Which of the five Great Lakes is entirely within the United States?

Lake Michigan is the only one of the five Great Lakes entirely within the United States.

The lake is bordered by four states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. The other Great Lakes—Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario—cross the international boundary between the United States and Canada. Lake Michigan’s name comes from an Ojibwe word often interpreted as “great lake.”

Although Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are treated as separate lakes geographically, they are connected by the deep Straits of Mackinac and have essentially the same water level. Hydrologically, they can be viewed as one lake system. Lake Michigan is about 307 miles long, reaches a maximum depth of 923 feet, and has a surface area of roughly 22,400 square miles.

A common mix-up is Lake Superior, which is the largest and deepest of the Great Lakes overall. But “entirely within the United States” changes the answer: Lake Michigan is the sole Great Lake with no Canadian shoreline.