10 Fun Facts About Lake Superior

by | Apr 16, 2022 | One Writer's Journey | 10 comments

I’m going to be heading back to our camp in Northern Ontario soon and so I thought this would be a good time to revisit 10 Fun Facts about Lake Superior, along with a few pix.
  1. Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes, shared by Ontario to the north, Minnesota to the west, and Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the south.
  2. The Ojibwe name for the lake is kitchi-gummi or gichi gami, meaning great sea or great water. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the name as “Gitche Gumee” in The Song of Hiawatha, as did Gordon Lightfoot in his song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
  3. According to the University of Wisconsin, the Objibways believe Lake Superior is protected by Nanabijou, Spirit of the Deep Sea Water.
  4. The average depth of Superior is about 500 feet. The deepest point in Lake Superior (about 40 miles north of Munising, Michigan) is 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the surface.
  5. Superior holds about 3,000 cubic miles of water— enough to fill all the other Great Lakes plus Lake Erie three times over. Its volume is second only to Russia’s Lake Baikal.
  6. The surface area of Lake Superior (31,700 square miles or 82,170 square kilometers) is greater than the combined areas of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
  7. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum approximates 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost in Lake Superior shipwrecks. Thanks to Gordon Lightfoot, one of the best known is the Edmund Fitzgerald, which lost her entire crew of 29 men on Lake Superior November 10, 1975, 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan.
  8. Because of its location north of Lake Huron, which was discovered first by Brûlé, the lake’s name comes from the French word lac supérieur, which means “upper lake.”
  9. The lake is about 350 miles (563 km) in length and 160 miles (257 km) in width. If straightened out, the Lake Superior shoreline could connect Duluth and the Bahama Islands.
  10. In the summer, the sun sets more than 35 minutes later on the western shore of Lake Superior than at its southeastern edge.

10 Comments

  1. Becky Ross Michael
    Becky Ross Michael on April 17, 2022 at 8:26 pm

    #10 was totally new to me! So interesting…

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on April 17, 2022 at 8:57 pm

      An amazing fact, Becky!

  2. Ellen Byron
    Ellen Byron on April 16, 2022 at 11:22 am

    Love this! I never knew much about the Great Lakes and I love your photos. I do remember the acronym HOMES from grade school: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior!

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on April 16, 2022 at 11:46 am

      OMG, Ellen, we never learned HOMES in school. Or at least I don’t remember that. What fun is that!

  3. Carolanne J. Papoutsis
    Carolanne J. Papoutsis on April 16, 2022 at 8:50 am

    Wow! I never knew any of this. Thanks Judy. Carolanne

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on April 16, 2022 at 9:28 am

      Thanks Carolanne, it’s an amazing lake.

  4. Rose Kerr
    Rose Kerr on April 16, 2022 at 8:47 am

    Love the fun facts!
    Beautiful photos of Lake Superior and Gibbs. We’re planning a trip up to Northern Ontario sometime this summer, it’ll be nice to see the great lake again.
    Enjoy your summer at camp!

  5. Vicki Weisfeld
    Vicki Weisfeld on April 16, 2022 at 8:08 am

    That was fun! Such a beautiful place.