Lake Michigan is a spectacular natural feature that has blessed those who are able to enjoy its presence, beauty, and natural power. Here we will quickly discuss its location, form, history, and management.
Lake Michigan is considered one of the Great Lakes, which include Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. It is the only one of the Great Lakes that is completely surrounded by the United States; all the other Great Lakes have U.S. soil on one side, and Canadian soil on the other side, making them international boundaries between two large nations. Lake Michigan itself is surrounded by four states. The largest city on Lake Michigan is the city of Chicago, Illinois, with the second-largest city being Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Let’s talk more about its location below, as well as its geological form, brief history, and management of this natural feature of our landscape.
Location:
Lake Michigan is situated in the middle of our Midwest, being the only one of the Great Lakes that is entirely within the United States and does not, like the other Great Lakes, have both U.S. and Canadian land surrounding it. The states that surround Lake Michigan are Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. America’s third largest city, Chicago, sits on the southwest bank of Lake Michigan. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the other Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River and Seaway, which goes through Quebec and ends up by Newfoundland in Canada. This lake is 118 miles wide, 307 miles long, has an average depth of 279 feet, has 1600 miles of shoreline, covers an area of 22,300 square miles, and a volume of 1180 cubic miles of water. (Figures found by clicking here)
Form:
During the last ice age, as long as 14,000 years ago, much of Canada was covered by what was known as the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which included glaciers that went as far south as present day Chicago, Illinois. These glaciers, as well as being responsible for the formation of thousands of smaller lakes throughout the upper Midwest, including those found in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba, were also responsible for the tearing out of vast stretches of land into large basins, which, as the glaciers melted, were filled with fresh water, and became known as our present-day Great Lakes. The lakes, including Lake Michigan, as we know them today, eventually took the shape we now know about 4,000 years ago. Technically, since it is at the same elevation as Lake Huron, it is hydrologically the same body of water as Lake Huron, and could be considered a bay of it.
History:
The earliest people to inhabit the area around Lake Michigan were Native American Indians. The original Hopewell Indians were eventually replaced by the Late Woodland Indians, which included the Sioux, Fox, Miami, Chippewa, and Winnebago Indians among others. The first non-Indian, European person considered to have seen Lake Michigan was a French explorer by the name of Jean Nicolet in the early part of the seventeenth century. Eventually the area around Lake Michigan was occupied by the French, then the British, and eventually the United States. It was under the jurisdiction of the United States that settlement and development took place, leading to the cities, population size, economy, infrastructure and industry that we find today.
Management:
When it comes to the ecological management of Lake Michigan, there is much that is being done. The was a Boundary Waters Treaty in 1909 and a Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1987, both between the United States and Canada, which allow the nations to work together to take care of the common resource that are the Great Lakes, including Lake Michigan. Our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and nine other federal agencies have more than 140 programs up their sleeves for taking care of the Great Lakes; some of which, no doubt include Lake Michigan. Also, in 2004, the president signed an executive order creating the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, which is supposed to get all the federal agencies to work together for the common benefit of the Great Lakes. The shoreline of Lake Michigan is also governed by four state governments, as well as many county and tribal governments. (click here for more information) These agencies and governments try to control pollutants that enter the water, either through the water itself, or through particles in the air, habitat degradation and invasive species, including the one talked about much lately – the introduction of Asian Carp into the region through shipping vessels that travel through the Chicago Canal and its link to the Mississippi River. For more information, look into the EPA’s Lake Michigan Lakewide Management Plans, which are found by clicking here.
