Lake Michigan | Depth, Freshwater, Size, & Map (2024)

Lake Michigan, third largest of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one lying wholly within the United States. Bordered by the states of Michigan (east and north), Wisconsin (west), Illinois (southwest), and Indiana (southeast), it connects with Lake Huron through the Straits of Mackinac in the north. The lake is 321 miles (517 km) long (north to south); it has a maximum width of 118 miles (190 km) and a drainage basin of about 45,500 square miles (118,000 square km), exclusive of its surface area, which is 22,300 square miles (57,757 square km). With a mean surface elevation of 579 feet (176 m) above sea level, the lake has a maximum depth of 923 feet (281 m). Currents are slight, with a generally southward drift along the western side, a northward drift along the eastern side, and at times counterclockwise swirls in the southern basin and around the Beaver Island group in the north. Approximately 100 streams flow into the lake, only a few of which are of appreciable size. The Manistee, Pere Marquette, White, Muskegon, Grand, Kalamazoo, and St. Joseph rivers enter the lake from the east. The Fox and Menominee rivers flow into Green Bay, a northwestern arm of the lake. The Chicago River flowed into the southwestern end of the lake but was reversed in 1900 so that it now drains through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal into the Des Plaines River at Joliet, Illinois. The northern end of the lake contains all of the islands, the largest of which is Beaver Island, Michigan.

The land adjacent to Lake Michigan is low and gently rolling, but wave-cut bluffs of rock occur in many places. Sand dunes are common along the southeastern shore, notably at Indiana Dunes National Park, where prevailing winds blow sand inland. The moderating influence of the lake accounts for the noted fruit-growing region along its eastern shore.

Lake Michigan is part of the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Seaway and, thus, handles international commerce. Although ice in the harbours limits navigation from mid-December through mid-April, the open lake rarely freezes over, and railway-car ferry service across the lake is maintained between some ports throughout the year.

The southern end of the lake abuts a great industrial complex centred on Chicago, which consumes large quantities of waterborne raw materials, principally iron ore, coal, and limestone; these are handled at the ports of Calumet (South Chicago) Harbor in Illinois and at Indiana (East Chicago) Harbor and Gary in Indiana. Some of the iron ore is loaded at Escanaba, Michigan, on the lake’s northern shore; but most is brought from the Lake Superior region. Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin, are centres of distribution of coal from Lake Erie ports. Grain is shipped from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago. Other major lake ports include Michigan City (Indiana); Waukegan (Illinois); Kenosha, Racine, and Manitowoc (Wisconsin); and Manistee, Ludington, Muskegon, Grand Haven, and Benton Harbor (Michigan).

The restocking of lake trout and the introduction of coho salmon have rejuvenated recreational and commercial fishing on the lake while also greatly reducing the population of alewives (small saltwater fish that entered the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway and created many problems when large numbers died off in springtime). Although pollution is threatening the ecological balance of the lake, popular summer-resort areas dot its shores.

In 1634 the French explorer Jean Nicolet became the first European to see Lake Michigan. The Jesuit Claude-Jean Allouez began missionary work among the Indians of Green Bay and the Fox River in 1668. The French explorer Louis Jolliet and the French missionary Jacques Marquette mapped the lake’s western shore from Green Bay to Chicago in 1673. Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, also of France, brought the first sailing ship to the lake in 1679, but it was lost in a storm on its return eastward with a cargo of furs. La Salle later established a trading post near St. Joseph, Michigan. The name of the lake is from the Algonquian Indian term michigami or misschiganin, meaning “big lake.”