The Mackinaw Island ferry approaches Mackinaw, with the bridge in the background.

In 1615, a French scout named Étienne Brûlé saw a body of water that was larger than any lake had the right to be. He called it “la mer douce” – the calm sea – but his nose would have told him this was no sea, the water being fresh.

That body of water is now called Lake Huron.