Paul Parent, age 11, of St. Catharines, Ont., Canada, for his question:
WHO NAMED THE GREAT LAKES?
On the map, they look like a beauteous blue flower on the heart of North America. We call them the Great Lakes, which is no exaggeration, for they hold the largest supply of fresh water in the entire world. Their geological history dates back to the Ice Age, and their present names were given by various people who visited or lived along their scenic shores.
The last of the Ice Age glaciers dug out of the lake basins. It started to melt about 15,000 years ago, so the Great Lakes were filled with water. As the Ice Age retreated, various groups of American Indians visited or settled around the lake shores. Naturally they named these wondrous stretches of water with words from their own languages.
Then explorers and settlers arrived from Europe. They met the Indians, learned some of their words and stood in breathless admiration beside the Great Lakes. For four of the lakes, they borrowed the remodeled names from the local Indians. Only one of them now has a completely non Indian name.
French fur trappers gave their name to the largest and highest of the Great Lakes. They called it Lac Superieur, meaning the upper lake. We call it Lake Superior and there is no Indian reminder in its name.
Indians named another of the lakes, Lake Michiguma, meaning the big water. Apparently that name was rather a tongue twister, for it was remodeled by white settlers. We call it Lake Michigan. Lake Huron was named for the Huron Indians who lived and hunted around its shores.
The French also had a go at renaming another of the lakes. The Iroquois called one of their neighboring tribes the Erieehronons, meaning the panther people. The French called their lake Lac du Chat meaning lake of the cat. Later settlers streamlined the old Iroquois name to Lake Erie.
All the Great Lakes are beautiful to behold. But only one of them is called beautiful, and the meaning is hidden deep in its name. We call it Lake Ontario, from the original Iroquois name which meant beautiful lake. Some say that the original name referred to stupendous Niagara Falls. But surely Ontario the Beautiful is more suitable.