Great Lakes

Invasive mussels and alewife topped the list, but there are several lesser-known species.

Jim Dreyer didn’t used to be the kind of person who would end up with a nickname like 'The Shark.'

Two guys are hunting coyotes in Michigan. All of a sudden, they say they lure in the biggest coyote they’ve ever seen and kill it. But, it turns out, it’s not a coyote at all; it’s a federally endangered gray wolf about 300 miles from its normal habitat. So, how did the wolf get there? And did the hunters play any role in it?

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.