How Close Am I to Water in Michigan, Really?

You’ve probably heard someone say “you’re never more than six miles from water in Michigan.” It gets repeated constantly, and people usually mangle the actual numbers. Here’s the real version, which is even more impressive.

In Michigan, no spot in the state is more than about six miles from an inland lake or stream, and no spot is more than about 85 miles from one of the Great Lakes. Both things are true at once. With more than 11,000 inland lakes and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams — on top of being wrapped by four Great Lakes — there is simply nowhere in Michigan you can stand and be far from water.

The numbers behind it: Michigan has about 58,000 square miles of land, but it also lays claim to roughly 38,000 square miles of Great Lakes water — meaning a huge share of “Michigan” is actually lake. The state also has the longest freshwater coastline of any state in the country, at over 3,000 miles. If Michigan’s coastline were stretched out straight, it would rival the entire Atlantic seaboard.

So the next time someone says “six miles from water,” you can nod — they’re right — and then add the 85-miles-from-a-Great-Lake half they probably forgot.