The Coolidge examiner., 1938-04-07


TIME Great Lakes con-
tain half the fresh wa
Il ter on earth; enough to
cover the continental United
States 10 to Is feet deep, or
to fill a 30-foot ship canal
from here to the sun!
Africa's largest lake, Victoria Ny
ANA, would cover most Of Lake Su-
perior, but it would take II Vic
torias to fill it. Asia's premier lake.
the Aral Sea, is bit larger than
Lake Huron, but it would take four
Arals to fill one Huron. Two Lake
Baikals would scarcely reach be-
yond the edges of Lake Michigan,
although they would contain nearly
three times as much water.
If they only lay there, basking in
the sun or raging with storms, our
inland seas would be impressive.
But they have served America as
no inland sea has served another
land. At every corner of the
Great Lakes, and because of them,
busy cities have risen. On the banks
of hundred tiny creeks commerce
has planted its loading piers or
elevators.
Our bridges crossed our lakes as
ore before they crossed a river.
Scarcely a skyscraper whose frame
work has not wallowed in the swell
of our big Sea Water" before
combing our urban skies. The
story of our Great Lakes is one of
unbelievably cheap freight rates. of
marvelously active freighters. of fur
and lumber, iron and grain.
Fur Trade Incited Exploitation.
In the days when the principal
crop Of America was cold-bred fur.
the st. Lawrence was the gateway
TO our Midwest. While the English
were seeking the Northwest Pas
sage to the alluring Orient and col
onists along the Atlantic were con-
.solidating their position against
the wilderness, French voyageurs
and missionaries were following
stream and portage to the heart of
America.
Colonization was caught between
sea and mountain. Exploration pad
died its swift canoes on lakes and
rivers.
Fur was the incentive, and tenn
poral or spiritual empire the
dream, of Nicolet, Joliet, Marquette
and La Sale, to whom the water
shed between the Great Lakes and
the wide Mississippi basin was ia
miliar while the British were still
settling the seacoast. AS early as
100 one could ride horseback from
Portland, Maine, to Richmond, Vir-
ginia, sleeping each night in viii
lage. But the Appalachian barrier
held. Meanwhile the French, more
nomadic, were spread thinly over
a tremendous inland empire.
In 1903 most of this land became
ours through the Louisiana Pur-
chase, and the vast territory which
fur trade and Indian alliances had
won for France gave tranS-Appala-
chan colonization new impetus. For
little less than four cents an acre
the young American republic ac-
quired rich agricultural lands
stretching to the headwaters Of the
Missouri and the Yellowstone.
Grain, Lumber, and Then Iron.
Around the lakes, fur ceded its
primary place to grain or lumber.
Hiawatha's forest primevap
crashed before Paul Bunyan's saw
and ak. Hills of sawdust began to
rise like sand dunes, and countless
jig-saw verandas embraced Amer
lean homes.
Then came ironl
At the northern end of the lakes
whole rust-red mountains of ore
stood ready for the steam shovels.
Coal moved north and iron south,
a combination providing profitable
return cargoes. Wherever a creek
reached the south shore of Lake
Erie, coal and ore were tossed back
and forth by car tipple and clam
she'll"
Protected from early traffic COM
petition by the Niagara falls, which
were later to furnish its light and
power, Buffalo stands at the east
end of the upper lakes and the west
end of the only convenient break in
the Appalachians. Superlatives,
which swarm around the Great
Lakes, hive at Buffalo.
This favored spot no more sug-
gests the bison than Rome does
Romulus or Syracuse Sicily. And,
had an Indian interpreter not made
mistake, it would have been called
Beaver" a startling but suitable
name for this busy creek-side port.
a ~.