Although Michigan is often called the “Wolverine State,” its more common nickname is the “Great Lakes State.” This name comes from the fact that Michigan is the only state in the United States that borders four of the five Great Lakes.
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Michigan—whose name is rooted in the Ojibwa word for “large lake,” Michi Gami—was carved by glaciers thousands of years ago. This process created the iconic lakes that have formed the state both physically and culturally ever since.
The water in the Great Lakes is owned by the general public according to the Public Trust Doctrine. The Public Trust Doctrine is an international legal theory – it applies in both Canada and the United States, so it applies to the entirety of the Great Lakes.
Lake Superior is the Cleanest and Clearest Great LakeBecause of its somewhat isolated location and long cold winters, not much farming is done along Superior's shores. This means lower amounts of nutrients, sediments, and organic material are floating around the lake.
About 80 percent of the U.S. Great Lakes shoreline is privately owned and not accessible to the public. In contrast, just 20 percent of the Canadian Great Lakes shoreline is in private hands. The Great Lakes are considered by many to be the economic engine of the Midwest region.
Lake Superior is the world's largest freshwater lake by area (31,700 mi2 /82,100 km2). It is also the coldest and deepest of the Great Lakes, with a maximum depth of 406 meters (1,332 feet).
Chicago, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, is the largest city in the North American Great Lakes region; the metro area has a population of 9.6 million people.
There are some odd geological finds at the bottom, including a 2007 archeological find that was described as Stonehenge-like, although it was actually more in a V-shape. One of the stones is said to have a mastodon image on it (although it's not fully clear if it was man-made or just a natural formation).
Lake Michigan wrecks: the oldest and the mostestLake Michigan contains more shipwrecks than any of the other Great Lakes, as well as the oldest recorded one: the French ship Griffon, the first European vessel to sail the Lakes.
During the 1960s, Lake Erie was declared a “dead lake” due to eutrophication and pollution. The children's book, The Lorax, written by Dr. Seuss, actually included the following line referring to fish: “They will walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary.
The Chesapeake // Lake Erie. The Chesapeake was carrying about 45 passengers when it collided with another ship and began to slowly sink in August 1846.
The Ojibwe name for the lake is gichi-gami (in syllabics: ????, pronounced gitchi-gami or kitchi-gami in different dialects), meaning great sea. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this name as Gitche Gumee in the poem The Song of Hiawatha, as did Gordon Lightfoot in his song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
1. Lady Elgin. Lady Elgin sank on September 8th, 1860, and the tragic event represents the greatest loss of life on open water on the Great Lakes. 300 people died when the 252-foot sidewheel steamship was rammed in a gale by the scooner Augusta.
Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake in North America (by surface area) and the eleventh-largest worldwide. It is the Great Lakes' southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume. By the 1960s, Lake Erie had become the most polluted of the Great Lakes, owing to the substantial industrial presence along its coasts.
Lake MichiganThe Great Lakes are all water bodies that swimmers should think twice about entering. Lake Michigan in particular is the roughest of the Great Lakes, and poses a major risk to those thinking of taking a dip. This body of water is often named the most dangerous lake in the United States.
Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes by surface area and volume. It is like a mini-freshwater ocean, you can't even see the other side from the Wisconsin shoreline.