This Is the Largest Lake in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 4, 7:20AM EDT

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This Is the Largest Lake in America — © sharply_done / E+ via Getty Images

The size of lakes is measured by square miles of surface area. Based on this, the Caspian Sea, with a surface area of 143,000 square miles, is by far the largest lake in the world. Its shores touch several countries including Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran.

Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world and the largest lake in North America, despite having some of its shoreline in Canada. This is the best place to enjoy the water in each state.

Lake Superior covers 31,700 square miles and touches the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. It contains 10% of the world’s surface fresh water – enough to cover North and South America under a foot of water. Its deepest point is 1,276 feet below the surface.

Lake Superior is well known for its many shipwrecks, the most famous being the 1975 wreck of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald during a storm that killed all 29 crew members. A total of about 350 wrecks are on record.

For decades, the lake was used to transport iron ore south from Minnesota. Though not as bad as Lake Erie, Lake Superior has started to experience algae blooms, indicating that pollution has begun affecting even this large and once-pristine lake. These are America’s 50 dirtiest cities.

Click here to see the largest lake in America

Rainy Lake from Tango Channel by Jeffkantor

Rainy Lake from Tango Channel (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Jeffkantor

20. Rainy Lake
> Location(s): MN-Ontario
> Area: 345 sq. miles

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19. Salton Sea
> Location(s): California
> Area: 347 sq. miles

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18. Fort Peck Lake 1
> Location(s): Montana
> Area: 393 sq. miles

17. Selawik Lake
> Location(s): Alaska
> Area: 404 sq. miles

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16. Red Lake
> Location(s): Minnesota
> Area: 427 sq. miles

15. Lake St Clair
> Location(s): MI-Ontario
> Area: 430 sq. miles

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14. Becharof Lake
> Location(s): Alaska
> Area: 453 sq. miles

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13. Lake Champlain
> Location(s): NY-VT-Quebec
> Area: 490 sq. miles

12. Lake Sakakawea 1
> Location(s): North Dakota
> Area: 520 sq. miles

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11. Lake Pontchartrain
> Location(s): Louisiana
> Area: 631 sq. miles

10. Lake Okeechobee
> Location(s): Florida
> Area: 662 sq. miles

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9. Lake Oahe 1
> Location(s): ND-SD
> Area: 685 sq. miles

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8. Iliamna Lake
> Location(s): Alaska
> Area: 1,014 sq. miles

7. Lake of the Woods
> Location(s): MN-Manitoba-Ontario
> Area: 1,485 sq. miles

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6. Great Salt Lake
> Location(s): Utah
> Area: 2,117 sq. miles

Lake Ontario, Broadway Rd. by seabamirum

Lake Ontario, Broadway Rd. (CC BY 2.0) by seabamirum

5. Lake Ontario
> Location(s): NY-Ontario
> Area: 7,340 sq. miles

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4. Lake Erie
> Location(s): MI-NY-OH-PA-Ontario
> Area: 9,910 sq. miles

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3. Lake Michigan
> Location(s): IL-IN-MI-WI
> Area: 22,300 sq. miles

2. Lake Huron
> Location(s): MI-Ontario
> Area: 23,000 sq. miles

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1. Lake Superior
> Location(s): MI-MN-WI-Ontario
> Area: 31,700 sq. miles

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.