Who Discovered the Great Lakes?

Just like America was discovered by Columbus—though American Indians already inhabited the area—someone also discovered the Great Lakes. Technically it is unknown who really was first to mark claim to these lakes. Even today neither Canada nor America have sole claims to the lakes. The first known voyage towards the lakes was made in the summer of 1679. René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle commissioned the Le Griffon and sailed towards the upper lakes in early August from the Niagara River.

Over the next two centuries the area was inhabited by the western civilization. At this time the lakes became the means of transporting freight from one place to the other. Thanks to the Great Lakes middle Northern America could transport goods to the Atlantic more easily. This was increased even more in 1825 when the Erie Canal opened. Two decades later Illinois was opened with the Michigan and Illinois Canal at Chicago. This linked the lakes to the Mississippi River, creating an unbroken route from New Orleans to New York. Throughout the nineteenth century the lakes also serves as immigrant transportation from one city to another as they moved with the freight. When trains became more popular, ferries were instead used to transport people short distances rather than long journeys.

Immigrants of certain ethnicities continue to make this trip, namely those of German, Dutch, Finish, and Polish descent. In today’s economy trucks and railroads transport freight more often than via the Great Lakes. Certain industries, however, still rely on the lakes, such as coal, iron ore, steel, grain, and limestone. The communities around the lakes have even come up with specific lingo for the traveling freight ships. Ships are always called boats on the Great Lakes, even if they are vast in size. Steamships are steamboats, like those of the Mississippi. Ships that trade mostly on the lakes are called lakers, while foreign boats are called salties.