Thousand Islands

Group of islands (1,149, according to the official count) in the upper St Lawrence River, on the border between Canada and the USA. 665 of them are in Ontario, Canada and the other 484 are in New York state. Some are in Canada's St Lawrence Islands National Park (1904); many of the others are privately owned. The largest is Wolfe Island in Ontario, 127 sq km/49 sq mi. Tourism and resort trade have been important to the islands' economy since the early 19th century.

The islands are a glaciated extension of the Canadian Shield heading south towards the Adirondack Mountains, and were populated by the Iroquois before the 17th-century arrival of French and English explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and soldiers.