The
Great Lakes, a resource often abused, misused and rarely appreciated.
The
magnitude of the Great Lakes water system is difficult to comprehend,
even for those who live within the basin. By mere size, covering a total
area of 244,000 km2 (94,000 sq. mi.) they are immense. The Great Lakes
are the largest system of fresh surface water on earth, containing roughly
18 percent of the world supply. Only the polar ice caps contain more
fresh water.
Because
of the large size of the watershed, physical characteristics such as
climate, soils and topography vary across the basin. To the north, the
climate is cold and the terrain is dominated by a granite bedrock called
the Canadian (or Laurentian) Shield. (Precambrian rocks under a generally
thin layer of acidic soils). Conifers dominate the northern forests.
In the southern areas of the basin, the climate is much warmer. The
soils are deeper with layers or mixtures of clays, silts, sands, gravels
and boulders deposited as glacial drift or as glacial lake and river
sediments. The lands are usually fertile and can be readily drained
for agriculture. Much of the original deciduous forests have given way
to agriculture and sprawling urban development.
Although part of a single system, each lake is different. In volume,
Lake Superior is the largest. It is also the deepest and coldest of
the five. Superior could contain all the other Great Lakes and three
more of Lake Erie. It is situated not far from the centre of the continent of North America.Its greatest length is from east to west, about 355 miles, and its greatest breadth is about 160 miles.It is interesting to note that in Minnesota one of the branches of the Mississippi River approaches to within twenty miles of the western extremity of Lake Superior, and a small lake near the head of the Albany River, which flows into Hudson's Bay, is only four miles from a bay on the northern shore. Because of this short distance to portage it was used by the Hudson's Bay Company to transport goods north.
The country around Lake Superior is bold and hilly, with the exception of the peninsula between it and Lake Michigan, but few of the hills rise above 1000 feet. On the southern shore are the Pictured Rocks. These rocks are gray and red sandstone, from 100 to 200 feet high, in many places presenting fantastic figures, and marked by numerous stripes of Yellow and red.
The around this lake are very old, being mostly Laurentian and Huronian. The Huronian rocks are composed of conglomerates, green stone, shale, quartz-ite and limestone. For this reason there are vast deposits of useful minerals for which this region is noted. The minerals are principally copper and iron ore on the south side of the lake.
Lake Michigan, the second largest, is the only Great Lake entirely within
the United States. It is 320 miles long and 70 miles in mean width. I t receives the waters of numerous rivers and is connected by a canal with the Mississippi River. Lake Michigan is among the most urbanized areas in
the Great Lakes system. It contains the Chicago, Milwaukee and Grand Haven metropolitan
areas. Its dangerous shores are lighted by a large number of lighthouses.This region is home to about 8 million people or about one-fifth
of the total population of the Great Lakes basin.
Lake Huron, at its northern extremity receives the waters from Lake Superior through the Sault Ste. Marie, and also those of Lake Michigan through the Straits of Mackinac. At the southern extremity its waters flow out through the St. Clair river, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit river into Lake Erie. Georgian Bay is separated from Lake Huron by the peninsula of Cabot's Head on the south and by the Manitoulin islands on the north, and north of these islands is Manitou bay, or the North channel. The entire width of Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, is about 190 miles, and its length is about 250 miles. It is the third largest of the
lakes by volume. The principal streams from Michigan, which flow into Lake Huron are the Thunder Bay river, the Au Sable and the Saginaw, and, from Ontario, the French, the Muskoka, the Severn and the Nottawasaga, all flowing into Georgian Bay, and the Saugeen, the Maitland and the Au Sable. Many Canadians and Americans own cottages on the shallow,
sandy beaches of Huron and along the rocky shores of Georgian Bay.
Lake Erie is the smallest and is the most southern of the five Great Lakes. At its southwest extremity it receives the waters of the three upper lakes, Superior, Huron and Michigan through the Detroit river, and at its northeast extremity it discharges its waters by the Niagara river into Lake Ontario. It is exposed to the
greatest effects from urbanization and agriculture. Because of the fertile
soils surrounding the lake, the area is intensively farmed. Seventeen
metropolitan areas with populations over 50,000 are located within the
Lake Erie basin. Although the area of the lake is about 26,000 km2 (10,000
square miles), the average depth is only about 19 metres (62 feet).
It is the shallowest of the five lakes and therefore warms rapidly in
the spring and summer, and frequently freezes over in winter.
Lake Ontario, the lowest and the smallest of the five Great Lakes, lies between New York and Canada. The name, Ontario, in the Indian language, means beautiful. The lake is about 180 miles long from east to west, and its average breadth is about 35 miles. Although slightly smaller in area, is much deeper than
its upstream neighbor, Lake Erie, with an average depth of 86 metres
(283 feet)
NATIVE PEOPLE AND THE GREAT LAKES
Native
people were the first to use the many resources of the Great Lakes basin.
Abundant game, fertile soils and plentiful water enabled the early development
of hunting, subsistence agriculture and fishing. The lakes and tributaries
provided convenient transportation by canoe, and trade among groups
flourished. The first inhabitants of the Great Lakes basin arrived about
10,000 years ago.
They
had crossed the land bridge from Asia or perhaps had reached South America
across the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Six thousand years ago, descendants
of the first settlers were using copper from the south shore of Lake
Superior and had established hunting and fishing communities throughout
the Great Lakes basin.
The
native people occupied widely scattered villages and grew corn, squash,
beans and tobacco, and harvesting wild rice. The state’s indigenous
peoples--its first true farmers--supported themselves through a combination
of hunting and gathering and simple agricultural techniques. Their modest
plots produced corn, beans, peas, squash, and pumpkins. However, the
Indians used only a portion of their holdings for crops and so caused
few lasting changes in the countryside. They moved once or twice in
a generation, when the resources in an area became exhausted (GLERL
1995). Those not in villages were scattered throughout the beautiful
but inhospitable pine forests of the north. Villages were relatively
impermanent and, except in two or three very populous areas, widely
separated from one another. The crude and primitive means of subsistence
that the Indians had at their disposal seriously limited the number
that a given area could support. The greatest concentration of population
coincided almost perfectly with the area of deciduous forest. Maple
and birch were the two most valuable trees: the first for its sugar,
the latter for housing material and canoes. Other sources of food supply,
such as game, wild apples, plants, and berries, as well as land suitable
for agriculture, were more likely to be found in the deciduous than
in the coniferous forest lands.
A majority of Indian settlements were along waterways, as in the St.
Joseph and Saginaw River valleys--then the two most populous areas.
Water provided an easy means of transportation and, in fish, a plentiful
supply of food. Some settlements along the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior
shores were regularly occupied in summer and abandoned for more sheltered
positions in winter.
Seventeen
tribes were well-established on the lands surrounding lakes Superior
and Huron. Among these were the Chippewa, Cree, Monsoni, Ottawa, Huron,
Assiniboin, Menominee, Winnebago, Potawatomi and Nipissing. Further
north and west in present-day Minnesota was the Sioux tribe. Prominent
tribes around Lake Michigan also included the Fox and Miami.
The
Huron and Iroquois tribes--typically allies--settled around Lake Ontario.
The Huron tribe settled north of Lake Ontario. An allied tribe (Attawandaronk
or Neutral) took possession of the region south and east of the Huron
holdings. Long before the European invasion began in 1619, other Iroquois
bands had moved southward. In history they became known as Onondaga,
Mohawk and Oneida. It may have been about 1300 A.D. when they first
crossed the St. Lawrence to seek new homes among the hills east of Lake
Ontario.
The
Iroquois Confederacy, or League, consisted of five tribes living in
upper New York State: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca
tribes. The Iroquois War (1642-53) was a territorial expansion carried
out by these tribes to displace the Hurons, the Tabacco Indians, Neutral
Nations, the Eries, Conestogas and Illinois. The Tuscarora tribe joined
with the Confederacy in 1722 to become known as the Six Nations.
The
Native Peoples around Lake Erie were among the tribes that fell victim
to the Iroquois Confederacy. The neutral nations of the Niagaras, living
north of Lake Erie, and the Eries, whose country was predominantly south
of the lake, were completely destroyed before European explorers ever
visited Lake Erie.
The
Buffalo, N.Y., area (far east end of Lake Erie) was once dominated by
Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga, all members of the Five Nations. Treaties
were attempted among the various tribes in that area but usually ended
violently. During the 1700s the Lake Erie frontier became known by many
as a region of terror, with many violent confrontations between Native
Peoples and European visitors.
For
more detailed information click on the Great Lakes Information Network
link:
The
French began to explore the forests around the St. Lawrence Valley and
had begun to exploit the area for furs.
The
first area of the lakes to be visited by Europeans was Georgian Bay,reached
via the Ottawa River and Lake Nipissingby the explorer Samuel de Champlain
or perhaps Étienne Brulé, one of Champlain's scouts, in
1615. To the south and east, the Dutch and English began to settle on
the eastern seaboard of what is now the United States.
Étienne Brulé (Archives of Ontario Collection)
Although
a confederacy of five Indian nations confined European settlement to
the area east of the Appalachians, the French were able to establish
bases in the lower St. Lawrence Valley. This enabled them to penetrate
into the heart of the continent via the Ottawa River. In 1670, the French
built the first of a chain of Great Lakes forts to protect the fur trade
near the Mission of St. Ignace at the Straits of Mackinac. In 1673,
Fort Frontenac, on the present site of Kingston, Ontario, became the
first fort on the lower lakes.
Through
the 17th century precious furs were transported to Hochelaga (Montreal)
on the Great Lakes routes, but no permanent European settlements were
maintained except at Forts Frontenac, Michilimackinac and Niagara. After
Fort Oswego was established on the south shore of Lake Ontario by the
British in 1727, settlement was encouraged in the Mohawk and other valleys
leading toward the lakes. A showdown between the British and the French
for control of the Great Lakes ended with the British capture of Quebec
in 1759.
The
British maintained control of the Great Lakes during the American Revolution
and, at the close of the conflict, the Great Lakes became the boundary
between the new U.S. republic and what remained of British North America.
The British granted land to the Loyalists who fled the former New England
colonies to Upper and Lower Canada, now the southern regions of the
provinces of Ontario and Quebec, respectively. Between 1792 and 1800
the population of Upper Canada increased from 20,000 to 60,000.
The
new American government also moved to develop the Great Lakes region
with the passage by Congress of the Ordinance of 1787. This legislation
covered everything from land sale to provisions for statehood for the
Northwest Territory, the area between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River
west of Pennsylvania.
Attack
on Fort Oswego (Archives of Canada)
The
final military challenge for the wealth of the Great Lakes region came
with the War of 1812. For the Americans, the war was about the expansion
into, and development of, the area around the lakes. For the British,
it meant the defense of its remaining imperial holdings in North America.
The war proved to be a short one - only 2 years - but finally when the
shooting was over both the Americans and the British claimed victory.
Canada had survived invasion and was set on an inevitable course to
nationhood. The new American nation had failed to conquer Upper Canada
but gained needed national confidence and prestige. Native people, who
had become involved in the war in order to secure a homeland, did not
share in the victory. The winners in the War of 1812 were those who
dreamed of settling the Great Lakes region. The long-awaited development
of the area from a beautiful, almost uninhabited wilderness into a home
and workplace for millions began in earnest.
