Huron, Lake

Second largest of the Great Lakes of North America, on the US-Canadian border; area 60,000 sq km/23,160 sq mi. Lake Huron is 331 km/205 mi long, lies at 177 m/581 ft above sea level, and reaches a depth of 230 m/755 ft. It is bounded on the north and east by Ontario, and on the west and southwest by Michigan. There are several small ports on its shores, and lumbering and fishing are important economic activities in the region.

Lake Huron is connected to Lake Superior via St Mary's River, and to Lake Michigan via the Straits of Mackinac. It drains south into Lake Erie through the St Clair River-Lake St Clair-Detroit River system. Grand Manitoulin Island, one of 3,000 islands, and the peninsula of Cabot's Head divide the lake into two sections, the northern section consisting of North Channel and Georgian Bay. For eight months of the year the lake is heavily used by shipping, especially by ‘lakers’ carrying iron ore from Lake Superior to Lake Erie.

The lake was first seen by Europeans in 1615. The French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, named it La Mer Douce (‘freshwater sea’); it was subsequently called Lac d'Orleans, but eventually, on account of the establishment of the Huron missions, it received the name Lac des Hurons or Huron Lake. Jesuit missionaries established the first European settlement here, on Georgian Bay, in 1638. For a long time the northern channel of the lake continued to be a highway for the fur trade. The Lake Huron Initiative Action Plan (2000) was set up to protect and restore the lake.