Erie ... A lake? A river? Or just plain Great?

Lake Erie has defined the northern boundary of my world all of my life. As such, it has become, sadly, ordinary and this has allowed it to slowly sink into a sort of obscurity. To better explain this, I would say that I know it's there, I curse at all of its "effects," and I occasionally glance at it. And when I do look at it, it is rarely the reason or focal point of my view. It is just a simple backdrop to everything else in my sight. Sure, there are occasions when I actually do go to the lake to see the lake. These occasions are almost always associated with stormy weather, or a rare summer sunset. Of course, there are other times when I venture to the lake to see what birds it has to offer. But mostly, I ignore the Great Lake called Erie, despite its giant and sometimes overwhelming presence. I have written about Lake Erie many times, and the theme often centers around my disconnect with it. It is time that I changed this. It is my hope that this piece centers around the amazing attributes of this Great Lake. And, more importantly, inspires readers to venture out to see the lake, and to do so for the lake's sake. While Lake Erie has the fourth largest surface area of the five Great Lakes, its volume is miniscule. At its longest point, it is about 241 miles; at its widest point, it is 57 miles. At its deepest, it is 210 feet, but it only averages 62 feet from surface to bottom. Out in the lake's western basin, which is home to the Lake Erie islands, the lake only averages 24 feet. Lake Erie contains about 116 cubic miles of water, which equates to some 127 trillion gallons. (Which depends on how many toddlers are scooping out buckets of water from a Lake Erie shoreline! Or how many people are wading, waist deep, just because they think a park restroom is just too unnecessary.) Just for comparison, Lake Ontario has a smaller surface area, but contains 393 cubic miles of water or 432 trillion gallons. Its deepest point is 802 feet, with an average of 283 feet. That's a lot more water! Lake Erie, and the rest of the Great Lakes, are relatively young. Lake Erie, in its present configuration, is only 4,000 years old. Before that time, there were other strangely shaped lakes that filled the basin that was carved out by the last Ice Age's glacier. (Look up Lakes Warren, Whittlesey and Maumee.) Lake Erie is the southernmost of the Great Lakes. Despite this, it is the only one to regularly freeze. The reason rests mostly on the lake's volume and not its location. To make up for this, Lake Erie is the warmest of the Great Lakes in the summer. It occasionally hits 80 degrees, and it does so more and more often. But, what exactly is Lake Erie? By some definitions it is, indeed, a lake. But by others, it is an inland sea. I can buy both of these, but there is another definition that might be most accurate. This one says Lake Erie is really a river. Without hesitation, I can go for this one, too. But let me explain. Most of the water that feeds Lake Erie comes from the Detroit River. Above the Detroit River you have Lake St. Clair, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Basically, all of these flow into Lake Erie. (As does hundreds of rivers and streams. With Lake Erie being as small as it is, one would wonder why it doesn't constantly overflow. Well, it doesn't because its water moves really, as in relatively, fast from west to east -- or from the Detroit River to the Niagara River. In fact, it takes water just three years to pass through the entire lake. Doesn't seem fast? Compare this to Lake Superior where water takes 191 years to exit the biggest of our Great Lakes. The other confusing thing about Lake Erie is the fact that its water is "fresh," meaning it has a very low salt content. This seems surprising because the lake sits on top of one of the largest salt deposits on Earth. But this salt is some 2,000 feet below the lake, and as we already stated, Lake Erie's deepest point is just 210 feet. So, with bzillions of gallons of fresh rainwater being fed into Lake Erie (and the other Great Lakes) and with Lake Erie's turnover rate, Erie remains fresh water. But this might not be permanent. While not as of yet statistically significant, the amount of salt that communities use to clear their winter roads of snow and ice does eventually make its way to the lake. Despite having the smallest volume of the Great Lakes, Erie is still really, really big, and because of this, salt intrusion is quickly diluted. But there may come a day when our habits cause a major change in Erie's freshwater definition. And, ironically, a large portion of this road salt comes from the salt deposits below Lake Erie. According to many sources, Lake Erie has the highest biodiversity of the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, this starts with the lake's ability to host primary producers, and the biggest primary producer is algae. Aided by farming runoff, Lake Erie gained the reputation of producing annual hazardous algal blooms each summer. But through programs like H2Ohio, such blooms have been greatly reduced. As such, the building block of algae leads to the lake hosting some 120 different fish species. This, of course, includes walleye, yellow perch and steelhead. It is easy to talk about Lake Erie's "effects." This includes winter snow and springtime cooler-near-the-lake scenarios. But it also included one more thing. Since Lake Erie isn't nearly positioned west to east, it is actually southwest to northeast, it produces some of the greatest summer sunsets on Earth. Last I heard, these sunsets are free. And also, they are purported to bring lasting appreciation for our neighboring, and awesome, Great Lake Erie!