Big Rock Point
BIG ROCK POINT
Big Rock Point is named for a large
boulder used as a landmark by Native
Americans. At least as early as the
mid-nineteenth century. Odawa
(Ottawa) Indians used Big Rock,
which they called Kitcheossening, as
a gathering place each spring. The
Odawa summered at Waganaksing (the
area between Harbor Springs and
Cross Village), but dispersed into
smaller groups and traveled during
the winter. Each spring they
returned to Big Rock, their canoes
loaded with sugar, furs, deer skins,
prepared venison, bear's oil, and
bear meat prepared in oil, deer
tallow, and sometimes a lot of
honey. From there they returned to
Waganaksing by crossing the bay in
wiigwaas jiimaan (birch bark
canoes). In 1999 elders and youth
from the Little Traverse Bay Band of
Odawa Indians recreated the corssing.