Lake Huron

Lake Huron, second largest of the five Great Lakes of central North America. Located astride the boundary between the United States and Canada, Lake Huron is bordered on the north and east by Ontario, Canada, and on the west by Michigan. The lake receives the waters of Lake Superior, the largest Great Lake, via the Saint Marys River, and the waters of Lake Michigan through the Straits of Mackinac. Lake Huron drains into Lake Erie by way of a system consisting of the Saint Clair River, Lake Saint Clair, and the Detroit River. The area of Lake Huron, including such arms as Georgian Bay and Saginaw Bay, is 59,600 sq km (23,000 sq mi), of which 36,001 sq km (about 13,900 sq mi) are in Canada. The lake's drainage basin covers about 134,000 sq km (about 51,737 sq mi). The maximum length of the lake is 332 km (about 206 mi), the greatest width is 295 km (about 183 mi), and the maximum depth is 229 m (750 ft).

Lake Huron has many islands, most of which are located in the north and belong to Canada; the largest are among the Manitoulin Islands. The lake abounds in fish, but the population of the chief commercial species, whitefish and lake trout, seriously declined in the 1960s, mainly because of ravaging by the parasitic lamprey eel, which began thriving in the lake in the late 1930s. Commercial fishing began to recover in the mid-1970s, as Canadian and American government programs reduced the number of lampreys.

Lake Huron is heavily used by shipping vessels, especially lakers, the long, narrow vessels that carry iron ore from the Lake Superior region to ports on Lake Erie. From mid-December to early April, ice closes Lake Huron to navigation. The main ports on the lake are Midland, Collingwood, Goderich, and Sarnia, in Ontario, and Port Huron, Bay City, Alpena, Rogers City, and Cheboygan, in Michigan.

The Huron, a confederacy of aboriginal tribes of the Iroquoian family, historically inhabited the area east of Lake Huron. The Huron lived mainly by agriculture, but they also relied on the lake for fishing. Their population totaled between 10,000 and 30,000 in the early 1600s, but declined quickly after the arrival of the Europeans in the area. The first white people to see Lake Huron probably were the French explorers Étienne Brûlé, in about 1612, and Samuel de Champlain, in 1615. The initial lakeshore settlement was established in 1638 by Jesuit missionaries on Georgian Bay.