, on Lake Michigan, is Orchard Beach, a bathing resort, connected with the city by electric railway; and about 9 m. north of Manistee is Portage Lake (about 2 m. long and 1 m. wide), a fishing resort and harbour of refuge (with a good channel from Lake Michigan), connected with the city by steamboat and railway. Manistee has large lumber interests, is the centre of an extensive fruit-growing region, and has various manufactures, including lumber and salt.[1] The total value of the factory product in 1904 was $3,256,601. The municipality owns and operates its waterworks. Manistee (the name being taken from a former Ottawa Indian village, probably on Little Traverse Bay, Mich.) was settled about 1849, and was chartered as a city in 1869, the charter of that year being revised in 1890.
[1] There is a very large salt block at Eastlake, 1 m. east of Manistee, and Filer City, a few miles south-east, is another source of supply.
MANITOBA, a lake of Manitoba province, Canada, situated between 50° 11′ and 51° 48′ N. and 97° 56′ and 99° 35′ W. It has an area of 1711 sq. m., a length of shore line of 535 m., and is at an altitude of 810 ft. above the sea. It has a total length of 119 m., a maximum width of 29 m., discharge of 14,833 cub. ft. per second, and has an average depth of 12 ft. Its shores are low, and for the most part swampy. The Waterhen river, which carries the discharge of Lake Winnipegosis, is the only considerable stream entering the lake. It is drained by the Little Saskatchewan river into Lake Winnipeg. It was discovered by De la Verendrye in 1739.
MANITOBA, one of the western provinces of the Dominion of Canada, situated midway between the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts of the Dominion, about 1090 m. due west of Quebec. It is bounded S. by the parallel 49° N., which divides it from the United States; W. by 101° 20′ W.; N. by 52° 50′ N.; and E. by the western boundary of Ontario. Manitoba formerly belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and after the transfer of its territory to Canada was admitted in 1870 as the fifth province of the Dominion. At that time the infant province had an area of 13,500 sq. m., and some 12,000 people, chiefly Indian half-breeds. In 1881 the limits were increased as above, and the province now contains upwards of 73,956 sq. m., extending 264 m. from north to south and upwards of 300 from east to west. The old district of Assiniboia, the result of the efforts in colonization by the earl of Selkirk in 1811 and succeeding years, was the nucleus of the province.
The name Manitoba sprang from the union of two Indian words, Manito (the Great Spirit), and Waba (the “narrows” of the lake, which may readily be seen on the map). This well-known strait was a sacred place to the Crees and Saulteaux, who, impressed by the weird sound made by the wind as it rushed through the narrows, as simple children of the prairies called them Manito-Waba, or the “Great Spirit’s narrows.” The name, arising from this unusual sound, has been by metonymy translated into “God’s Voice.” The word was afterwards contracted into its present form. As there is no accent in Indian words, the natural pronunciation of this name would be Mān-ī-tō-bā. On this account, the custom of both the French and English people of the country was for years before and for several years after 1870 to pronounce it Mān-ĭ-tŏ-bā, and even in some cases to spell it “Manitobah.” After the formation of the province and the familiar use of the provincial name in the Dominion parliament, where it has occupied much attention for a generation, the pronunciation has changed, so that the province is universally known from ocean to ocean as Mān-ĭ-tō-bă.