Great Lakes Map

To remember the Great Lakes names, remember the word "HOMES."

The Great Lakes contain the largest supply of fresh water on earth; 20% of the earth's total fresh water; 9,402 miles of shoreline;  and 94,710 total square miles of surface area (about the size of Texas).  The Great Lakes basin is a 295,200 square mile area within which all surface area drains into the Great Lakes.  It includes parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ontario and Quebec.

Lake Superior

"Uppermost Lake" (French); Kitchi-gummi, a Chippewa Indian translation, signifies "Great Water," or "Great Lake."  A Jesuit name, "Lac Tracy," was never officially adopted.

Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes by surface area and volume, and rich in natural resources.

Surface Area:  31,700 mi² / 82,100 km² Volume:  2,934 mi³ / 12,230 km³

Length:  350 mi / 563 km

Depth:  489 ft / 149 m average; 1,335 ft / 407 m maximum

Shoreline Length:  2,726 miles / 4,385 km (including islands)

Elevation:  600 ft / 183 m

Outlet:  St. Marys River to Lake Huron

Retention/Replacement Time:  191 years

Lake Michigan

Champlain called it the Grand Lac.  It was later named "Lake of the Stinking Water" or "Lake of the Puants," after the people of other nations who occupied its shores.  In 1679, the lake became known as Lac des Illinois, because it gave access to the country of the Indians of that name.  Allouez called it Lac St. Joseph, by which name it was often designated by early writers.  Others called it Lac Dauphine.  Through the further explorations of Jolliet and Marquette, it received its final name of Michigan, Algonquian for "Great Water."

Michigan is the third largest Great Lake (although Lake Huron-Michigan, at 45,300 mi² / 117,400 km² is technically the world's largest freshwater lake.  This is because what have traditionally been called Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are really giant lobes of a single lake connected by the five mile wide Strait of Mackinac.)

Surface Area:  22,278 mi² / 57,750 km²                                                           

Volume:  1,180 mi³ / 4,920 km³

Length:  307 mi / 494 km

Depth:  279 ft / 85 m average; 925 ft / 282 m maximum

Shoreline Length:  1,659 miles / 2,670 km (including islands)

Elevation:  581 ft / 177 m

Outlet:  Straits of Mackinac to Lake Huron

Retention/Replacement Time:  99 years

Lake Huron

Since its French discoverers knew nothing as yet of the other lakes, they called it La Mer Douce, the sweet or fresh-water sea.  A Sanson map in 1656 refers to it as Karegnondi.

Huron is the second largest Great Lake (although Lake Huron-Michigan, at 45,300 mi² / 117,400 km² is technically the world's largest freshwater lake.  This is because what have traditionally been called Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are really giant lobes of a single lake connected by the five mile wide Strait of Mackinac.) It has the longest shoreline of the Great Lakes, counting its 30,000 islands.

Surface Area:  22,973 mi² / 59,500 km²

Volume:  850 mi³ / 3,540 km³

Length:  206 mi / 331 km

Depth:  194 ft / 59 m average; 748 ft / 229 m maximum

Shoreline Length:  3,827 miles / 6,157 km (including islands)

Elevation:  581 ft / 177 m

Outlet:  St. Clair River to Lake Erie

Retention/Replacement Time:  22 years

More about Lake Huron

Lake Erie

The greater part of its southern shore was at one time occupied by the Eries, a tribe of Indians from which the lake derived its name.  This name is always mentioned by the early French writers as meaning "cat"; Lac du Chat means "Lake of the Cat."  Many attribute this reference to the wild cat or panther.

Lake Erie is the fourth largest Great Lake and is the shallowest and warmest.

Surface Area:  9,906 mi² / 25,657 km²