Great Lakes

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Great Lakes, North America
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latitude: 44.7, longitude: -83.7
Browse map of Great Lakes 44°42′00.00″ N, 83°42′00.00″ W
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Great Lakes
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Great Lakes is a lake in North America at latitude 44°42′00.00″ North, longitude 83°42′00.00″ West.

Tagging

The Great Lakes are a series of five interconnected freshwater lakes represented together by Relation 1124369 – a "super-relation". The individual lakes are also single multipolygon relations, as noted below. (Caution: Each one of these relations is very large!)

The shorelines of the Great Lakes were tagged with natural=coastline. There has been some back-and-forth editing on Lake Ontario, but as of 2016 these shorelines are no longer tagged with natural=coastline.

Boundaries

U.S. state borders extend to the international boundary with Canada and to the center of Lake Michigan.

A common law principle holds that a town or township boundary extends to the centerline of a body of water if and only if a person can stand on one shore and discern objects on the opposite shore with the naked eye. This is not the case with the Great Lakes. [1] The following list explores facts and claims about boundaries that nonetheless extend into the Great Lakes, potentially due to statute law:

Illinois

  • At least one county's boundary extends to the state line with Michigan. [2]
  • At least one municipality's boundary extends 3 miles (4.8 km) into Lake Michigan. [3]

Indiana

County boundaries extend to the state line in Lake Michigan. [4]

Michigan

  • A 1947 interstate compact extends the state line into Lake Superior. [5]
  • Statutes refer to the waters as a part of the counties. [6]
  • Some counties have definite boundaries in the Great Lakes and their bays. [7][8][9] However, others only have jurisdiction "concurrent with" other counties. [10]
  • According to the federal Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS), townships in some counties extend to the shoreline, those in other counties extend a certain distance into the lake, and those in still others extend into the lake with straight lines and right angles, as if the township had been surveyed on land. In the Geographic Areas Reference Map overview, Alcona and Iosco counties share a portion of Lake Huron with one another but not with Huron County, which shares a different portion with Sanilac and St. Clair counties. However, county-level GARM and BAS maps show these counties with complete boundaries all the way to the international border. [11]
  • Cities and villages automatically annex submerged islands within 300 yards (270 m) of the shoreline. [12]

By county:

  • Alger County: BAS shows a lakeward boundary to the international border [13], but enabling act only mentions survey townships. [14]
  • Baraga County: BAS shows Baraga–Houghton county line inside Keweenaw Bay [15], but an 1885 act fixes it beginning at the bayshore. [16]
  • Charlevoix County: BAS shows nontrivial lakeward boundaries. [17] Peaine Township originally included "the rocks, bars and land under water, contiguous to the Beaver Islands, and nearer to them than any other land in" Emmet County [18], but the act reestablishing Charlevoix County only mentions survey townships [19], and the 1895 act transferring the Beaver Islands from Manitou County only mentions the townships that were erected as part of Emmet County in 1853 or Manitou County in 1855. [20]
  • Cheboygan County: BAS shows the northern boundary extending to the center of the Straits of Mackinac. [21] Enabling act didn't specify an eastern or northern bound within the state. [22] An 1873 act transferred a survey township to Presque Isle County without mentioning Lake Huron. [23]
  • Chippewa County: BAS depicts it with lakeward boundaries [24], even though none of the laws referenced in the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries mentions lakeward boundaries for this county. [25][26] The USGS 1951 Shallows and Sault Ste. Marie quads and 1984 Sault Ste. Marie South quad (1991 ed.) show the Soo–Bay Mills township line between R1W and R2W extending through Izaak Walton Bay to the international boundary and the Bay Mills–Superior township line separating Back and Waiska bays.
  • Delta County: BAS shows nontrivial boundary to Wisconsin state line in Green Bay. [28] USGS 1954 Escanba quad shows lakeward boundary with Menominee County but not with Schoolcraft County. Delta County's territorial overlap with Door County, Wisconsin, factored into a boundary dispute with Wisconsin from 1923 to 1936 in Michigan v. Wisconsin. [29]
  • Emmet County: Enabling act gives Emmet County concurrent jurisdiction with other counties over Green Bay and Lake Michigan, extends the boundaries of Peaine Township "so as to include the rocks, bars and land under water, contiguous to the Beaver Islands, and nearer to them than any other land in said county", and includes "All the Islands, bars, rocks and lands under water, contiguous to the … counties of Emmet and Charlevoix" in Emmet County. [30] However, the 1855 act establishing Manitou County and its townships only mentions the islands. [31] These townships became part of Charlevoix County in 1869.
  • Gogebic County: BAS shows nontrivial lakeward boundary [32], but enabling act is based on survey townships. [33]
  • Houghton County: BAS shows the boundary jutting into Lake Superior [34], but enabling act sets Lake Superior as the boundary and includes islands in the lake, making no mention of lakeward boundaries. [35][36] Subsequent changes reference fractional townships. [37] An 1885 act fixes the Baraga–Houghton county line beginning at the bayshore. [38]
  • Huron County: Enabling act extends the boundary to the center of Saginaw Bay and to the international border. [39] Charity Islands transferred to Bay County in 1879 without a definite boundary. [40]
  • Keweenaw County: GARM and BAS show nontrivial boundaries with several counties in Lake Michigan [41], but relevant laws make no mention of lakeward boundaries, only the inclusion of islands. [42][43][44][45] It was carved out of Houghton County, whose enabling act similarly makes no mention of lakeward boundaries. [46]
  • Leelanau County: BAS shows nontrivial lakeward boundary with Charlevoix County and at Wisconsin state line. [47] Enabling act includes "That portion of the state lying west of the county of Omeena [present-day Grand Traverse County] and of Grand Traverse bay, including the Manitou islands west of said bay". [48]
  • Luce County: BAS shows lakeward boundary to international border [49], but enabling act only mentions survey townships including fractional townships. [50]
  • Mackinac County: BAS shows nontrivial lakeward boundary connecting to Straits of Mackinac. [51] The 1853 act establishing Emmet County gives it concurrent jurisdiction with Mackinac County over Green Bay and Lake Michigan. [52]
  • Marquette County: BAS shows lakeward boundaries [53], but the enabling act and the 1861 act attaching part of Houghton County are described in terms of survey townships. [54][55]
  • Menominee County: Has has a well-documented lakeward boundary, but BAS maps show the boundary farther to the east than the relevant laws. [56]
  • Oceana County: Enabling act extends boundary to "the western boundary of the state, in Lake Michigan". [57] BAS shows boundaries extending out in a straight line. [58]
  • Ontonagon County: BAS shows nontrivial lakeward boundaries [59], but enabling act sets Lake Superior as the boundary. [60]
  • Presque Isle County: BAS shows lakeward boundaries extending to the international border [61], mostly consistent with the enabling act [62], except for the portion of Lake Huron north of the T36N–T37N line, which appears to be based on an 1873 act that only transferred a survey township from Cheboygan County. [63]
  • Schoolcraft County: BAS shows nontrivial lakeward boundaries [64], but 1862 act extending the county to Lake Michigan only refers to survey townships. [65]

Minnesota

  • A 1947 interstate compact extends the state line into Lake Superior. [66]
  • As of 1895, Cook County's boundary stops at the shore of Lake Superior. [67]
  • MnDOT and county governments publish datasets that clip county boundaries to the lakeshore for general purpose use. [68][69]

New York

County boundaries have extended into Lake Ontario and Lake Erie since as early as 1801. [70]

Ohio

  • Several county lines have extended to the international boundary with Canada since 1827. [71] The rest were extended to the international boundary in 1835 during the Toledo War. [72] ORC 1506.10 reserves Ohio's portion of Lake Erie for the state in terms of property rights [73], but counties are subsidiaries of the state.
  • Township boundaries generally do not extend beyond the southern shore of Lake Erie, but a board of county commissioners may take action to extend a township boundary as far as the international boundary. [74] Lake County's survey townships, and thus its civil townships, extend into the lake so that it meets the requirements for countyhood. [75]
  • Municipal boundaries may extend up to 2 miles (3.2 km) into Lake Erie, and there is a grandfather clause for boundaries prior to 1955. [76] The governments of Ottawa County and 16 municipalities have concurrent jurisdiction extending to the international border with Canada. [77]

Pennsylvania

All submerged lands lakeward of the ordinary low water mark are Commonwealth lands. [78]

Wisconsin

  • A 1947 interstate compact extends the state line into Lake Superior. [79]
  • County lines extend to the center of Lake Michigan. [80]

Great Lakes Circle Tour

See Great Lakes/Circle Tour, a system of scenic road (and at least one bicycle) routes that circumnavigate around each of the five Great Lakes (in progress as of 2022).

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