Photos

This giant freighter ship, known on the Great Lakes as a Laker, is slowly making its way across Lake Superior. The longest Lakers are 1000 feet (300 meters) long. They carry about 80,000 tons of cargo each. Top speed is about 16 mph (25 kph). This Laker is probably carrying a load of lumber or possibly rich metals and minerals from the mines in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Michigan ranks fifth in exports among the 50 states, mostly because of trading through the Great Lakes with Canada. It is a remarkable system that is often overlooked, and the inland lakes require elaborate ports and waterways that are comparable with those along the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean coasts.

Lake Superior holds more water than the other four Great Lakes combined and is the deepest. It is 350 miles (565 kilometers) long and 160 miles (260 kilometers) wide. The lake is also the coldest of the Great Lakes. It is known for its spontaneous gales, which whip up tremendous waves like those seen in the oceans.

One of those sudden gales sunk the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, an 800-foot long Laker, in November of 1975. All 29 crew members drowned. The disaster has added to the aura of danger and mystery surrounding the folklore of the largest Great Lake. Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, introducing the disaster to the popular culture and perpetuating the folklore of the lake to an even wider audience.

This photo was taken as I was flying over Lake Superior in a 5-passenger float plane on my way back to Houghton from Isle Royale, a large island and national park in the middle of Lake Superior. This Laker was about 10 miles off the tip of the Keewenau Peninsula, and just as far from the town of Copper Harbor, Michigan.