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.