Isles Phelipeaux and Pontchartrain

Phélipeaux (also: Phelipeaux, Philippaux ) and Pontchartrain were two phantom islands in Lake Superior, which first appeared in 1744 on a map of the Paris cartographer Jacques -Nicolas Bellin.

They were later adopted by other cartographers, including 1755 by John Mitchell. This so-called card - Mitchell in 1783 at the peace negotiations in Paris the basis for future boundary between the United States and British Canada. Thus Phélipeaux the U.S. was slammed shut, Pontchartrain to the British Crown.

The two islands, which were shown only slightly smaller than the actually existing Isle Royale could not be found by later expeditions and disappeared in 1824 from the maps. Today is suspected that Bellin invented the islands in honor of his patron Louis Phelypeaux, Count of Maurepas and Pontchartrain.