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CBalsagna t1_iu47tqb wrote

I love great lakes history, thanks for sharing this.

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maarzian t1_iu4z2fl wrote

You might enjoy “The mighty Fitz” by Edmund Fitzgerald, I didn’t grow up near the lakes and don’t know much about them but really enjoyed the book!

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BattleBlitz t1_iu533yk wrote

I don’t think it’s by Edmund Fitzgerald I believe that’s the ship the book is about.

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CandyCoatedDinosaurs t1_iu55reo wrote

It's an autobiography.

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rabbitpantherhybrid t1_iu5w8kl wrote

It's not a car, it would be a shipbiography.

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Krom1244 t1_iu62p8g wrote

This is objectively hilarious and I'm sad no one else has noticed it yet.

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zooropa42 t1_iu6c66d wrote

We've all noticed but are keeping our poker faces on 😂

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MalteseFalcon7 t1_iu549z2 wrote

I think it's a song, actually.

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tell_her_a_story t1_iu58ihv wrote

The ship is the Edmund Fitzgerald, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the ship by Gordon Lightfoot. "The Mighty Fitz" is a book about the loss of the ship, Edmund Fitzgerald.

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MalteseFalcon7 t1_iu594sl wrote

I'm pretty sure the singer is Edmund Fitzgerald, about a ship name Gordon Lightfoot, and the Mighty Fitz is an album by Fitz and the Tantrums... jk

Very haunting song, and history though.

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CBalsagna t1_iu53s4b wrote

As a clevelander, I’m a fan of that story and that beer! Shame so many lost their lives but that story is what started my interest in shipwrecks and the Great Lakes. To anyone unfamiliar they are right!

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BlizzardZHusky t1_iu7m6ni wrote

I found it pretty hard to follow. Kinda falls apart somewhere around the middle.

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dadams2217 t1_iu71yx7 wrote

I was kid in 1975 and back then my family had a boat that we sailed on the Great Lakes. One of my lasting memories from those days was seeing the Edmund Fitzgerald the summer before it sank. It was easy to remember the Edmund because of its unique name and, as the song says, “it was bigger than most”.

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katgarbagesack t1_iu7a90c wrote

If you’re a YouTube person (rather than a book person like other commenters) check out the Maritime Horrors channel. They talk about ships that sank or had some other crazy thing happen to them, and actually a lot of the videos happen to be Great Lakes cases. Like way more than you’d expect actually given that there’s so many other bodies of water in the world lol but they’re interesting.

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helenata t1_iu3hu03 wrote

Visited Lake Superior last month for the first time. The water, the beaches around Grand Marais and Picture Rocks makes it a special place on Earth!

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daveescaped t1_iu3ov4m wrote

I’m not a spiritual dude. But swimming in Lake Superior, it feels like nothing else. It takes water almost 300 years to flow out of the lake. It’s so goddamn cold and clear and deep. It feels like you can sense this spirit of something ancient and profound.

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TheGreatPiata t1_iu4f5ml wrote

I grew up on the Northern shores of Lake Superior. It never gets warm. Ever.

As far as lakes go, I've always felt it had an unforgiving presence. Probably because you often can't see the other side of it but also because it can get incredible rough on a stormy day.

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turtmcgirt t1_iu4iciy wrote

Southern shore we get a week or two a summer of nice water but you never know when

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rmorrin t1_iu4q5bu wrote

That's Ashland county and bayfield county right? I hear y'all got snow already.

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spdougherty t1_iu4vu31 wrote

Jeez, they got snow already and it’s been 70 degrees in PA. The world is ending.

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[deleted] t1_iu4zwee wrote

[deleted]

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spdougherty t1_iu7ezkz wrote

I love that smell and I can’t wait til I have it regularly. I’m a big fan of PA winter when it’s snowy but still nice with a few jackets on.

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rmorrin t1_iu4x3jd wrote

Naw just getting far more climate crazy. The world will be FINE. humans tho? Maybe not so much

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alabasterwilliams t1_iu5ae5t wrote

Something like 8 inches, didn’t last though.

It was quite beautiful!

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spdougherty t1_iu7f3bt wrote

That’s what she said.... sorry I hate these jokes but it was irresistible

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turtmcgirt t1_iu5mmgp wrote

Douglas Co. snow has fallen a few times but the grounds too warm for accumulation yet

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alabasterwilliams t1_iu5ajs2 wrote

Imma shout out Big Pete Road, Twin Falls and the mighty sandstone boulder that rocks back and forth with the waves.

You familiar?

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turtmcgirt t1_iu5miv2 wrote

Nope i grew up in Superior where the SS Meteor is been on it more times than I can count

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alabasterwilliams t1_iu6xu0i wrote

Turt, my dude, get yourself to Port Wing and soak up some of that sandstone laden south shore goodness.

Make a day trip and hit up the Delta Diner, best gahtdang Jalapeño Pancakes this side of Pasadena.

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DirectlyDisturbed t1_iu4lbnc wrote

I went kayaking on Superior off the coast of Wisconsin to the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan's UP a few years ago. The water was freakishly warm, something like 67-68 degrees. It was kind of eerie but really nice for a kayak trip

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AdviceNotAskedFor t1_iu4nffk wrote

While it never gets warm, you will get days when the top water blows in and makes it swimmable. I grew up in Duluth and have swam in soup many times.

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StatOne t1_iu6ej1x wrote

I met a funny, and interesting business associate at Management retreat; he was a 'boat person' and loved his time out on the lake. He had a swift power boat, that he loved taking ladies out for a spin, and a favoriate path to another shores fancy resturant. His last trip, he put on full power, arched out just a bit further, and turned for his distination .... which he didn't arrive at; he cut power, headed further South and opened it up again... nothing! He turned back West, and puttered along as fog rolled in. Thankfully, a mid size schoner came by, which he hoped was heading back to the port he had left. He had just enough gas to make it back. He could not figure up how he ended up so deep out in the more center of the lake. He said, "the lake just felt different that night", and glad he avoided being one of the mysterious missing boats that sometimes happens.

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rmorrin t1_iu4q2kq wrote

Hey man it'll get to like 70-80f in the first six feet on a 100°F day! Otherwise yes. I lived around lake superior nearly all my life and I have a sister who would regularly get nose bleeds from the huge temp swing in the levels of water.

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Carbidekiller t1_iu4evme wrote

It's so much more mundane when it's in your backyard but I bet it's like visiting the tropics or something in comparison

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daveescaped t1_iu4ks0b wrote

I’m from Michigan originally. I saw it as mostly mundane as well. But then one time I was backpacking in the Porkies and we got to a beach and were sweaty. We took of our packs and stripped down to our shorts and waded in and I remember diving below the surface. The water like a chilled drink. Crystal clear so I could see the rocks. I’d been reading The Living Great Lakes and maybe that influenced me but it was just magical. I was a heartbeat away from graduating from MSU and getting married and getting my first real job. It was like this moment of childlike wonder before adult life began.

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FrankGrimesApartment t1_iu538o7 wrote

Just looked it up, had no clue Lake Superior went to 1300 feet deep.

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Quorro t1_iu588bg wrote

Largest lake in the world by volume! It can hold the water of every other great lake combined.

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alabasterwilliams t1_iu5a376 wrote

Well, no. Close though!

It’s the largest by surface area. Third largest by volume.

Lake Baikal in Russia holds more water than the Great Lakes, I believe.

It’s like looking out over the ocean.

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wooltab t1_iu5zt7n wrote

Baikal holds something like a quarter of the world's freshwater, just crazy.

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StenchVaughn t1_iu5exsu wrote

Yeah, so is looking out into the Great Lakes

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alabasterwilliams t1_iu5f688 wrote

I meant looking out at Lake Superior, I get to stare at it every day :)

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thosedamnmouses t1_iu7mpdx wrote

I think its the 4th by volume? And not largest by surface area. Caspian Sea is a lake.

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alabasterwilliams t1_iu9uqv4 wrote

When I checked yesterday, it said 3rd largest freshwater lake by volume, first by surface area. The Caspian sea is technically a lake, but it isn’t freshwater.

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truemcgoo t1_iu5aaj3 wrote

It’s third largest by volume and largest by surface area…I grew up a stones throw from Lake Superior literally had to learn this in elementary school, not trying to be a dick just immediately popped in my head. Lake Superior is a beast, I’ve done all sorts of stupid things in and around that lake, it’s come close to killing me twice, probably my favorite place in the world.

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Traevia t1_iu7qd9f wrote

If you took the volume from the Great Lakes you could sink the continental US in 6 feet of water IIRC.

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Archelon_ischyros t1_iu5fxst wrote

They'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd put 15 more miles behind her.

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WorldMusicLab t1_iu65j97 wrote

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee.

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HogDad1977 t1_iu5i6bf wrote

For anyone interested in Whaleback ships you can tour one in Superior, Wisconsin. It's the S S Meteor Maritime Museum and it's an awesome tour.

Edit: Just looked and it's closed for the season until May.

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obsidianop t1_iu6ib1n wrote

It's awesome but also fairly bizarre. It's like they parked it there but they never really cleaned it up, preserved it, or made it a museum. There's 50 year old canned food in the kitchen, there's still tons of oil sludge in the bottom, and let's just say keep your kids away from the paint. But worth doing.

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PruneBrothers t1_iu6oglo wrote

Once camped on a beach at Whitefish Bay where a lot of the ship wrecks are. It was sort of eerie looking out into the water and knowing underneath are tales of lost ships and people.

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GothWitchOfBrooklyn t1_iu5brot wrote

I visited the GL shipwreck museum this summer on a vacation through the UP, it was awesome

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BillyCee34 t1_iu65bw9 wrote

Whaleback: Shot of whiskey followed by a shot of whale oil.

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Clavis_Apocalypticae t1_iu6mo6q wrote

Does anyone know where the love of god goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

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___deleted- t1_iu6xyvm wrote

Steamer named Maunaloa entered service 1899.

US had annexed Hawaii in 1898.

The Hawaiian monarchy was deposed in 1893. Not our best moment.

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pilotpete152 t1_iu6gfip wrote

Kinda crazy how unforgiving the Great Lakes are.

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ChzburgerQween t1_iu7cuy6 wrote

COOL. This is so cool. Michigander here and a history nerd so this is the content for me

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