Meet The Great Lakes!

March 18, 2016

Whether you’ve lived here your entire life, relocated here, fly up to ski or drive up just for the summers, how much do you really know about the lakes that surround us? The largest group of freshwater lakes in the world – each in their own separate basin – forms a connected body of fresh water that continues to the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean. While the lakes are similar in some ways, they also each have their own unique characteristics and highlights.

LAKE SUPERIOR – 31,700 square miles

Considered the biggest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, Lake Superior, translated from the French lac supérieur or "upper lake," is fed by more than 200 rivers and counts Duluth, Minn., Thunder Bay, Ontario and Marquette, Mich., among its biggest port cities.

The Anishinaabe Native Americans, including the Ojibwe and Chippewa, have inhabited this region for more than 500 years and the lake is now managed through a bi-national agreement between Canada and the U.S.

While all the lakes have scenic viewing points and parks along their shorelines, this northernmost lake has some of the most majestic and wild, among them Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park and the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. The lake also makes appearances in Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song "The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald" (about the last major shipwreck on Lake Superior), as well as in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem "The Song of Hiawatha." Because of the common severe weather and ice on the lake, it’s closed to shipping from mid-January to late March every year.

Points of Interest: The Great Lakes Aquarium and the Lake Superior Zoo, both in Duluth; the amethyst mines of the Thunder Bay area; The Marquette Arts and Culture Center and the Upper Peninsula Shakespeare Festival, both in Marquette.

LAKE HURON – 23,000 square miles

Named after the indigenous people (the Wyandot people, also called the Wendat or Hurons) by French explorers, our secondbiggest lake has the most shoreline of all five lakes, if you include its many islands.

One of Lake Huron’s largest features is Georgian Bay, named after King George IV; another of note is the 448-square-mile Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve, which is the resting place for 116 historically-significant shipwrecks and can be visited via glass bottom boat from Alpena, Mich. Farther north is Mackinac Island, the premier summer destination of northern Michigan and also the location for the 1980 film Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour; the film still has a cult following and is the subject of a celebration at the island’s Grand Hotel every year.

Other notable geographies on Lake Huron include St. Ignace, which serves as the northern terminus of the Mackinac Bridge; Owen Sound, Ontario; Alpena, Mich.; Port Huron, Mich.; and Michigan’s "thumb" region. And, of course, Huron connects to our next lake, Michigan, via the Straits of Mackinac.

Points of Interest: Mackinaw City; fishing and canoeing on the popular Rifle River; the Sunrise Side Wine Trail; the Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend, Ontario.

LAKE MICHIGAN – 22,300 square miles

Lake Michigan, only slightly smaller than its cross-state sister Lake Huron, is the only one of the Great Lakes located entirely within the United States. It gets its name from the Ojibwa word mishigami, meaning great water or large lake.

In addition to being the home lake of northwest Michigan (and Northern Express),

Lake Michigan is perhaps the best-known of all the Great Lakes, in part due to its proximity to such large cities as Chicago, Ill., Milwaukee, Wis. and Grand Haven, Mich. Green Bay and Grand Traverse Bay are its two largest bays.

Twelve million people live along Lake Michigan’s shores, with tourism supporting many local economies, especially in Michigan and Wisconsin. Chicago’s waterfront is connected along the lake by the Chicago Lakefront Trail, which runs for 24 miles; two passenger/vehicle ferries carry people between Michigan and Wisconsin farther up the lake, with other ferries making treks to nearby Mackinac Island, as well as a plethora of smaller islands.

Two major national lakeshores are located on the lake: Sleeping Bear Dunes and Indiana Dunes. Water sports proliferate, from boating and sailing to sport fishing and waterskiing.

Points of Interest: Chicago’s Grant Park; Traverse City’s Cherry Festival and Film Festival; the Coast Guard Festival in Grand Haven; and Milwaukee’s Summerfest, said to be the largest music festival in the world.

LAKE ERIE – 9,910 square miles

Lake Erie is Ohio’s claim to Great Lakes fame, with the Ohioian cities of Cleveland and Toledo both resting along its shore. Near Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio, you might see strange iron frameworks stretching into the air; that would be famed regional favorite Cedar Point, the amusement park with one of the largest collections of roller coasters in the world.

Lake Erie also serves as one of the world’s largest freshwater commercial fisheries, as its fish populations are the most abundant of all the Great Lakes due to milder temperatures and plenty of plankton.

A couple of quaint legends are attached to Lake Erie, the first being the Lake Erie Monster, said to be 30 feet long; the second is the "mirage effect," with people in Cleveland claiming they can suddenly see Canada, even though the Canadian shoreline is 50 miles away.

Named for the Native American Iroquoian Erie tribe, Lake Erie is the southernmost and shallowest Great Lake. Its waters connect to Michigan by its primary inlet, the Detroit River. It then drains into Lake Ontario, our next and last lake, via Niagara Falls, passing by northwest Pennsylvania and Buffalo, N.Y., along the way.

Points of Interest: Put-In-Bay, a popular summer village/tourist attraction; The Crystal Cave, said to be the "world’s largest geode"; the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society; shipwreck diving.

LAKE ONTARIO – 7,340 square miles

This lake’s name is the Wyandot word for "lake of shining waters" and it’s the lowest of the Great Lakes, with Niagara Falls one of its most significant natural features. Lake Ontario is also the easternmost lake and is the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River.

A conglomeration of cities and suburbs resides on the lake’s western side, with big city Toronto to the north, Niagara Falls to the south and Rochester, N.Y., farther east along the southern shore. Nearly 9 million people – a quarter of Canada’s population – live within the Lake Ontario region. Another 2 million live on the American side, which is more rural.

In more quirky news, nearly 50 people have successfully swum across the lake; the first person to do so was 16-year-old Marilyn Bell in 1954 and she now has a Toronto park named in her honor. Baseball legend Babe Ruth reportedly hit his first major league home run at the old wooden Hanlan’s Point Stadium in Toronto; the ball landed in Lake Ontario and is said to still be there to this day.

Points of Interest: The CN Tower in Toronto; The Great Lakes Seaway Trail; Fort Niagara near Youngstown, N.Y.; nature tourism attraction Wolfe Island; and the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario.