Great Lakes

Great Lakes is a lake in North America at latitude 44°42′00.00″ North, longitude 83°42′00.00″ West.

Tagging

The Great Lakes are a series of five interconnected freshwater lakes represented together by Relation 1124369 – a "super-relation". The individual lakes are also single multipolygon relations, as noted below. (Caution: Each one of these relations is very large!)

• Lake Erie - Relation 4039900
• Lake Huron - Relation 1205151
• Lake Michigan - Relation 1205149
• Lake Ontario - Relation 1206310
• Lake Superior - Relation 4039486

The shorelines of the Great Lakes were tagged with natural=coastline. There has been some back-and-forth editing on Lake Ontario, but as of 2016 these shorelines are no longer tagged with natural=coastline.

Boundaries

U.S. state borders extend to the international boundary with Canada and to the center of Lake Michigan.

A common law principle holds that a town or township boundary extends to the centerline of a body of water if and only if a person can stand on one shore and discern objects on the opposite shore with the naked eye. This is not the case with the Great Lakes. The following list explores facts and claims about boundaries that nonetheless extend into the Great Lakes, potentially due to statute law:

Illinois:

• At least one municipality's boundary extends 3 miles (4.8 km) into Lake Michigan.

Indiana:

• County boundaries extend to the state line in Lake Michigan.

Michigan:

• A 1947 interstate compact extends the state line into Lake Superior.
• According to the federal Boundary and Annexation Survey, counties extend to the state line. Townships in some counties extend to the shoreline, those in other counties extend a certain distance into the lake, and those in still others extend into the lake with straight lines and right angles, as if the township had been surveyed on land.
• Counties share jurisdiction in common with other counties over the entire portion of the Great Lakes within the state. However, the statutes refer to the waters as a part of the counties.
• Cities and villages automatically annex submerged islands within 300 yards (270 m) of the shoreline.

Minnesota:

• A 1947 interstate compact extends the state line into Lake Superior.
• As of 1895, Cook County's boundary stops at the shore of Lake Superior.
• MnDOT and county governments publish datasets that clip county boundaries to the lakeshore for general purpose use.

Ohio:

• County lines have extended to the international boundary with Canada since 1827. ORC 1506.10 reserves Ohio's portion of Lake Erie for the state in terms of property rights , but counties are subsidiaries of the state.
• Township boundaries generally do not extend beyond the southern shore of Lake Erie, but a board of county commissioners may take action to extend a township boundary as far as the international boundary. Lake County's survey townships, and thus its civil townships, extend into the lake so that it meets the requirements for countyhood.
• Municipal boundaries may extend up to 2 miles (3.2 km) into Lake Erie, and there is a grandfather clause for boundaries prior to 1955. The governments of Ottawa County and 16 municipalities have concurrent jurisdiction extending to the international border with Canada.

Wisconsin:

• A 1947 interstate compact extends the state line into Lake Superior.
• County lines extend to the center of Lake Michigan.

Great Lakes Circle Tour

See Great Lakes/Circle Tour, a system of scenic road (and at least one bicycle) routes that circumnavigate around each of the five Great Lakes (in progress as of 2022).