USA Great Lakes Region
Destination Guide & Hotel Reservations
Swept by tumultuous storms and traversed by fleets of oceangoing tankers, the
interconnected Great Lakes form the largest body of fresh water in the world; Lake
Superior alone is more than three hundred miles from east to west. Left untouched, the
shores of these inland seas can rival any coastline: Superior and the northern reaches of
Lake Michigan offer stunning rocky peninsulas, craggy cliffs, tree-covered islands,
mammoth dunes and deserted beaches. For lengthy stretches along Lake Erie, and the bottom
lips of lakes Michigan and Huron, however, sluggish waters lap against large cities and
the unused wharves of decaying ports.
To varying degrees, all the states that line the American side of the lakes - OHIO, MICHIGAN, INDIANA,
ILLINOIS, WISCONSIN and MINNESOTA - share this mixture of natural beauty and aging
industry. Cities such as Chicago and Detroit, with all their good and bad points - and Chicago
in particular, with its magnificent architecture, museums, music and restaurants, is an
unmissable destination - should not be seen as characterizing the entire region. Within
the first hundred miles or so of the lakeshores, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota,
tens of thousands of smaller lakes and tumbling streams are scattered through a luxuriant
rural wilderness; beyond that, you are soon in the heart of the Corn Belt, where you can
drive for hours and encounter nothing more than a succession of crossroads communities,
grain silos and giant barns. Garrison Keillor's wry stories about the fictional backwater
town of Lake Wobegon (where "all the women are strong and all the men are
beautiful"), set in Minnesota, carry more than a ring of truth.
The first foreigner to reach the Great Lakes, the French explorer Champlain in 1603,
found the region inhabited mostly by tribes of Huron, Iroquois and Algonquin. France soon
established a network of military forts, Jesuit missions and fur-trading posts - which
entailed treating the native people as allies rather than subjects. Territorial disputes
with their colonial rivals, however, culminated in the French and Indian War with
Britain from 1754 to 1761. The victorious British felt under no constraints to deal
equitably with the Native Americans, and things grew worse with large-scale American
settlement after independence. The Black Hawk War of 1832 put a bloody end to
traditional life.
Settlers from the east were followed to Wisconsin and Minnesota by waves of Scandinavians
and Germans , while the lower halves of Illinois and Indiana attracted Southerners
, who attempted to maintain slavery and resisted Union conscription during the Civil War.
These areas often still have more in common with neighboring Kentucky and Tennessee than
with the industrial cities of their own states.
The impetus given to industry by the Civil War was encouraged by abundant
supplies of ores and fuel and efficient transportation by water and rail. As lakeshore
cities like Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland grew, their populations swelled with hundreds
of thousands of poor blacks who migrated from the Deep South in search of jobs.
Many worked in munitions during the two world wars. But a lack of planning, inadequate
housing and mass layoffs at times of low demand bred conditions that led to the riots of
the late 1960s and current inner-city deprivation. Depression in the 1970s ravaged the
economy - especially the automobile industry, on which so much else depended - and
brought the unwanted title of " Rust Belt ". Since then, urban centers
have battled back, with Cleveland , Ohio, perhaps the most dramatic example of a
turnaround in fortunes.
During the summer, breezes coming off the Great Lakes keep the temperature down
to a comfortable average of 70°F, though heat waves can push temperatures over 100°F.
Even in spring and fall, freezing occurs in the northern reaches of the region, where
winter readings of -50°F are not uncommon and parts of the lakes are frozen solid.
Public transportation serves all the major towns. Amtrak 's national hub is in
Chicago and its routes spread across the entire region; Greyhound operates
reasonably frequent services to nearly all urban centers. The best way to appreciate the
sculptured shorelines of the lakes themselves, however, is to travel the lonely minor
roads by car . In the northwest, cycling alongside Superior and the northern
parts of Lake Michigan can be quite enjoyable.
Reserve a Hotel Room in The US Great Lakes Region
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