Little Manitou Lake

Endorheic Mineral Lake Roughly Three Times The Salinity Of The Ocean, Long Known As Healing Waters, With The 1928 Danceland Hall And Its Horsehair Sprung Dance Floor On The Shore · Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan

Little Manitou is a lake with no outlet, sitting in an old glacial meltwater channel and fed by mineral springs, and what has collected in it over thousands of years is water roughly three times as salty as the sea. You cannot sink in it. People wade out, lean back and find themselves held on the surface reading a newspaper, which is the entire reason the place exists as a destination and has done since long before the resorts arrived - Cree and Assiniboine people knew these as healing waters, and the name Manitou means spirit. A village grew on the shore in the 1920s to take the cure. The best survival from that era is Danceland, a dance hall opened in 1928 whose maple floor was laid over bundles of horsehair to give it spring, and which is still standing, still sprung, and still holding dances.

Manitou Beach, near Watrous, Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan, Canada

THE LAKE AND PUBLIC BEACH ARE FREE and open through daylight hours in the summer season, with no lifeguard. THE MANITOU SPRINGS MINERAL SPA operates YEAR ROUND with heated lake water and keeps its own daily hours and day-pass pricing. DANCELAND, the 1928 hall with the horsehair-sprung floor, DOES NOT HOLD DANCES EVERY NIGHT - its programme is seasonal and scheduled, so check before travelling if the dance is the reason you are coming. The village facilities are largely seasonal, roughly June to early September. About 1.5 hours from Saskatoon; no public transport.

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