Great Lakes of America

Lake Superior is the largest lake in the America and the 4th largest freshwater lake in the world.
It neighbors Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Canada.
The second-largest island in the great lakes is found in Superior - Isle Royale.

Numerous fishing and nature preserves are to be found within this lake.

Fishing Preserves:

Alger County

Keweenaw

Marquette

Straits of Mackinac

Whitefish Point

Nature Reserves:

Pukaswa

Also of note are a large concentration of shipwrecks in the lakes.

For more information on this please click the picture link.

Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes wholly within the borders of the United States; the others are shared with Canada. It has a surface area of 22,400 square miles (58,016 km)
It is 307 miles (494 km) long by 118 miles (190 km) wide with a shoreline 1,640 miles (2,633 km) long. The lake's average depth is 279 feet (85 m), while its greatest depth is 923 feet (281 m).
It contains a volume of 1,180 cubic miles (4,918 km³) of water. Its surface averages 577 feet (176 m) above sea level, the same as Lake Huron, to which it is connected through the Straits of Mackinac.

Neighbouring the bustling city of Chicago this lake is one that everyone has heard of. Cities are built up around it and it's seen turbulent times.
The southern coastline of Lake Michigan is heavily industrialised.

Like the other lakes, Lake Michigan connects directly to Huron, in fact hydrologically these two are considered a single lake. Sometimes this lake is called Lake Michigan-Huron.

Lake Huron is the second largest of the Great Lakes, with a surface area of 59,596 km2 (23,010 sq mi) making it the third largest fresh water lake on earth (fourth largest lake if the saline Caspian Sea is included). It contains a volume of 3,540 km3 (850 cubic miles), and a shoreline length of 3,827 mi (6,157 km).

Named Huron Lake after the 'Huron' People that the French explorers discovered there.
Manitoulin Island, the lakes largest, is found here.

A major storm in 1913 sunk 10 ships here and their wrecks are still explored to this day.
Indeed Saginaw Bay is said to have 185 of the 1000s of wrecks in the great lakes alone.

Invasive species from other waters are an ecological problem here.

Lake Erie has a surface area of 9,940 square miles (25,745 km²)[1] with a length of 241 miles (388 km) and breadth of 57 miles (92 km) at its widest points.

Named after the Erie Indian peoples. This lake saw some of the bloodiest tribal violence in olden times as the Iroquois Confederation fought against the other tribes in the area.

Several islands inhabit this lake, these include:
* Ballast Island
* Big Chicken Island
* Chick Island
* East Sister Island
* Gibraltar Island
* Green Island
* Gull Island
* Hen Island
* Johnson's Island
* Kelleys Island
* Little Chicken Island
* Lost Ballast Island
* Middle Island

* Middle Bass Island
* Middle Sister Island
* Mohawk Island
* Mouse Island
* North Bass Island
* North Harbour Island
* Pelee Island
* Rattlesnake Island
* South Bass Island
* Starve Island
* Sugar Island
* Turtle Island
* West Sister Island

A thriving fisheries industry still operates from the these waters (mostly from Canada, and somewhat from Ohio).

Lake Ontario is the eastern-most and smallest in surface area (7,540 square miles, 19,529 km²)[1] of the Great Lakes, although it exceeds Lake Erie in volume (393 cubic miles, 1639 km³).

Like it's nearby neighbour, Erie this lake has seen it's fair share of warfare in the past. Indian Wars and the 1812 conflict raged on these waters and nearby.
Commercial activity is active and thriving. First with the river-boats and paddle-steamers and later with the ocean-going vessels transiting from the Atlantic Ocean