How Many Great Lakes Does Michigan Actually Touch?

Quick — name the Great Lakes. If you reached for HOMES, you already know the trick: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. Five lakes.

Here’s the part people get wrong. Michigan touches four of the five — Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. The only one it doesn’t touch is Lake Ontario (that’s the “O,” off to the east by New York and Toronto). No other state touches four Great Lakes. That’s a big part of why the state is named what it is: “Michigan” comes from an Ojibwe word, mishigami, meaning “large lake” or “great water.”

Two bonus facts that win bar bets:

• Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake located entirely within the United States. The other four are all shared with Canada.
• Some scientists argue there are technically only four Great Lakes, because Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected at the Straits of Mackinac, sit at the exact same water level, and flow freely back and forth. By the strict definition, they’re one lake — “Lake Michigan-Huron.” We still call them two by tradition.

Together, the Great Lakes hold about 21% of the world’s surface fresh water — roughly a fifth of all the unfrozen fresh water on the planet’s surface, sitting right here.