Superior Facts

Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. It's surface has 31,500 square miles of water. Lake Superior holds 10 percent of the earth's fresh surface water! The big lake is 350 miles long and 160 miles wide! That's a BIG lake. Lake Superior contains three quadrillion gallons of water. That's enough to flood Canada, the United States, Mexico AND South America with a foot of water.



The north shore of Lake Superior can bring inspiration for artists and writers alike with it's rugged beauty. A few of the places that are frequently photographed, written about and visited are the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth which celebrated it's 100th birthday in 2005. Duluth sits at the base of an 800 foot tall ridge that overlooks a major freshwater freeway port of sorts. Salties (oceangoing vessels) and Lakers, ships built for the Great Lakes) pass under the Lift Bridge. A little farther north on the shore is Split Rock Lighthouse and then Palisade Head, which raises 200 feet above Lake Superior and is a single ancient lava flow of reddish rhyolite. Peregrine Falcons nest there annually. Farther north of course is Grand Marais and the ultimate in inspiration, Artists Point. So there you have it, just a few of the things that make Lake Superior, well, superior!