Huron, Lake

Huron, Lake, second-largest of the five Great Lakes of central North America, located astride the boundary between the United States and Canada. It is bordered on the north and east by Ontario, Canada, and on the west by Michigan. The lake receives the waters of Lake Superior (via the St Marys River) and Lake Michigan (through the Straits of Mackinac), and drains into Lake Erie (by way of a system consisting of the St Clair River, Lake St Clair, and the Detroit River). The area of Lake Huron, including such arms as Georgian Bay and Saginaw Bay, is 59,600 sq km (23,000 sq mi), of which 36,001 sq km (13,900 sq mi) are in Canada. The lake's drainage basin covers about 134,000 sq km (51,737 sq mi). The maximum length of the lake is 332 km (206 mi), the greatest width is 295 km (183 mi), and the deepest point is 229 m (750 ft) below the surface.

Lake Huron has many islands, most of which are located in the north on the Canadian side of the boundary; the largest of these are the Manitoulin Islands—Manitoulin Island is the largest freshwater lake island in the world. The lake abounds in fish, but the population of the chief commercial species, whitefish and lake trout, seriously declined in the 1960s, mainly because of ravaging by the parasitic lamprey eel. Commercial fishing began to recover in the mid-1970s, as government programmes reduced the number of lampreys.

Lake Huron is heavily used by shipping vessels, especially lakers, the long, narrow vessels that carry iron ore from the Lake Superior region to ports on Lake Erie. From mid-December to early April, ice closes Lake Huron to navigation. The main ports on the lake are Midland, Collingwood, Goderich, and Sarnia, in Ontario, and Port Huron, Bay City, Alpena, Rogers City, and Cheboygan, in Michigan.

The first Europeans to see Lake Huron were the French explorers Étienne Brûlé, in about 1612, and Samuel de Champlain, in 1615. A settlement, Sainte Marie Among the Hurons, was established (1638) by Jesuit missionaries on Georgian Bay.