Is Michigan Home To Four Great Lakes—Not Five?
If you ask a Michigander how many Great Lakes there are, the answer is usually five. Although you may occasionally get a six, but some believe the real number is four.
The Great Lakes
Since Illinois was unable to rename Lake Michigan to Lake Illinois, we still sit at five Great Lakes. Those lakes include Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. For you kids who need to remember the names of the Great Lakes for a test, try using the acronym HOMES.
In 1998, Lake Champlain briefly held the title of the sixth Great Lake, though only for 18 days. A congressional bill had designated it as such to make the lake eligible for federal research and conservation grants. Lawmakers from the traditional Great Lakes states quickly pushed back, and the designation was rescinded. So, in the end, the official count remains at five Great Lakes.
Read More: Should The Great Lakes Be Renamed Like Gulf of Mexico?
Why Some Say Michigan Only Has Four Great Lakes
There has been an ongoing debate by Michiganders and Hydrologists that there may be only four Great Lakes. This has to do with Lake Michigan and Lake Huron being technically one lake.
A Facebook poster named Brian Calley posted a breakdown of why Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are technically one lake. Hydrologists define a lake as a body of water that partially or totally fills one of several connected basins. The body of water has essentially the same water level throughout and contains freshwater without regular intrusion of seawater.
Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet all three criteria. The two lakes have connected basins, and are joined by the 5-mile-wide Straits of Mackinac, where water flows freely in both directions. Both share the same water levels where their surfaces rise and fall as one continuous body. There is no seawater that divides one lake from the other.
With this information, if you treated Lake Michigan and Lake Huron as one, it would be the largest body of freshwater on the planet. It would make sense to go with the name of both as Lake Michigan since it borders most of the state.
👇BELOW: Which States Own How Much of the Great Lakes?👇
