Exploring the Great Lakes States-
Bright Red Two Harbors Lighthouse
Introduction-
Quik-Links™ Great Lakes Travel News & Events NEW! Michigan's Top Outdoor Retailers Minnesota's Top Outdoor Retailers Wisconsin's Top Outdoor Retailers Gift Shop of the Great Lakes They say that the Great Lakes States are defined by its five big lakes, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. These five form the largest group of freshwater lakes on the earth by surface. Due to it’s mammoth size, the region offers different types of ecosystems, many beaches, and long coastal wetlands. Lake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and is the world's third-largest freshwater lake by volume. The Native Americans refer to Lake Superior as Gichigami, meaning "big water.” Its depth has been measured to 1,332 feet.
With its cool and blustery weather, the winds sweep down to its adjoining states, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and New York. With over 10,000 miles of rugged coastline, the long jagged shore is dotted with nearly 200 lighthouses; its lakes entomb an equal number of shipwrecks. The region has become noteworthy for its extreme weather, in winter the temperature descends to 50 below; in summer the temperature has been as high as 115 degrees with nearly 100% humidity. Additionally, the 6 month winter season has been know to include three months of continuous snow; the short summer is often punctuated by severe storms including lightning, thunderstorms, tornados, and hail. However, we have been blessed with immense forests, ample lakes for fishing, wildlife for hunting, and rich land for farming.
Great men and women have endured and persevered in the Great Lakes Region. Pioneers, Explorers, Adventurers, and Inventors include: John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Will Steger, Ann Bancroft, Paul Bunyan, Sigrid F. Olsen, Jim Brandenburg, Norman Borlaug, Babe Winkelman, Charles Lindbergh, Claus Johan Murie, and Will Digg. Great Writers include: Dave Mura, F Scott Fitzgerald, Garrison Keillor, William Edgar, Bill Holm, Ole Rolvaag, Charles Schultz, Carol & Robert Bly, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Roethke, Jim Harrison, Edna Ferber, and Thornton Wilder. Both Mark Twain and Carl Sandberg have based many of their stories and poems on life in this region.
We leave you now with a poem:
“Lady of the Lakes”
Five Great Lakes with five great ships
That built five great states
Amidst the storms and freezing cold,
Houses built of brick with chimneys
That belched black smoke skyward,
Factories and steel mills
That built America.These five great lakes
With oar boats and steamships
And men, who went down to sea,
Some went down to sleep
With the eternal darkness.From the five great states came
Tractors, Cars, Trucks and Railways
Produce and Products,
That nurtured us,
Kept America going.The five great ships no longer
Ply the lakes with their sails unfurled
Vacant Farmhouses now dot the land
Smokestacks no longer send their soot up
Factories and steel mills closed down,
Stockyards, railyards, car lots, dockyards,
Slaughterhouses, warehouses, parking lots
Big garages that fixed the mighty engines
Of trucks which rumbled over roads
Empty.The wind comes in from the lakes
As its always has, and
The waves rip and roar against the shore
As it always has;
But the Men do not go down sea
As they always had;
The ebb and flow of these eternal waters
And the immense face of five great lakes
Amidst the changing of storms.
For our viewers who have visited our companion web-site, www.yourworldoutdoors.com, this new web-site is a reincarnation of our Journeys Into the Heartland Section of that web-site. We’ve updated and expanded our Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan web-pages to include more lodges, resorts, and restaurants plus given you more local outdoor and sporting goods retailers.
Within the next month, I hope to include profiles of Great Lakes States’ athletes and sportsmen who contribute to making this region a great place to live.
Whether you are a tourist, a fellow traveler, or a global trekker you’ll find that exploring our Great Lakes States is an exhilarating experience!
Courtesy of Google Earth Maps©2010
Bright Red Two Harbors Lighthouse with Flowers in Foreground, Lake Superior, Two Harbours,
Cummins, Richard
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