Lake Huron

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Lake Huron holds a secret beneath its surface: an ancient ridge of rock running from Alpena, Michigan, to Point Clark, Ontario, once walked by herds of caribou some nine thousand years ago. Since 2008, archaeologists have pulled back the curtain on at least sixty stone constructions along that submerged spine, thought to be hunting blinds left behind by Paleo-Indians. A 2013 discovery along the same ridge confirmed something even more striking: obsidian from Oregon made its way here, nearly ten thousand years ago, proof of a trade network that reached across a continent. What is Lake Huron, exactly? The question turns out to be more complicated than it first appears. It is vast and ancient, shared by two nations, shaped by glaciers, haunted by shipwrecks, and quietly enduring one of the most dramatic ecological collapses of any body of water in recent memory. How did it become what it is today, and what does its future look like?

• 2. A Lake Hiding Another Lake

  ›

  Lake Huron and Lake Michigan share the same surface elevation, connected by the Straits of Mackinac, a passage just 5 miles wide and 20 fathoms deep. Hydrologists treat them as a single body of water, sometimes called Lake Michigan-Huron. Combined, they make up the largest freshwater lake by area anywhere on Earth, covering 45,300 square miles. On its own, Lake Huron ranks second among the Great Lakes by surface area, at 23,000 square miles, and third-largest freshwater lake on the planet. By volume, though, it ranks only third among its siblings, with 850 cubic miles of water measured at low water datum. Its shoreline, counting all 30,000 islands, stretches for 3,827 miles. Manitoulin Island, sitting between the North Channel and Georgian Bay, is the world's largest lake island. The lake's surface sits 577 feet above sea level, its average depth reaches 195 feet, and its maximum depth, measured by sonar, is 125 fathoms. Water moves through Lake Huron faster than through any of the other Great Lakes, with a retention time of just 22 years.

• 3. Glaciers and Ancient Rivers

  ›

  Lake Huron did not begin as a lake. Before the continental glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age, this region was a low-lying depression carved by two rivers: the Laurentian and the Huronian, now buried beneath the surface. A network of tributaries traced across what would become the lake bed, and many of those ancient channels are still visible on bathymetric maps today. The Huronian glaciation itself takes its name from evidence collected in this region. When the ice melted, the lake took shape. Lake Superior, sitting 21 feet higher in elevation, drains into the St. Marys River, which feeds Lake Huron from the north. From there, water flows south through the St. Clair River at Port Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, continuing through Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, and eventually the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. The Alpena-Amberley Ridge, that submerged spine of ancient rock, is one of the few remnants of this pre-glacial landscape still influencing the lake's story today.

• 4. Naming and First Contact

  ›

  French explorers called the lake La Mer Douce, meaning "the fresh-water sea." The name Huron came from those same explorers, applied to the indigenous Wyandot people they encountered in the region, and eventually transferred to the lake itself. In 1656, French cartographer Nicolas Sanson labeled it on a map as Karegnondi, a Wyandot word carrying multiple translations: "Freshwater Sea," "Lake of the Hurons," or simply "lake." Most early European maps settled on "Lac des Hurons," the Lake of the Hurons. Before European arrival, the archaeological record shows a town on or near the lake's shore containing more than one hundred large structures, housing between 4,000 and 6,000 people. On the 26th of October 2010, the Karegnondi Water Authority was formed to build and manage a pipeline from the lake to Flint, Michigan, bringing the old Wyandot place-name back into use after more than three and a half centuries.

• 5. A Graveyard of Ships

  ›

  More than a thousand wrecks have been recorded in Lake Huron. The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve, established in 2000, covers 448 square miles and holds 116 of them. Saginaw Bay accounts for 185 wrecks, while Georgian Bay contains 212 sunken vessels. The first European ship to sail the Great Lakes was also the first to be lost on them. Le Griffon was built in 1679 on the eastern shore of Lake Erie, near what is now Buffalo, New York. Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, navigated it across Lake Erie, up through the connecting waterways, and into Lake Huron. After crossing the Straits of Mackinac, La Salle loaded the vessel with pelts and sent it back in late November 1679. It was never seen again. Two competing wrecks have been identified as Le Griffon: one in Mississagi Strait at the western tip of Manitoulin Island, and one on Russell Island near Tobermory, about 150 miles to the east in Georgian Bay. Neither has been definitively confirmed. The storm that appears to have taken Le Griffon foreshadowed a catastrophe that would unfold more than two centuries later on the same waters.

• 6. The Storm of 1913

  ›

  On the 9th of November 1913, a storm raged across Lake Huron for 16 hours. It sank 10 ships and drove more than 20 others aground. It killed 235 seamen. The vessel Manola, a propeller freighter of 2,325 gross register tons built in Cleveland in 1890, passed through the corridor between Port Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, that morning. Captain Frederick W. Light of Manola noted that both the Canadian and the American weather stations had storm flag signals flying. He steered for Harbor Beach, Michigan, 30 miles up the lake, hoping to shelter behind the breakwater. By noon he reached Harbor Beach, but the harbor was barely safe. Manola touched bottom entering the harbor and had to be secured with eight lines to the break wall. Even then, cables snapped under wind pressure against the hull, and the ship drifted 800 feet before it could be stopped. The crew watched waves peel chunks of concrete from the break wall. Fifty miles farther north, the freighter Matoa, measuring 2,311 gross register tons, had no such shelter. Captain Hugh McLeod rode out the storm in open water, and Matoa was found stranded on the Port Austin reef when the winds finally subsided. Manola survived, was renamed Mapledawn in 1920, and met her end on Christian Island in Georgian Bay on the 24th of November 1924. Salvagers recovered approximately 75,000 bushels of barley from the wreck.

• 7. Collapse and Recovery

  ›

  Lake Huron's native fish community was once built around lake trout, which fed on ciscos, sculpins, and other native fish. By the 1930s, three invasive species had become abundant: sea lamprey, alewife, and rainbow smelt. Lake trout, the lake's dominant predator, was virtually gone by 1950, driven out by overfishing and sea lamprey. Several species of ciscos were extirpated by the 1960s. Only bloater and lake herring survived among the native ciscoes. Non-native Pacific salmon were stocked beginning in the 1960s but became far less common after a profound food web change in 2003. The arrival of zebra and quagga mussels, spiny water fleas, and round gobies drove further disruption. By 2006, the demersal fish community of the lake was in a state of collapse. Chinook salmon catches fell sharply, and lake whitefish became less abundant and entered poor condition. Some native species found unexpected benefit: the near-complete disappearance of the invasive alewife allowed lake trout and walleye populations to rebuild. Lake trout, stocked for decades, are now largely self-sustaining in the northern half of the lake. The walleye population in Saginaw Bay reached recovery targets in 2009. Two invasive plants, spiked water-milfoil and curly-leafed pondweed, remain active in the lake, competing with native algae for resources.