Draining the Great Lakes: If Michigan Gained 38,000 Square Miles, What Would We Do With It?

Say some in the Western United States got their way and drained the Great Lakes to water the parched southwest (it's impractical to the point of impossibility, however) and left a giant drained lakebed where the water once was, what would we do with all that extra Michigan?

The fanciful idea came from the always creative Pure Memeigan Facebook page. which shared a meme showing the state's nautical borders and asking, "Realistically, what's stopping us from filling in all this with land and expanding Michigan?"

The "More Michigan" Premise: A Fanciful Expansion

If such a feat of geography was possible, here's how much more Michigan there would be.

By the Numbers: How "More Michigan" Changes Our State's Size

Michigan currently has 58,110 square miles of land and 38,606 square miles of water (including inland lakes) for a total of 96,716 square miles of total Michigan.

The state is 11th overall in the United States for largest size. But the water is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the two peninsulas.

READ MORE: Visit the Extremely Obscure Land Border Between Michigan and Canada

Take just the state's landmasess and it's 22nd in size ranking slightly larger than Iowa and smaller than Georgia.

However, if the lakes were drained and Michigan had a total area of 96,716 square miles of land, then the state leapfrogs rom 22nd to the 9th largest landmass in the nation surpassing Georgia, Washington, Oklahoma, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming.

Michigan's imaginary 97k square miles would rank behind Colorado's 103,642 sq mi. Only the massive western states would have more land.

So the question is, back to the meme, what to do with all that more Michigan?

👇🏼BELOW: The Only Destination For These Special Highways are Michigan State Parks + These Tiny Michigan Counties Have Less than 10,000 Residents👇🏼

I'd love to tell you the comment section had ideas of how to make the most of more Michigan, but it's seems most missed the joke:

I don’t think you realize how much dirt that would take

The fact that our access to fresh water is what makes Michigan so valuable as a state and the best state. Let's not fill in our natural beauties that is the great lakes

89% of MI land is rural. Why do we need more? Also, the sheer cost and magnitude of filling in half the Great Lakes would be insane. How long and costly do you think it would take to move 10 quadrillion cubic yards of dirt?

So, we won't be getting more Michigan. Plan to make the most of what you have.