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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
The statistics of the Great Lakes are very impressive:
| Lake | Surface Area (square miles) |
Furthest North to Furthest South (miles) |
Furthest East to Furthest West (miles) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Superior | 31,700 | 180 | 370 |
| Lake Michigan | 22,300 | 310 | 160 |
| Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay) |
23,000 | 240 | 240 |
| Lake Erie | 9,910 | 100 | 240 |
| Lake Ontario | 7,340 | 70 | 180 |
| All the Great Lakes taken together | 94,250 | 530 | 780 |
For comparison, the area of the English county of North Yorkshire is 3,213 squares miles, of Yellowstone National Park is 3,468 square miles, of Wales is 8,018 square miles, of Scotland (including the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands and other islands) is 30,147 square miles and of England is 50,356 square miles.
Lake Superior alone is the largest body of fresh water in the world. (The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world, but is not fresh water. Lake Baikal in Russia is the world's deepest lake and is said to hold one fifth of the world's fresh surface water, but its surface area is less.)
Georgian Bay is a major arm of Lake Huron, almost separated from the rest of the lake by Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula.
A tour of the Great Lakes region is recommended as a possible basis for a holiday.
While there are a number of scenic roads which run along the shores of the Great Lakes, many of the roads in the area are in fact located some distance away from the shores with no views of the lakes. One of the best scenic roads is that which runs along the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. The road along the north shore of Lake Ontario in Ontario is also scenic in places, especially as you head east away from the heavily built up areas near Toronto.
Niagara Falls lies on the Niagara River which runs northward from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
The names of the Great Lakes can be remembered by using either of these mnemonics:
According to a report in the Daily Brief on 9-Mar-98, "President Clinton signed a bill Friday [i.e. 6-Mar-98] making Lake Champlain an official Great Lake. The lake is on the border of New York and Vermont." Despite this I doubt if many people would regard Lake Champlain as being one of the Great Lakes. There may perhaps be more of an argument for including Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.
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Most recently modified 4-Oct-02