The Surprising Realization Lake Huron is the Most Rural Great Lake

Think about it, Lake Huron is without question the most rural Great Lake. Each other great lake has large to major metroplolitan areas along its shores. Lake Huron, not so much.

Consider Lake Ontario has large cities on both its south and north shores - Toronto, Ontario and Rochester, New York.

Lake Erie has Cleveland and bookended by Detroit and Buffalo.

Lake Michigan has Chicago and Milwaukee, but interestingly smaller cities on the east (Michigan) side with Muskegon being the largest city on that side of the lake.

READ MORE: There is So Much Nostalgia in this Small Lake Huron Beach Town Video Rental and Arcade

Even Lake Superior has the large port of Duluth at its western end.

But there is no major metropolitan city anywhere on Lake Huron. Consider the Michigan side - Mackinac City - Alpena - Port Huron. Not much. Same on the Ontario side with the largest city being Owen Sound deep within Georgian Bay far from the open waters of Lake Huron similar to Michigan's largest Lake Huron cities being nestled in Saginaw Bay at Bay City.

What can explain why Lake Huron is so rural? The question came up on the geography forum on Reddit.

There are several interesting reason as to why. There's a geographic phenomenon known as the Canadian Shield which is the crust of the North American continent generally buried deep in the United States and Mexico is exposed in much of Canada as was considered a barrier to settlement. This shield runs along the northern shore of Lake Huron.

On the Michigan side, the Lake Huron shore cities were once much larger as a boom in lumber baron days. As Michigan's timber was depleted, so too where the towns that were built up around them.

So if you're looking for the Great Lake with the least settlement around it, you may surprisingly consider Lake Huron as the most rural lake.