White Rock has long been a prominent landmark and a place of deep significance in history and oral tradition. In his Travels of 1820, Henry Schoolcraft called it an enormous detached mass of transition limestone standing in the lake half a mile from shore, known to voyageurs and to canoe and boat travelers as a kind of milestone. According to Anishinabeg oral tradition, White Rock was once much larger and sacred to local Indians, who placed freshly killed game and other choice food on it so the Great Spirit, Gitchi Manitou, would know they were thankful for gifts received from the natural environment. It remains a very special place to descendants of the first Indians who observed its unique qualities, and offerings continue to be made there. A local tale from around 1860 tells of white people who ignored warnings that the rock was sacred and held a square dance on it from canoes; as they danced, a bolt of lightning struck White Rock and killed all the dancers, sparing only one nearby man who had stayed in the water. The rock now rises only about four feet above the waterline and is about twelve feet square, and local historians attribute its much diminished size chiefly to repeated lightning strikes, U.S. Air Force target practice around the time of World War II, and ongoing erosion.