Editing Lake Michigan (section)

== History ==
{{Further|Lake Chicago|Lake Algonquin|Lake Chippewa|Nipissing Great Lakes}}

Some of the most well-studied early human inhabitants of the Lake Michigan region were the [[Hopewell tradition|Hopewell Native Americans]]. Their culture declined after 800 AD, when, for the following few hundred years, the region was the home of peoples known as the [[Woodland period|Late Woodland Native Americans]]. In the early 17th century, when Western European explorers made their first forays into the region, they encountered descendants of the Late Woodland Native Americans, mainly the historic [[Ojibwe|Chippewa]], [[Menominee]], [[Sauk people|Sauk]], [[Meskwaki|Fox]], [[Ho-Chunk|Winnebago]], [[Miami people|Miami]], 
[[Odawa|Ottawa]] and [[Potawatomi]] peoples. The [[French people|French]] explorer [[Jean Nicolet]] is believed to have been the first European to reach Lake Michigan, possibly in 1634 or 1638.<ref>{{harvnb|Bogue|1985|pp=7–13}}</ref> In the earliest European maps of the region, the name of '''Lake Illinois''' has been found (named for the [[Illinois Confederation]] of tribes),<ref>{{Cite web |title=1733d4 |url=http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1733d4.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507211114/https://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1733d4.jpg |archive-date=May 7, 2021 |access-date=November 6, 2004}}</ref> in addition to that of "Michigan". During the 1640s and 1650s, the [[Beaver Wars]] (over the [[North American fur trade|fur trade]] with the European colonies), initiated by the [[Iroquois]], forced a massive demographic-shift, as their western neighbors fled the violence. The Iroquois sought refuge to the west and north of Lake Michigan.<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=White |author-link=Richard White (historian) |title=The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 |url={{google books|fHLfiOZVzmMC|plainurl=yes}} |series=Cambridge studies in North American Indian history |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2011 |orig-year=1991 |edition=Twentieth Anniversary |isbn=978-1-107-00562-4 }}</ref>

The Straits of Mackinac were an important Native American travel corridor and fur-trade route. Located on the southern side of the straits sits the town of [[Mackinaw City, Michigan]], the site of [[Fort Michilimackinac]] (a reconstructed French fort founded in 1715); on the northern side is [[St. Ignace, Michigan]], site of a French Catholic mission to the Indians (founded in 1671). In 1673, [[Jacques Marquette]], [[Louis Jolliet]], and their crew of five [[Métis]] [[voyageurs]] followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay and up the [[Fox River (Green Bay tributary)|Fox River]], [[Fox–Wisconsin Waterway|nearly to its headwaters]], in their search for the [[Mississippi River]]. By the late 18th century, the eastern portions of the straits were controlled by [[Fort Mackinac]] on [[Mackinac Island]], a [[Colonial history of the United States|British colonial]] and early [[United States Armed Forces|American military]] base and fur trade center, founded in 1781.<ref>{{cite web|title=Colonial Fort Michilimackinac|url=http://www.mightymac.org/michilimackinac.htm|website=Mighty Mac|access-date=July 6, 2014|archive-date=November 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127013927/http://www.mightymac.org/michilimackinac.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

With the advent of European exploration into the area in the late 17th century, Lake Michigan became used as part of a line of waterways leading from the [[Saint Lawrence River]] to the Mississippi River and thence to the [[Gulf of Mexico]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bogue|1985|pp=14–16}}</ref> French [[coureurs des bois]] and voyageurs established small ports and trading communities, such as Green Bay, on the lake during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.<ref>{{harvnb|Shelak|2003|p=3}}</ref> In the 19th century, Lake Michigan was integral to the development of [[Chicago]] and the [[Midwestern United States]] west of the lake. For example, 90% of the grain shipped from Chicago traveled by ships east over Lake Michigan during the [[Wiktionary: antebellum|antebellum]] years. The volume rarely fell below 50% after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] even with the [[Rail transportation in the United States|major expansion of railroad shipping]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Cronon|first=William|title=Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West|year=1991|publisher=W. W. Norton and Company|location=New York, NY|pages=87|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7OCQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA87|isbn=9780393072457}}</ref>

The first person to reach the deep bottom of Lake Michigan was [[J. Val Klump]], a scientist at the [[University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee]] in 1985. Klump reached the bottom via [[submersible]] as part of a research expedition.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Variations in Sediment Accumulation Rates and the Flux of Labile Organic Matter in Eastern Lake Superior Basins |year=1989 |journal=[[The Journal of Great Lakes Research]] |bibcode=1989JGLR...15..104K |url=http://loracsevents.com/dev/iaglr/dev/jglr/db/view_contents.php?pub_id=965&mode=view&table=yes&topic_id=30&mode=topic_section&volume=15&issue=1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121203024023/http://loracsevents.com/dev/iaglr/dev/jglr/db/view_contents.php?pub_id=965&mode=view&table=yes&topic_id=30&mode=topic_section&volume=15&issue=1 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=December 3, 2012 |access-date=August 9, 2009 |last1=Klump |first1=J. Val |last2=Paddock |first2=Robert |last3=Remsen |first3=Charles C. |last4=Fitzgerald |first4=Sharon |last5=Boraas |first5=Martin |last6=Anderson |first6=Patrick |volume=15 |issue=1 |page=104 |doi=10.1016/S0380-1330(89)71465-9 }}</ref> The warming of Lake Michigan was the subject of a 2018 report by [[Purdue University]]. In each decade since 1980, steady increases in obscure surface temperature have occurred. This is likely to lead to decreasing native habitat and to adversely affect native species survival, including game fish.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-lake-michigan-warming-20180913-story.html |title=Lake Michigan is warming. A new report says that could mean trouble for game fish. |last=Briscoe |first=Tony |date=September 16, 2018 |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=September 17, 2018 |language=en-US |archive-date=June 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630121908/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-lake-michigan-warming-20180913-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>