Michigan is defined by her bodies of water – not just the Great Lakes, but small lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Of course, Michigan shares the Great Lakes with several other states, and Canada, although four of the five big lakes form the Michigan borders.
This video, by David Helpling in his Sunday Loops series, demonstrates the beauty of water in its transformation every Spring from ice back to water.
One of Michigan’s unofficial mottos is “The Great Lakes State”. Like Minnesota, Michigan is really a ‘land of lakes’. This Michigan state nickname refers to the four “Great Lakes” that meet the Michigan shores: Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Michigan is also home of more than 11,000 inland lakes. License plates bore the name “The Great Lakes State” from 1968-1975 and again from 1979-1983.
Another is “Water Wonderland” or “Water Winter Wonderland”
Once again a reference to the large water resources in Michigan. In fact you are never more than 6 miles away from a natural water reserve and never more than 87.2 miles from one of the Great Lakes shores. This video, produced by the “Pure Michigan” campaign, is all about the water.
Stella's Place 
When I was in elementary school, this book was a prize for an essay… https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/397157.Paddle_to_the_Sea This was a children’s version of a watery journey…
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Fun little book! I love books that make it fun to learn.
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Thank you, Stella. I grew up on Lake Michigan. Amazing video, especially full-screen.
I grew up less than a mile from this amazingness.
One spring, me and a buddy who was into photography, when we were 15 or so, walked a mile (or so) out onto the ice. You stand on the beach. You see a small mountain range that extends as far as you can see to the north and to the south. You walk forward for about 1500 yards and you reach the top of this range. You see an absolute moonscape terrain in front of you, all ice that extends another thousand yards, and ANOTHER small mountain range after that. We kept walking due west. Climbed that second mountain range, far from the Thunder Mountain forest from which we emerged an hour prior.
At the top of that second little ice-mountain range, we realized that it was cut in half. We were on top of a cliff of ice, probably 50′ off the raging Lake, watching chunks of ice the size of Wal-Marts bobbing up and down like floating monsters. It was terrifying, and exhilarating at the same time. Keep in mind, this was SPRING. It was so warm we were in t-shirts and shorts. We took a bunch of photos, then RAN back to shore, down the ice-hill, back over the 1000 yard moonscape, up the first icy range and then down it, then back to shore.
As we looked back, when we got to shore, we saw the precipice we were standing on, and watched as the entire promontory, the size of a very large building, cracked and fell off into the Raging Lake.
It was the stupidest, yet most fun thing I’ve ever done.
I need to walk ten minutes to the Lake more often.
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I saw this about 10 minutes ago on tv…. an touriism add for Michigan!
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Pure Michigan is the state tourism compaign. Glad you saw it! Tim Allen does the voice overs for them.
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I really love this state. You’re eggsactly right. Michigan is defined by it’s water.
I could never live in Montana or Kansas, or central Russia. For ten years, I was at home in Boston, because we had the Atlantic.
Rogers Creek. It was my creek. Me and the neighborhood kids tried to dam it up with rocks and sticks and clay, and sometimes succeeded in drying that thing up, for a couple of hours, before Roger (whoever he was) said, NOPE.
Rogers Creek went into Lake Michigan, travelling from….
Well, here: my home as a kid:
http://www.topozone.com/michigan/van-buren-mi/stream/rogers-creek-29/
We went down that dirt-and-sand fire lane 1,000 times on ten-speeds. Body surfing before and after every storm, because that’s when Lake Michigan was the most fun.
One time it was me and my bro and my friends from church, and their folks and mine.
Their dad was extremely allergic to bees. I will never forget this. We, walking along the creek to the lake, saw the waves, as we approached the lake, along this trail (I could draw it for you), and RAN. We ran FAST, because those were some awesome body-surfing waves. As we ran, we severely disturbed a yellow-jacket nest. This guy was just walking with my folks, and his wife. We were crazy little kids. The trail ran along the side of Rogers Creek, as you approach the beach. There was one section along that trail whose embankment had been reinforced with sassafras logs. My friend’s dad, he dove into the river at his first sting. God Bless him. Genius.
We kids just bodysurfed in the pre-storm waves. Oblivious to the idea of death.
It was the best of times.
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Another musician whose hand I’d love to shake.
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I was born and raise in Michigan. Muskegon to be exact. I loved the rivers, streams, and lakes. I have been back a few times since 1973. I still have most of my family living there. I cannot go “home” again because of the bad memories I have of the way I was treated by my Mother in those days. Don’t get me wrong, those childhood days with my brother are the best memories I will ever have, but the pain runs deep. It truly is one of the most magnificent places on this planet. The “small” lakes were my favorite. Muskegon Lake was where I did my best fishing. Gun Lake, Ford Lake, Twin lakes, Bear Lake, were my refuge. I have traveled to many states and countries, and Michigan still is the best there is.
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