Lake St. Clair () is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint

Clare of Assisi Chiara Offreduccio (16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253), known as Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled ''Clara'', ''Clair'' or ''Claire''; ), is an Italians, Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi. Inspired by the te ...

, on whose feast day they first saw the lake. It is part of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

system (although not considered one of the five Great Lakes), and along with the

St. Clair River The St. Clair River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, forming part ...

and

Detroit River The Detroit River is an List of international river borders, international river in North America. The river, which forms part of the border between the U.S. state of Michigan and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ont ...

, Lake St. Clair connects

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

(to the north) with

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

(to the south). It has a total surface area of about and an average depth of just ; to ensure an uninterrupted waterway, government agencies in both countries have maintained a

shipping channel In physical geography and hydrology, a channel is a landform on which a relatively narrow body of water is situated, such as a river, river delta or strait. While ''channel'' typically refers to a natural formation, the cognate term ''canal'' de ...

through the shallow lake for more than a century.

Geography

This lake is situated about northeast of the downtown areas of

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, and

Windsor, Ontario Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...

. Along with the

and

, Lake St. Clair connects

(to its north) with

(to its south). The area is notable for the fact that the Canadian territory around the lake (Windsor metropolitan area) lies south of the adjacent United States territory. Lake St. Clair measures about from north to south and about from east to west. Its total surface area is about . This is a rather shallow lake for its size, with an average depth of about , and a maximum natural depth of . However, it is deep in the navigation channel which is dredged for

lake freighter Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Freighters typically have a long, narrow hull, a raised pilothouse, and the ...

passage by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

. The lake is fed by the St. Clair River, which flows to the south from Lake Huron and has an extensive

river delta A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creat ...

where it enters Lake St. Clair. This is the largest delta of the Great Lakes System. Other rivers which feed Lake St. Clair are the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

and

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

rivers which originate in

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...

, and the

Clinton River The Clinton River is a river in southeastern Michigan in the United States. It is named in honor of DeWitt Clinton, who was governor of New York from 1817 to 1823. The main branch of the river rises from wetlands and coldwater tributaries from ...

, which originates in Michigan. The outflow from Lake St. Clair travels from its southwestern end into the Detroit River, and then into

. The tarry time (i.e., the time between entering and leaving) of the water in Lake St. Clair averages about seven days, but this can vary from as little as two to as many as thirty days, depending on the direction of the winds, the water circulation patterns, and the amount of water that is flowing out of Lake Huron. For water flowing through the navigation channel, the time period is only about two days. Lake St. Clair is part of the

system, but very rarely included as one; the smallest Great Lake,

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

, is 17 times larger by surface area, and more than 80 times by volume. It is occasionally referred to as "the sixth Great Lake". Scattered proposals have called for it to be officially recognized as a Great Lake, which might enable it to attract greater public funding for

scientific research The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and medieval world. The ...

and other projects. File:Carte du lac Sainte-Claire.jpg, 1702 map of Lake St. Clair File:Michigan Macomb county Anchor Bay Selfridge AFB IMG 1812.JPG, Aerial view of Anchor Bay at Lake St. Clair File:Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair bathymetry map.png, Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair bathymetric shaded relief map File:Frozen Lake St Clair.JPG, Frozen Lake St Clair File:Shoreline muck in Lake St. Clair (8741968452).jpg, Shoreline muck in Lake St. Clair

Naming

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

/ Native Americans used the lake as part of their extensive navigation of the Great Lakes. The

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

called it ', meaning "(at) the whirlpool". The

Wea The Wea were a Miami–Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as being either closely related to the Miami tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of th ...

derived their name from a

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

cognate: '. In the latter part of the 17th century, the Mississauga established a village near the lake. Early French mapmakers had identified the lake by a variety of French and Iroquoian-language names, including ' eawater Lake ''Lac Ganatchio'' ("kettle," for its shape), in French '. A variety of Native names were associated with sweetness, as the lake was freshwater as opposed to saltwater. These included ''Otsiketa'' (sugar or candy), ''Kandequio'' or ''Kandekio'' (possibly candy), ''Oiatinatchiketo'' (probably a form of Otsiketa), and ''Oiatinonchikebo''. Similarly, the Iroquois nations called present-day

a term meaning "The Grand Lake of the Sweet Sea" (fresh water as opposed to salt water.) The French expressed this association on their maps as ' (sweet sea) and the Dutch identified it in Latin as '. On August 12, 1679, the French explorer

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the feminin ...

arrived with an expedition. He named the body of water ''Lac Sainte-Claire,'' as the expedition sighted it on the

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

Saint Clare of Assisi Chiara Offreduccio (16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253), known as Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled ''Clara'', ''Clair'' or ''Claire''; ), is an Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi. Inspired by the teachings of ...

. The historian on the voyage,

Louis Hennepin Louis Hennepin, OFM (born Antoine Hennepin; ; 12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Belgian Catholic priest and missionary best known for his activities in North America. A member of the Recollects, a minor branch of the Franciscans, he travel ...

, recorded that the

Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages () are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, almost all surviving I ...

tribes referred to the lake as ''Otseketa''. As early as 1710, the English adopted the French name, identifying the lake on their maps as Saint Clare. By the

Mitchell Map The Mitchell Map is a map made by John Mitchell (1711–1768), which was reprinted several times during the second half of the 18th century. The map, formally titled ''A map of the British and French dominions in North America'' &c., was used ...

in 1755, the spelling appeared as the shorter "St. Clair," the form that became most widely used. Some scholars credit the name as honoring the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

General

Arthur St. Clair Major-General Arthur St. Clair ( – August 31, 1818) was a Scottish-born American military officer and politician. Born in Thurso, Caithness, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in the Province of Pe ...

, later Governor of the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...

, but the name Lake St. Clair was in use with this current spelling long before St. Clair became a notable figure. Together the place name and general's name likely influenced settlers' naming a proliferation of nearby political jurisdictions: the Michigan county and township of St. Clair, as well as the cities of St. Clair and St. Clair Shores. Some local historians attributed the namesake to

Patrick Sinclair Lieutenant-General Patrick Sinclair (1736 – 31 January 1820) was a British Army officer and governor in North America. He is best remembered for overseeing the construction of Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island in what was to become the U. ...

, a British officer who purchased land on the

at the outlet of the Pine River. There, in 1764, he built Fort Sinclair, which was in use for nearly twenty years before being abandoned. Unlike most smaller lakes in the region—but like the Great Lakes—''Lake'' comes at the front of its proper name, rather than the end; this is reflective of its French origins.

Human history

The Crawford Knoll Site located on the eastern branch of the St. Clair River delta uncovered bone and projectile points dating back to 1500 to 1000 BCE which suggest seasonal usage by the local Indigenous population.

Water quality

Lake St Clair's location, downstream from the largest freshwater delta in the Great Lakes, has a large effect on its turbidity (clarity). Current water quality is quite good despite past incidents and a history of chemical bio-accumulation. A number of cities source drinking water from or just downstream of the lake and quality is closely monitored. In the early 1970s, the Canadian and American governments closed the commercial fishery over concerns of bio-accumulation of mercury. The industry responsible for this contamination was the Dow Chemical Chlor-Alkali Plant in Sarnia, Ontario. Since 1949, Dow Chemical had been operating mercury cell plants for the production of chlorine and other chemicals. Through its production process, it discharged mercury into the river and contaminated the fishery. The fishery has since not been re-opened, although studies have now confirmed mercury levels are well within the safe range. Sport fishing remains popular in the lake. The governments on both sides of the lakes continue to monitor and publish guides for sport fish consumption.

Boat clubs

Many

yacht club A yacht club is a boat club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mar ...

s (boating and sailing clubs) are located along the shores. Some of these include: * The Great Lakes Yacht Club, St. Clair Shores, Michigan * Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in

Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan Grosse Pointe Shores (officially Village of Grosse Pointe Shores, a Michigan City) is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne and Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,647 at the 2020 United ...

* The Old Club, on Harsens Island, Michigan *North Channel Yacht Club, on Harsens Island, Michigan * Crescent Sail Yacht Club in

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Grosse Pointe Farms is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 census. As part of the Grosse Pointe collection of cities, it is a northeastern city of Metro Detroit and shares a small wester ...

* Grosse Pointe Club (Little Club) in

Grosse Pointe, Michigan Grosse Pointe is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 5,678. Grosse Pointe is an eastern suburb of Metro Detroit along La ...

* Clinton River Boat Club (Club Island), near Harsens Island, Michigan * Albatross Yacht Club, Anchor Bay, Michigan * North Star Sail Club, on the Clinton River, Harrison Twp, Michigan * Lake St. Clair Powerboat Club, Saint Clair Shores, Michigan * Lakeshore Sail Club, St. Clair Shores, Michigan * Windsor Yacht Club in

* Southport Sailing Club, Windsor, Ontario * St. Clair Sail Club, Belle River (now Lakeshore), Ontario * Thames River Yacht Club, Lighthouse Cove (now Lakeshore), Ontario

Public beaches

* Mitchell's Bay Beach, Mitchell's Bay, Ontario. * New Baltimore Beach,

New Baltimore, Michigan New Baltimore is a city in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 12,117 at the 2020 census. New Baltimore is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is located along the northern shores of Lake St. Clair. History N ...

. * Sandpoint Beach, located in

. * Lakeview Park West Beach, located in

Belle River, Ontario Belle River is a community in Lakeshore, Essex County, Ontario, Canada. The population was 9,650 as of 2015. Geography The community is located in northern Lakeshore in Essex County, on the southern shore of Lake St. Clair. Demographics ...

. * Marine City Beach,

Marine City, Michigan Marine City is a city in St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the west bank of the St. Clair River, it is one of the cities in the River District north of Detroit and south of Lake Huron. In the late 19th century, it was a m ...

. * Lake St Clair Metropark,

Harrison Township, Michigan Harrison Charter Township is a charter township of Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 24,314 at the 2020 census. Harrison Township was formed in 1827 in the Michigan Territory along the shores of Lake St. Clair. ...

. * Belle Isle Beach, Belle Isle, Michigan.

References

External links

NGDC
Poster showing Bathymetry of Lake Erie & Lake St. ClairNational Data Buoy Center page for Lake St. Clair station LSCM4
Current weather conditions from

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

EPA.gov: Grosse Ile walleye contamination
{{Authority control St. Clair, Lake Great Lakes Waterway St. Clair, Lake St. Clair, Lake Landforms of Chatham-Kent Geography of Detroit Landforms of Essex County, Ontario Landforms of Lambton County Bodies of water of Macomb County, Michigan Bodies of water of St. Clair County, Michigan Bodies of water of Wayne County, Michigan Landforms of Windsor, Ontario Canada–United States border Saint Clair, Lake Detroit River St. Clair River Tributaries of Lake Erie