WHY DO YOU THINK THEY'RE CALLED "GREAT" LAKES? Part four, Lake Erie

Thanks to rabesphoto for this photo of a Frozen Lake Erie   

Throughout most of the 17th century the Iroquois tribes settled along Lakes Erie and Ontario prevented exploration of the the lower lakes. These fierce warriors meant torture and death to any Frenchmen who tried to pass through. Instead explorers used the rivers out of Lake Ontario and portaged into Lake Huron sending new explorations North to Lake Superior. It was not until 1669 that Louis Jolliet explored Lake Erie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Wars#Great_Peace_of_Montreal

http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/cmh/page-40-eng.asp

http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/cmh/page-39-eng.asp 

There are thirty one islands in Lake Erie from the island village of Put in Bay Ohio, known as a "party" island for young people, to the Canadian Pelee Island where there is a "fragile and unique ecosystem" with plants rarely found in Canada, and two endangered snakes, to Kelley's Island which offers beaches and hiking and biking and glacial grooves left in the limestone. There are also reports of a Lake Erie Monster seen in its waters. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_erie

At an average depth of only 62 feet, winds over Lake Erie quickly kick up strong waves and storm surges, leaving the Lake's floor littered with shipwrecks, that are perfectly preserved in the salt free, cold water.

 Thanks to Mtbangert for this photo of West Pierhead Lighthouse, Cleveland OH  

Thanks to Nicholas_T for this photo of Lake Erie bluffs, David M. Roderick Wildlife Reserve, Erie County PA

Erie carries the waters of Superior, Michigan, and Huron eastward across three states, and 241 miles later all that water suddenly plunges 173 feet into Lake Ontario, at a place called Niagara Falls. The most powerful waterfalls in North America, Niagara shrouds itself in a perpetual mist and rainbows. Expect a bad hair day if you ever visit them. 

At number six on Travel and Leisure's list of the World's Most-Visited Tourist Attractions, Niagara Falls' annual 22.5 million visitors beats out the Grand Canyon, all the Disney World Parks and even the Eiffel Tower in Paris France for tourists. 

Niagara is a spectacular sight and even the photos below cannot do it justice, so check out this link to a video of the Maid of the Mist––boats that carry tourists to the foot of the Falls. 
Niagara Falls Maid of the Mist  Thanks fiftytwopence.

View of the American Falls at Niagara 

Photo by Pluma of Niagara Falls from the Canadian side––Horsehoe Falls   Vivian

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY'RE CALLED "GREAT" LAKES? Part Three, Lake Huron

Welcome to Michigan's "Sunrise Side"––The shores of Lake Huron. Much quieter and just a teensy bit nicer than the heavily traveled shores of Lake Michigan––Lake Huron is where you go for true relaxation. Walk its sandy beaches for miles, enjoy a bonfire on the beach, and it begins to feel as if you have its entire 3,827 miles of coastline to yourself.

The residents like it this way, so I'd appreciate you not telling anyone about this gem of a Great Lake, please. : )

The early French explorers called this body of water La Mer Douce or Fresh Water Sea, though it was called "Lac des Hurons" on their early maps. It is 183 miles from the Michigan shore to the Canadian side. Huron carries the waters of Superior and Michigan, from the Straits of Mackinac, 206 miles south, where it suddenly narrows into the St. Clair River at Port Huron Michigan (a great place for ship watching). From there it flows into beautiful Lake St. Clair, then into the Detroit River and on into Lake Erie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Huron

Lake Huron

I could mention where this is. But then everyone would know 

Under the Blue Water Bridge to Canada, ships enter the St. Clair River at Port Huron

Lake St. Clair boat traffic for Detroit's 300th Anniversary July 2001

Sharing the channel on Lake St. Clair

On into Lake Erie

Vivian : )

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY ARE CALLED "GREAT" LAKES? Part Two, Lake Michigan

Thanks to Dave Herholz for this photo of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline

Once again a Frenchman is credited with discovering a Great Lake. Searching for a "South Sea" to the Far East Jean Nicolet left Quebec in July of 1634 with seven Hurons paddling canoes. Lake Michigan must have seemed like an ocean to Jean, because by the time he arrived in Green Bay Wisconsin that Autumn he was convinced he was about to meet some exotic Far Eastern peoples. Trying to make an impression he dawned flowing robes and announced himself by firing pistols into the air ... but all he did was frighten a few members of the native Indian tribes. 

http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/history/1600s_1700s.html

Today, twelve million people live along Lake Michigan's 1600 miles of shoreline. Because of it's many sandy beaches it's often call the nation's "third coast", attracting millions more tourists every summer. 

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/greatlk.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_michigan

Noted for vibrant sunsets, spectacular sand dunes, and the City of Chicago––Michigan is perhaps the most well known of the five Great Lakes. Stretching from the Straits of Mackinac at the tip of Michigan's mitten, more than three hundred miles south to Chicago Illinois, it is the only Great Lake contained entirely within US borders. Four states line its shores, including Wisconsin and Indiana.

Sunset at Sleeping Bear Dunes

Sleeping Bear Dunes Michigan. Thanks to the National Park Service

Portage Indiana, Lake Michigan Shoreline

The ferry boat SS Badger departing Manitowoc Wisconsin for the 118 mile trip to Michigan

Thanks to Madmaxmarchhare@en.wikipedia

Even a colorful character like Jean Nicolet would be awed by the lake he discovered. 

Vivian

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY'RE CALLED "GREAT" LAKES? Part One, Superior

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes

These images of the five Great Lakes—(left to right) Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario—show ice beginning to build up around the shores of each of the lakes, with snow on the ground across virtually the entire scene. This image is made from observations by the Terra MODIS instrument on January 27, 2005.  

The Oxford American Dictionaries defines the word "lake" as a large body of water surrounded by land. Obviously the Oxfords have never been to Michigan. I mean there's large bodies of water surrounded by land ... and then there's sweet water seas, as the early French called the Great Lakes. 

The two peninsulas of Michigan, surrounded on three sides by Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, give the state more coastline than any other in the US, except Alaska.

The Great Lakes system begins with Lake Superior in the far North. Fifty three rivers feed its 31,700 sq. miles of surface water, the combined area of several small US states. Beginning in Duluth Minnesota, Superior ends 350 miles east, at the St. Mary's River, and the City of Sault Ste. Marie MI, where the Soo Locks control more than a twenty foot drop into Lake Huron.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/superior/superiorfacts.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Tributaries_of_the_Great_Lakes
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/area.shtml

Split Rock Lighthouse, Silver Bay, Minnesota

Duluth Minnesota, photo by Jakes18

Ice on North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota taken by Jeff Gunderson http://epa.gov/greatlakes/image/vbig/495.jpg

December, 1999, the motor vessel Oglebay Norton passes safely through the St. Marys River after Coast Guard icebreakers did their job earlier on the river  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_Marys_River_winter.jpg  

A one thousand foot freighter inches into one of the Soo Locks

Since the French sailing ship Le Griffon, vanished in Lake Michigan in 1679, to the seven hundred foot freighter, Edmond Fitzgerald, lost during a storm on Superior in 1975, there are almost five thousand shipwrecks lying at the bottom of the Great Lakes. Shipwreck tours and museums abound in Michigan. 

Just imagine taking on a lake the size of Superior in a canoe, as the early French explorers did.               

http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=S0121.htm

Vivian

WHY NO ONE EVER TRULY CONQUERS THE FRENCH

The French first settled along the Detroit River in 1701. Sixty years later, Detroit was lost to the British and after the American Revolution it became part of the United States. Immigrants from all over the world flooded the region until French was no longer heard on the streets of Detroit. 

Yet those first French settlers are not gone. Their names dot the street map of modern Detroit––Beaubien, Campau, St. Aubin, St. Antoine, Charlevoix, Dequindre, Navarre, and hundreds more. Their 10th great grandchildren still carry their French names.

On the Canadian side of the Detroit River, many still speak French. According to Wikipedia, River Canard Ontario just south of Windsor, "... is home to one of the last vestiges of the French-speaking inhabitants of the Detroit River Region..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Canard,_Ontario

And the Virtual Museum of Canada claims that, "... vestiges of ancient eras remain, echoes of old Détroit that can still be heard in the folklore that was handed down through oral tradition for more than three hundred years." Who Are the Detroit River French?  

Occasionally the strange tales of the old French rise up to the streets of Detroit too, as every spring Detroiters are Chasing the The Nain Rouge From Detroit.

No one ever truly conquers the French. 

Vivian

MY PLACE FOR MICHIGAN HISTORY

The Mackinac Bridge joins Michigans Lower and Upper Peninsula

Everyone has heard of Mackinac Island. Situated between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas, it's been a tourist haunt for over a hundred years, famed for it's Grand Hotel, horse drawn carriages, jetboat ferries and fudge.

But tucked away under the Mackinac Bridge on the lower peninsula is my favorite place to discover Michigan history––Colonial Michilimackinac. According to the Jesuit Relations, the odd name derives from the Mishinimaki or Mishinimakinagog, an Algonquin tribe that first occupied Mackinac Island.  This fort and fur trading post first built around 1715, was reconstructed according to fifty years of archeological evidence.

From colonial women cooking real meals over an open hearth, to Native Americans sitting outside their lodge, to the redcoat explaining why British soldiers were required to have at least two teeth in their mouth, and the fur trapper explaining why beaver pelts were valuable and where the term "mad hatter" came from––Colonial Michilimackinac's historical interpreters are fun and interesting. It's a great time for all ages.

Here's a video from the  

Colonial Michilimackinac website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQC-V50dBSk&lr=1

My own photos are below, along with a map. 

Michilimackinac was lost to the British in 1761 after the French and Indian War, but life continued on for those settled there. Even after a surprise attack by the local Ojibwe as part of Pontiac's Rebellion in June 1763, marriages went on during the year the Indians held the fort.
Married at Michilimackinac

The British regained Michilimackinac, but in 1781 they removed all its structures to Mackinac Island and burned the remains of the fort. Today Archeologists at Michilimackinac, dig for bits and pieces of French Michigan history. 



Vivian

THE BLACK ROBES OF NEW FRANCE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Marquette

Père Marquette and the Indians

Wilhelm Lamprecht (German 1838-1906) 

I once heard the Jesuit order of priests called the Marine Corp of the Catholic Church. In their quest to convert new souls to Christianity the Jesuits were always the first men on the beach, at the forefront of exploration all over the world.

Born in 1491 a year before Columbus discovered the New World, St. Ignatius of Loyola grew up to found the Society of Jesus in 1540. Shortly after, their priests were sent off to India, China and Japan. Jesuits were heavily involved in exploring North and South America and they figured heavily in Detroit and Michigan history. 

The first missionaries to arrive in New France were Recollet priests in 1615. However, their missions ultimately failed and ten years later the Jesuits arrived. They were hearty men of action and their zeal to gather the souls of the indigenous people to God took them into the Great Lakes region and Michigan's upper peninsula. Fr. Jacques Marquette founded a mission at Sault Ste. Marie in 1668 and St. Ignace in 1671. He later traveled by canoe down the Mississippi River with explorer Louis Joliet, almost to the Gulf of Mexico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Marquette
http://www.chroniclesofamerica.com/french/jesuit_priests_in_new_france.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi_watershed_map_1.jpg

Besides their search for new souls to evangelize, the Jesuits tried to protect indigenous peoples from exploitation by the French traders--Brandy, for furs or prostitution among the native women, drunkenness and gambling destroyed the Jesuit's good works, leaving the local tribes in chaos. The Jesuit's public denunciations of these activities set them into trouble with the powers of commerce in New France, including Detroit's founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

"The establishment of Detroit (1701) by La Mothe Cadillac, the French commander at Mackinac, drew away the Hurons from the latter post, and (Fr.) Carheil could no longer remain there. He had, moreover, provoked the enmity of Cadillac, and also of the fur-traders, by his opposition to the brandy traffic, so prevalent at all the trading-posts, and so demoralizing to both French and Indians."
http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_50.html

Fr. Carheil was adamant in denouncing bad behavior at the French garrisons and called to abolish them. 

"CLXXVII. (Fr.) Étienne de Carheil, who has been long stationed at Mackinac, writes (August 30, 1702) to Governor Callières a long account and vigorous denunciation of the lawless conduct and licentiousness that Prevail among both the savages and the French in that region.

“the two Infamous sorts of Commerce which have brought the missions to the brink of destruction: . . . the Commerce in brandy, and the Commerce of the savage women with the French. Both are carried on in an equally public manner, without our being able to remedy the evil, because we are not supported by the Commandants. . . . All the villages of our savages are now only Taverns, as regards drunkenness; and sodoms, as regards immorality — from which we must withdraw, and which we must abandon to the just Anger and vengeance of God.”
http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_65.html

The Jesuits must have had successes with the native tribes because in 1728 the Hurons requested a "Black Robe" as they called the Jesuits, be sent to Detroit to minister to them. Fr. Armand De La Richardie, S.J came from Quebec to establish a mission among them. That mission eventually became Assumption Church in Windsor Ontario.
http://www.assumption.rcec.london.on.ca/history.html

In researching The Last Lord of Paradise, I found this seventy three volume set to be especially interesting. However it is now only available through a subscription.
The Jesuit relations and allied documents : travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791 : the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes / edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites..

This set is also available at http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/ though not all volumes are yet entered.

I know, it's a very long title, but these books contain first hand accounts of the earliest explorations and interactions of Jesuit priests with the indigenous peoples of North America. This collection of reports, letters, journals, reveals their sincere efforts to convert them to Christianity. Sometimes they were successful, often not, but they admit their disappointments and despair, along with their successes. Their deep faith in God and their religious zeal shows on every page.

From Lake Superior to Detroit to Little Traverse Bay, Jesuits are mentioned on fourteen historical markers that dot the state of Michigan.

http://www.michmarkers.com/pages/S0121.htm

The Society of Jesus exists today, a world wide community still in service to Christ and the Pope.

http://www.jesuit.org/

Vivian