Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.

For over 100 years the Detroit River was perceived as a working waterway that supported industry and commerce.

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The Great Lakes, holds within its terrain a secret — rocks that possess stories as ancient as time itself. These unassuming formations are not just ordinary rocks; they are envoys of a bygone era, of continental shifts and testaments to the Earth’s ever-evolving narrative.

In this interview with geologist Kevin Kincare, we unravel the mystery behind why rocks in the Great Lakes are so unique.

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Look for coverage of Great Lakes recreation and adventure in this new monthly feature. The author, Ian Solomon, founded Amplify Outside, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing access and representation by Black people in the outdoors, starting in the Great Lakes region. Find more about him HERE.

Things are finally heating up here in the Great Lakes Basin, so I’m taking the opportunity to brag a little about summertime in my home state of Michigan.

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By Katherine Roth, Associated Press

Many beaches won’t open for weeks, but already one dedicated group is quietly pacing the shore.

You might not have noticed them, but these quiet few are the ones who seem most keen on noting the shifting tides, the current, the wind.

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I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television. 

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Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.

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By John Flesher, Associated Press

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Even for the Thunder Bay area, a perilous swath of northern Lake Huron off the Michigan coast that has devoured many a ship, the Ironton’s fate seems particularly cruel.

The 191-foot (58-meter) cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both.

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Editor’s Note: Look for coverage of Great Lakes recreation and adventure in this new monthly feature. The author, Ian Solomon, founded Amplify Outside, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing access and representation by Black people in the outdoors, starting in the Great Lakes region. Find more about him HERE.

As the age old saying goes, “you never know what you have until it’s gone.” And while winter is technically here, the season we knew as children seems long gone.

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My survey was admittedly small.

I polled one 10-year-old and 30 adults ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-50s. I had a fairly even representation of genders and races. About half were on a college campus, the other half I approached on a public boardwalk.

I limited my poll to one person per social cluster to prevent parroting of the same responses.

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Editor’s Note: “Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is authored by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story.

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