Lake · Canada, United States
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is the second-largest of the Great Lakes of North America. It lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of Michigan and has the largest lake island in the world.
Picture credit: Gogerr (CC BY-SA 4.0) · OliverChapman364 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Huron?
Countries on its shores: Canada, the United States.
Largest lake of: Canada.
Middle of the lake: 44.80° N, 82.40° W
The story behind it
Lake Huron got its name from French explorers, who named it after the Huron people, also called the Wyandot, living on its shores. Its water comes from Lake Superior through the St. Marys River and leaves again through the St. Clair River in the south. In the west, the Straits of Mackinac join it to Lake Michigan so closely that the two actually form one single lake. In the north-east lies Georgian Bay, a huge bay reaching deep into Ontario, and Manitoulin Island, the largest island in any lake on Earth. About 36 000 km² of the lake belong to Canada. That is more than all of Great Bear Lake, so no lake gives Canada more water surface than Lake Huron. More than a thousand shipwrecks have been recorded in the lake, and many old wrecks still lie on its bed.
Find it on the globe
Lake Huron is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Huron?
Lake Huron covers about 59 600 km². About 36 000 km² of it lie in Canada and about 23 600 km² in the United States.
Is Lake Huron Canada's largest lake?
Yes: Canada's part of Lake Huron, about 36 000 km², is larger than any other lake area in the country. Great Bear Lake is the largest lake lying completely inside Canada, but it is a little smaller.
Are Lake Huron and Lake Michigan really one lake?
The two lakes are joined by the Straits of Mackinac, and their water lies at the same height, so in terms of water they form one single lake. Together they would be the largest freshwater lake in the world by area.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: