Great Lakes

We think of the Great Lakes as shark-free, but as legend has it, a young boy named George Lawson was attacked by a shark while swimming in Lake Michigan near Chicago in 1955. Is this story true or just a bunch of bull shark?

At IPR we bring you stories from folks around the Great Lakes.“Great Lakes Now” is a monthly public media program focused on issues that matter to the people of the Great Lakes region.

Copper is a key metal for renewable energy, and experts say we’re going to need a lot more of it to transition to clean energy. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is Copper Country. Some see copper mining as an economic boon for the region, but others worry it could come at the cost of some of the Great Lakes’ most pristine wild spaces.

Since 2010, more than 1,200 people have drowned in Great Lakes waters, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project.

It’s a dry spring – 1984 in Wisconsin – and all these suspicious fires are popping up. A conservation warden named Dave is pretty sure it’s arson, but he can’t catch a break. So, he and a pilot decide to get creative.

The "John Bigler" was a schooner built in 1866 when canals made it possible for ships to go from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan. The Bigler hauled lumber and other cargo on the Great Lakes.

More than 120 years ago, a Native American village in northern Michigan was burned down at the behest of a white land speculator. Now, the descendants of that village want the federal government to know they’re still here.

Donna Martino stuck a photograph from the newspaper of a handsome kayaker on her fridge. A few months later, Donna matched with the guy on a dating website, and they decided to go out. This story is about what happens when two strangers take a chance on each other.

Iceland has figured out how to use almost 100% of every fish caught – not just the filet. By making things like durable leather, beauty products, and skin graft bandages, it’s increased the value of an Atlantic cod from about $15 to over $5,000. Can this approach help the struggling Great Lakes fishery?

Small, silvery fish called kiyi used to roam the deep, cold waters of nearly every Great Lake. Remnant populations still exist in Lake Superior, and scientists are wondering: Can we find them? And bring them back to the other Great Lakes?