I'm sure you've just been chomping at the bit for this next installment in "I Heart The Mitten!" As promised, this entry will be devoted to The Great Lakes and what makes them so....great! My favorite thing....they are shark free! Don't get me wrong, I love the ocean and fully accept that sharks belong in the ocean and that essentially, I am intruding. However, thanks to a certain movie about a certain GINORMOUS man-eater, it is impossible for me to be comfortable in the ocean at anything beyond knee deep. Like "my Lakes," this entry will also be shark free. Better still, you won't even need a sea sick patch!
Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Erie are responsible for Michigan having the longest amount of fresh water shoreline. Michigan takes second, behind Alaska when looking at all shoreline...fresh and salt. There are around 11,000 inland lakes and more than 36,000 miles of streams in Michigan. As a child, I remember learning that if I were to walk three miles in any direction, I would find some sort of natural water source. Of Michigan's eighty-three counties, nearly half of them are lakeside. (Mine was....salute, St. Clair County!) At any point in the state, you are never more than eighty-five miles from one of those lakes. It might be no surprise that Michigan leads the pack in boat registrations. In middle school, we all took a mandatory boat safety class.
With all of that shoreline, there must be lighthouses, right? Right! There are 116 lighthouses and navigational lights. This is the lighthouse in my home town. With all of that water, certain weather conditions create serious pea soup fog that would probably rival that of London, England! Seriously....I remember having delayed starts to school because of the fog.
Big water means big bridges and the largest suspension bridge in the world just happens to be in Michigan. The Mackinac (say "mack-ih-naw") Bridge connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas at the Straits of Mackinac (say "mack-ih-naw".) The Straits are where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. I read that it took three years to build and was opened to traffic in 1957. Here's a great picture of "Mighty Mac."
The bridge in my hometown is named the Blue Water Bridge. It provides passage across the St. Clair River into Sarnia, Ontario. I've crossed that bridge many times. In cars...on a bus (for the yearly Christmas parade and one band trip) and even on foot. It was an annual thing with my Girl Scout troop. We'd walk the bridge and meet up with Canadian Girl Guides and swap pins and patches. Not especially afraid of heights, but walking across a bridge like that will make a person contemplate their own mortality!
The Ambassador Bridge goes from Detroit to Toronto. I can't say I've ever been across this one...there was really no need since we had entry into Canada right in our back yard. While I've never been through the border crossing here, I can tell you that it was no joke going into Sarnia. As I mentioned, our high school band marched in the annual Sarnia Christmas parade. There always seemed to be exchange students in the band and our band director would have to escort them off the bus and into the customs office for their passports to be stamped. To do anything that would delay our entry into Canada by being cracking wise with customs officials was a HUGE no-no. Huge. Funny story about the border crossing, my friend's big brother was involved in a community theater production of "The Wizard of Oz." For whatever reason, his car was chosen for a random search. Explaining the prop mace ( you know, the spiked ball on a chain) in his trunk took some quick thinking on his part!
Okay...big water, big bridges.....BIG ships. Freighters and barges are a regular Great Lakes site. Some of the longest ones in the world sail "my Lakes." There is so much of this kind of traffic, that the world's only floating post office can also be found on the Lakes. The JW Westcott II has been delivering mail to ships on The Great Lakes for 125 years. (How cool is that? That was news to me!)
To the west of the state is Lake Michigan. It is the fifth largest lake in the world. It has 1,640 miles of shoreline, which means LOTS of beaches and is the reason why some refer to it as the "Third Coast." On the eastern shores of Lake Michigan are The Sleeping Bear Dunes. There is a Native American legend about the dunes; I remember hearing it as a kiddo. A mother bear and her two cubs were swimming in the lake. It was a great distance. and it was hard for the cubs. The first cub drowned and then the other. Mother Bear was so heartbroken, that she stopped swimming and let the lake waters take her down. The Great Spirit was touched by Mother Bear's love for her cubs, so he turned all three of them into great hills of sand, so they could always be together. I always loved that story as a kid. I remember visiting the dunes as a kid...it was amazing. Haven't had the chance to go back, but there's still a lot of life to be lived!
Lake Superior is the northern most lake...and the largest of all The Great Lakes. It is the third largest freshwater lake in the world. The Ojibwe people called it "kichi-gami," which means "be a great sea." Mr. Longfellow called it "Gitchee Gumee" in his "Song of Hiawatha." I know it's horrid, but all I can think of when I think of that poem is Lucy! Oh, that crazy red head! I digress, do pardon.
The southern shore of Lake Superior, between Grand Marais, Michigan and Whitefish Point, has been nicknamed "Graveyard of The Great Lakes" by historians. Deadly storms seem to materialize out of nowhere. Sunken ships are the stuff of legends and according to said legends, "Lake Superior seldom gives up her dead." VERY dramatic, isn't it? It's very scientific, actually. The water temperature of Lake Superior ranges from 32°-55°F...year around. It fluctuates with the seasons, but it never reaches the warm temperatures that certain bacteria need. In warmer waters, this certain bacteria (I'm trying not to gross you out) aids in the process of decomposition and release a gas by product, which would cause sunken bodies to resurface. No bacteria...no resurfacing bodies. The last ship to go down on Lake Superior was the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, on November 10, 1975. Gordon Lightfoot wrote and sang a song about it. You can read the lyrics by clicking on this text. Every member of the crew went down and was never recovered. "The Fitz" was no small dinghy. It was 729 feet in length and the storm was so violent that the ship was snapped in half.
Lake Huron....MY lake...well, not really, but I did grow up in one of the many lakeside towns. Port Huron (very original, I know), to be exact. By surface area, it is the second largest of the lakes. The name comes from a Wendat word, which in a loose translation means "freshwater sea." I have many happy memories of Lake Huron. Sitting on the beach, just listening to the waves, was one of the things I missed most when I moved to Tennessee. It was beautiful in the summer...but I thought it quite magical in the winter, too. Too cold to sit on the beach, but every now and then, I'd go and sit in the parking lot and just be amazed at the transformation. There was one winter....the lake froze to such extremes that the ice came onto the shore and pushed up under the sidewalk, like the concrete was nothing more than L*go blocks! There's a picture of it in one of my high school year books. After that, long jetties were installed on the beach to prevent this kind destruction in the future. See the jetties?
Last stop....Lake Erie. It is the southernmost and shallowest of all the lakes. Did you know that at it's southernmost tip it is called "Canada's Tornado Capital"? Did you know that because it is the shallowest, it is the most likely to freeze completely? Residents along it's shoreline rejoice....frozen lake means no lake effect snow! The pollution of Lake Erie has been a problem for decades. Between pollution and certain invasive species like Asian Carp and Snakehead fish (They can move on land and breath air....ewwwwwwwwwwww!), the native fish/fowl population have been hard hit. In my reading on W*kipedia about Lake Erie, I came across this passage regarding how the lake was named.
This one got a little wordy...my apologies. Maybe Volume 3 won't be...we'll have to see. I haven't quite decided about the subject matter. Made in Michigan? Interesting cities? Notable Michiganders? (Sounds like a bunch of male geese, wearing Michigan (as in the University of) sweaters!) I hope you learned something that you didn't know. I sure did. I hope it piqued your curiosity and you'll do some digging of your own. Proper thanks to W*kipedia, G*ogle and 50states.com for their help.
Oh and......
Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Erie are responsible for Michigan having the longest amount of fresh water shoreline. Michigan takes second, behind Alaska when looking at all shoreline...fresh and salt. There are around 11,000 inland lakes and more than 36,000 miles of streams in Michigan. As a child, I remember learning that if I were to walk three miles in any direction, I would find some sort of natural water source. Of Michigan's eighty-three counties, nearly half of them are lakeside. (Mine was....salute, St. Clair County!) At any point in the state, you are never more than eighty-five miles from one of those lakes. It might be no surprise that Michigan leads the pack in boat registrations. In middle school, we all took a mandatory boat safety class.
Big water means big bridges and the largest suspension bridge in the world just happens to be in Michigan. The Mackinac (say "mack-ih-naw") Bridge connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas at the Straits of Mackinac (say "mack-ih-naw".) The Straits are where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. I read that it took three years to build and was opened to traffic in 1957. Here's a great picture of "Mighty Mac."The bridge in my hometown is named the Blue Water Bridge. It provides passage across the St. Clair River into Sarnia, Ontario. I've crossed that bridge many times. In cars...on a bus (for the yearly Christmas parade and one band trip) and even on foot. It was an annual thing with my Girl Scout troop. We'd walk the bridge and meet up with Canadian Girl Guides and swap pins and patches. Not especially afraid of heights, but walking across a bridge like that will make a person contemplate their own mortality!
Okay...big water, big bridges.....BIG ships. Freighters and barges are a regular Great Lakes site. Some of the longest ones in the world sail "my Lakes." There is so much of this kind of traffic, that the world's only floating post office can also be found on the Lakes. The JW Westcott II has been delivering mail to ships on The Great Lakes for 125 years. (How cool is that? That was news to me!)
To the west of the state is Lake Michigan. It is the fifth largest lake in the world. It has 1,640 miles of shoreline, which means LOTS of beaches and is the reason why some refer to it as the "Third Coast." On the eastern shores of Lake Michigan are The Sleeping Bear Dunes. There is a Native American legend about the dunes; I remember hearing it as a kiddo. A mother bear and her two cubs were swimming in the lake. It was a great distance. and it was hard for the cubs. The first cub drowned and then the other. Mother Bear was so heartbroken, that she stopped swimming and let the lake waters take her down. The Great Spirit was touched by Mother Bear's love for her cubs, so he turned all three of them into great hills of sand, so they could always be together. I always loved that story as a kid. I remember visiting the dunes as a kid...it was amazing. Haven't had the chance to go back, but there's still a lot of life to be lived!Lake Superior is the northern most lake...and the largest of all The Great Lakes. It is the third largest freshwater lake in the world. The Ojibwe people called it "kichi-gami," which means "be a great sea." Mr. Longfellow called it "Gitchee Gumee" in his "Song of Hiawatha." I know it's horrid, but all I can think of when I think of that poem is Lucy! Oh, that crazy red head! I digress, do pardon. Lake Huron....MY lake...well, not really, but I did grow up in one of the many lakeside towns. Port Huron (very original, I know), to be exact. By surface area, it is the second largest of the lakes. The name comes from a Wendat word, which in a loose translation means "freshwater sea." I have many happy memories of Lake Huron. Sitting on the beach, just listening to the waves, was one of the things I missed most when I moved to Tennessee. It was beautiful in the summer...but I thought it quite magical in the winter, too. Too cold to sit on the beach, but every now and then, I'd go and sit in the parking lot and just be amazed at the transformation. There was one winter....the lake froze to such extremes that the ice came onto the shore and pushed up under the sidewalk, like the concrete was nothing more than L*go blocks! There's a picture of it in one of my high school year books. After that, long jetties were installed on the beach to prevent this kind destruction in the future. See the jetties? "The lake was named by the Erie tribe of Native Americans who lived along its southern shore. That Iroquoian tribe called it "Erige" ("cat") because of its unpredictable and sometimes violently dangerous nature. It is a matter of conjecture whether the lake was named after the tribe, or if the tribe was called "Erie" because of its proximity to the lake. "So, did the Iroquois name the lake or did the lake name the Iroquois?
This one got a little wordy...my apologies. Maybe Volume 3 won't be...we'll have to see. I haven't quite decided about the subject matter. Made in Michigan? Interesting cities? Notable Michiganders? (Sounds like a bunch of male geese, wearing Michigan (as in the University of) sweaters!) I hope you learned something that you didn't know. I sure did. I hope it piqued your curiosity and you'll do some digging of your own. Proper thanks to W*kipedia, G*ogle and 50states.com for their help.
Oh and......
BOOOO!!!!
I couldn't resist! (And my toes were curling up as I looked for just the right pictures. I'm gonna have nightmares, tonight!)
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