Lake Michigan

“ Near the northern end of Lake Michigan, where the bluff-bowed ore-carriers and the big, low-lying, wheat-laden steel freighters from Lake Superior push out from the Straits of Mackinac and dispute the right of way, in the island divided channel, with the white-and-gold, electric lighted, wireless equipped passenger steamers bound for Detroit and Buffalo, there is a copse of pine and hemlock back from the shingly beach. ”

“ The lake was magic, a world in itself which never had been tamed and never would be tamed. He shivered ecstatically. This was what he had come west to find. Devil Chad and his tannery, the town of Three Points, and even Milwaukee paled into nothingness when compared to the lake. He broke from the last trees and saw Lake Michigan clearly.
A heavy wooden pier extended out onto it, and a sailing vessel was tied up at one side. Ramsay read her name. She was the Brilliant, from Ludington, Michigan, and a line of men were toiling up a gangplank with heavy bags which they were stacking on the pier. ”

“ As to the Great Lakes of North America, there has never been any doubt. They are in the heart of the continent, far above the flow of the tide from the sea. Lake Michigan is wholly within the limits and dominion of the United States, and of those states of the Union which surround it. ”

“ The northern part is rugged mountainous “old land,” not completely worn down by erosion; and the southern part is a portion of the old coastal plain, whose layers contain salt, gypsum and some inferior coal. Lake Huron on the east and Lake Michigan on the west of the lower peninsula are each 5811/3 ft. above sea-level, and Lake Superior on the north of the upper peninsula is 602 ft. ”

“ In some places, Lake Michigan is year by year building out the land with fresh deposits of sand, but oftener it is cutting it away with every storm. A reach of coast, extending perhaps a mile and a half southward from the foot of White Lake, is particularly interesting to one who wishes to study the structure of the country. ”

“ Rivers and Lakes.—In general, the country abounds with rivers and small streams. They rise in the interior, and flow in every direction to the lakes which surround it. The northern tributaries of the Maumee rise in Michigan, though the main stream is in Ohio, and it enters the west end of lake Erie on the "debatable land." Proceeding up the lake, Raisin and then Huron occur. Both are navigable streams, and their head waters interlock with Grand river, or Washtenong, which flows into lake Michigan. River Rouge enters Detroit river, a few miles below the city of Detroit. ”

“ Lake Michigan, called by the early voyagers Lac des Illinois, is next in size to Superior, being 320 miles in length and 100 in breadth, with a circumference, including Green Bay, of 1300 miles. It contains 22,000 miles of surface, with a depth of 900 feet in the deeper parts, though near the shore it grows gradually shoal. The rocks which compose its rim are of a sedimentary nature, and afford few indentations for harbors. The shores are low, and lined in many places with immense sand-banks. Green Bay, or Bale des Puans of the Jesuits, on the west coast, is 100 miles long and 20 broad. ”

“ There must be trees with branches outspread to catch its silvery beams, and giant hills in the distance to form a heavy background. The full moon shining on our great Lake Michigan is a glorious sight, but that which is needed to make the scene perfect is not there. ”

“ People already begin to repair to it for health and refreshment from the southern borders of Lake Michigan. Its climate during the summer months is delightful; there is no air more pure and elastic, and the winds of the south and southwest, which are so hot on the prairies, arrive here tempered to a grateful coolness by the waters over which they have swept. The nights are always, in the hottest season, agreeably cool, and the health of the place is proverbial. The world has not many islands so beautiful as Mackinaw, as you may judge from the description I have already given of parts of it. ”

“ The State of Michigan is the greatest lumber-growing region in the world, not only on account of its interminable forests of the choicest pine, but in the remarkable facilities for getting it to market. With a lake coast, on the lower peninsula alone, of over one thousand miles—with numberless watercourses debouching at convenient distances into her vast inland seas—she enjoys advantages which mighty empires might envy. ”

“ In most stories where the interest in surroundings is strong, we are chiefly concerned with the setting in which the incidents of the plot take place. In this instance, however, we are chiefly interested in the autumnal atmosphere in which Miss Brackett’s ingenuous tale is told. Here is Lake Michigan, all green and mist-blown, banding the whole horizon. There, in the broad southward, lie the full contours of the forest-covered dunes. And over all is the gray and purple sky of the late autumn. In the inner circle of all this is the camp, with Elsie Norris vividly portrayed in the centre. ”

“ On scanning the map of Michigan, it will strike one as a peculiar feature of this west side of the State, that nearly every stream, large or small, that flows into Lake Michigan, expands into a small lake near its mouth, a fact that may have given rise to a query in some as to why such a peculiar feature should exist, especially in a country all of whose features are post-glacial—carved, indeed, out of the glacial drift or built upon it everywhere ”

“ A canal project is already in agitation to connect it with the Huron, and open a water communication from lake Erie, across the peninsula, direct to lake Michigan. Grand river is now navigable for batteaux, 240 miles, and receives in its course, Portage, Red-Cedar, Looking-glass, Maple, Muscota, Flat, Thorn-Apple, and Rouge rivers, besides smaller streams. It enters lake Michigan 245 miles south-westerly from Mackinaw, and 75 north of St. Joseph;—is between 50 and 60 rods wide at its mouth, with 8 feet water over its bar. The Ottawa Indians own the country on its north side, for 60 miles up. ”

“ Inland the sand-hills rise to the height of 150 feet. On the Wisconsin side the land is being gradually worn away, while a gain is noticeable on the Michigan side. The lake communicates with Lake Huron through the Straits of Mackinac, and is connected with the Mississippi, supposed to have been its ancient outlet, by the old Illinois and Michigan Canal and the new Chicago Drainage Canal (q.v.) at Chicago. Like all the Great Lakes, it is subject to violent storms, and its shores are guarded by twenty-three light-houses. The best harbors are at the mouths of tributary rivers ”

“ As was usually the case, the five boys, with their guns, attracted considerable attention, but to this they paid no heed.
"The 'Lake Michigan' is a mighty fine boat," observed the poet laureate, as they strode through the saloon.
"Must have cost a sight of money to build; it's a regular palace," commented Dick Travers.
Up on the main deck, the boys provided themselves with camp chairs, and, taking a position near the stern, watched the ever-changing scene below with interest.
Another blast of the whistle, and finally the "Lake Michigan" swung slowly out from the wharf. ”

“ When I left my state-room, as if waiting to greet me, it arose majestically from the bosom of the water, flooding the lake with light. No land was descried upon the east, but we were near the Michigan shore off Thunder bay. The Shanewaging islands which stretch across it were distinctly visible, and presented various beauties of shape and tint. All trace of man has now disappeared, for the northern part of Michigan has never been settled owing to the intense cold of the winters. ”

“ It is indeed good to be alive on the west shore of Lake Michigan of a bright winter’s morning, and yet, although I have spent hours walking on the shore on Saturday mornings, I have never seen a person besides those who were with me. ”

“ Lake Action.—It is known that strong currents set into the Straits of Michilimackinac, and out of it, from Lake Michigan, at this point. The fishermen, who set their nets at four hundred feet in the waters, often bring up, entangled in their nets, large compact masses of limestone, which have been fretted into a kind of lacework, by the rotatory motion of little pebbles and grains of sand, kept in perpetual motion by the water at the bottom of the lake. ”

“ At the post of Chicago the traders crossed from Lake Michigan by a very short portage into the headwaters of the Illinois, and General Harrison says that in the spring, the boats with their loading "passed freely from one to the other." In Michigan the heads of the streams that flowed into Lake Huron interlocked with the heads of those that went down to Lake Michigan. In Wisconsin, the voyageurs passed from Green bay up the Fox river to Lake Winnebago, thence by the Fox again to the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin, thence down the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi. ”

“ The reports of Nicolet and Groseilliers led to a correction and enlargement of the charts of New France. On a map [466] accompanying the Historia Canadensis, by Creuxius, Lake Michigan is marked as “Magnus Lacus Algonquinorum, seu Lacus Fœtetium,” and a lake intended for Nepigon is called “Assineboines,” near which appear the nations Kilistinus and Alimibegôecus. The lake of the Assineboines is connected by a river with an arm of Hudson’s Bay called “Kilistonum Sinus;” and west of this is Jametus Sinus, or James’s Bay. ”

“ To the east, nature presents a milder aspect; a plain of great extent and richness stretches away toward the St. Lawrence. Many streams pour their flood into this lake; the principal are the Maitland, Severn, Moon, and French Rivers; they are broad and deep, but their sources lie at no great distance. By far the largest supply of water comes from the vast basin of Lake Superior, through the Channel of St. Mary. Near the northwestern extremity of Huron, a narrow strait [124] connects it with Lake Michigan in the United States ”

“ George — Point de Tour — Lake Michigan — Points of interest — Chicago.
A trip to the northern lakes, for variety and beauty of scenery to such as are seeking enjoyment and pleasure, possesses advantages over every other route of travel in the United States, and with the exception of the works of art and the classical associations of the old world, is unsurpassed by any on the globe. To such as are in quest of health, no comparison can be instituted, as it has been demonstrated that the Northwest, especially in the region of the lakes, possesses the most invigorating climate in the world. ”

“ Most of the duffle, such as the tent and the blankets, they usually stored in this one canoe, with a single occupant to ply the paddle, while the other [21] two campers took charge of the second craft.
They had laid out a regular course, which would take them through the wildest part of the country of the peninsula, starting in at Manistique on the southern shore, where the waves of Lake Michigan beat the sandy strand, and following the winding, picturesque river up to the lakes that were said to be its source. ”

“ In lake Michigan the level has ranged from a maximum in the years 1859, 1876 and 1886, to a minimum nearly 5 ft. lower in 1896. In lake Ontario there is a range of 51⁄2 ft. between the maximum of May 1870 and the minimum of November 1895. In consequence of the shallowness of lake Erie, its level is seriously disturbed by a persistent storm; a westerly gale lowers the water at its upper end exceptionally as much as 7 ft., seriously interfering with the navigation of the river Detroit, while an easterly gale produces a similar effect at Buffalo. ”

“ The lake was nearly smooth, and the red light, making its lengthy paths over the wide waters, from west to east, looked like myriads of playful little flames chasing each other over the crests of the waves.
The sun rose next morning and smiled on us over the north-western shore of the State of Michigan, and we found ourselves approaching Mackinaw Straits. That afternoon the vessel laid for a couple of hours at an island in the Straits, and the passengers all went ashore. We discovered the earth to be about as nearly barren as any soil could be. ”

“ Despite these military operations in Wisconsin, the English fur trade continued in full strength, with headquarters upon the Island of Mackinac, but with French agents and boatmen, whose principal dwelling places were at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. Upon Lake Superior large canoes and bateaux were used; but upon Lake Michigan were three small sloops, the Welcome, the Felicity, and the Archangel, which carried supplies and furs for the traders, and made frequent cruises to see that the "Bostonians," as the French used to call the Americans, obtained no foothold upon the shore of the lake. ”

“ On the left the moraines of the Lake Michigan lobe continue into Illinois and retain the same names. Both groups of moraines are prolonged into the southern peninsula of Michigan.
On account of the comparatively recent recession of the Wisconsin ice-sheet, the surface has not become eroded sufficiently to drain away the water which was left in depressions of the surface. A large part of Indiana is, or has been until recently, covered by swamps, lakes, and ponds, and in such localities the bones and teeth of vertebrate animals are best preserved during the early stages of fossilization. ”

“ The surveys of the whole country west of lake Michigan and south of the Wisconsin river, in Illinois and Wisconsin territory, will soon be surveyed and in market. Here are many millions of the [Pg 136] finest lands on earth, lying along the Des Pleines, Fox, and Rock rivers, and their tributaries, well watered, rich soil, a healthy atmosphere, and facilities to market. A temporary scarcity of timber in some parts of this region will retard settlements, for a time ”