Lake Superior

Of all the U.P.'s remarkable features, nothing rivals in importance and worldwide recognition the body of water that forms the peninsula's entire northern border.

Lake Superior is remarkable for many reasons:

• It is the world's largest freshwater lake in surface area. Its 31,700 square miles makes it roughly the size of South Carolina and larger than the Czech Republic.
•It is a deep lake, far deeper than the other Great Lakes. Its deepest point, over 1,300 feet, is 40 miles north of Munising.
• It is a cold lake, much colder at its surface that the other Great Lakes. Even in the middle of summer, its offshore temperature typically stays in the 50s F., a good 20 degrees F. lower than the other lakes.
• It is an exceptionally clear lake. Its average underwater visibility is 27 feet. In places one can see 100 feet down.
• Among the earth's most prominent features, Superior is probably the youngest. Its current appearance emerged only about 10,000 years ago after the glaciers which helped form it melted. Its present elevation, 600 feet above sea level, was established only 2,000 years ago when Lake Michigan and Lake Huron levels suddenly dropped, creating the rapids at Sault Ste. Marie and the need for locks to lift and lower boats 27 feet to get to and from the other lakes.
• Superior contains an enormous amount of water, 10% of all the surface freshwater on earth. The combined volume of all the other Great Lakes together isn't close to Superior's 2,900 cubic miles.
• Lake Superior creates the world's greatest snow effect. This surprisingly rare phenomenon has a huge effect on winter life in the U.P. The Keweenaw Peninsula, reaching far out into the lake, gets the biggest effect. Sometimes in the Keweenaw it will snow steadily for days on end. Average snowfall there is over 200 inches a year.
• Before Europeans arrived in the 17th century, huge fish swam in Superior. Explorers reported sturgeon up to 9 feet long and pike over 7 feet long. Today both the lake's sturgeon and muskellunge can grow as large as 5 feet and 80 lbs.
• Lake Superior is the Great Lakes' most pristine not just because it is the uppermost, but because 90% of the 2,980-mile shoreline is forested. This means run-off from agricultural and urban areas is far less than for the other lakes.
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• Within Lake Superior's watershed there grows the world's second largest number of native orchids (58).
• Were there to be a major environmental catastrophe for Lake Superior, the effects would be especially devastating because it would take 191 years for all its water today to be replaced with new water.

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