Thanks to COVID-19, all 12 of my previously scheduled author events (mid March to mid June, and then one in mid August) have been cancelled. Was I disappointed? Of course. I cancelled a trip to San Diego and Left Coast Crime, planned for a year. Missed Beeton Honey & Garden Festival, one of my favorite outdoor markets, along with the Alliston Potato Festival. Postponed the Base Borden Book Club (100+ members) and PROBUS Orangeville until…hard to say if those will ever happen again. And, yes, I have a basement full of book inventory, purchased to sell at all of the above. 

But I’m luckier than most, because we also own a small camp/cottage on Lake Superior, and so, after arranging for a house sitter, that’s where I headed. It’s a gorgeous spot, and while there are times I miss the convenience of suburban life (food delivery, grocery stores 10 minutes away) and my 5 minute drive to golf, I’ve settled into two excellent ladies 9-hole golf leagues (both 40-45 minute drive each way), endless sunsets, and a simpler way of life. My hubby would live here year round. Me, I can’t imagine the winters. But summers, well, that’s another matter.

And now, without further ado, here are 10 fun facts about Lake Superior:

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.