Explore the stunning Great Lakes

During the 19th century, cities around the Great Lakes became important manufacturing centers, making them attractive to immigrants and jobseekers. As a result, the culinary traditions of this region reflect its rich history and the diverse cultures of its inhabitants. Here are some of the area’s signature foods:

• Pasties
  A pasty (pronounced “pass-tea”) is an oven-baked, handheld pastry with a savory meat and vegetable filling. Fast, easy and portable, pasties were an ideal meal for workers. Despite their popularity in Michigan, pasties originated in medieval Europe and have a strong traditional link to the English county of Cornwall.
• Mackinac Island Fudge
  Located in the Straits of Mackinac where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet, this charming island preserves many of its Victorian-era treasures, including this favorite 19th-century confection. Collectively, the island’s 13 fudge shops produce an estimated 9,920 lb (4,500 kg) of fudge each day during the summer season.
• Deep-Fried Cheese Curds
  The Midwest—especially Wisconsin—became known for dairy farming in the 19th century, as German and Scandinavian families and settlers from New York brought their skills to the region. As their name suggests, cheese curds are made of curdled milk, a byproduct of the cheesemaking process. On their own, their texture is chewy, but when deep-fried in beer batter, they become gooey on the inside and crunchy on the outside.
• Great Lakes Perch
  During the summer months, many menus around Lakes Ontario and Erie feature yellow perch, which are plentiful in shallow, warmer waters. Lightly pan-fried, this lean fish has a mild, sweet flavor and a beautifully flaky texture.

Geologically, the Great Lakes are relatively young. They did not exist during preglacial times but were created after the Earth’s last period of large-scale glaciation during the Pleistocene Epoch, a time when the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered the northern United States and most of Canada in a mile-thick layer of ice.

Approximately 20,000 years ago, rising global temperatures caused the ice sheet to start receding. The extreme weight and power of the retreating Wisconsin Ice Sheet that covered the Great Lakes region slowly carved out vast basins, causing melting ice to become trapped by the newly uncovered banks of sand, loose rock and boulders. Over time, water continued to accumulate, eventually forming large inland seas.

The erosion of this massive ice sheet and the formation of the lakes was not a steady process. At one time, present-day Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron were part of two vast inland lakes called Duluth and Algonquin. As the glaciers continued their northern journey, these two lakes created one gigantic lake.

It was not until around 3,000 years ago that the Great Lakes reached their present-day size and form, an iconic feature that gives the state of Michigan its distinctive “mitten” shape.

During the second decade of the 20th century, a desire to create an artistic identity that was distinctively Canadian led a group of Toronto, Ontario-based painters to start Canada’s first national art movement—the Group of Seven.

The group’s members—Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Fredrick Varley—met while working as commercial artists at the influential Toronto advertising firm Grip Ltd. They bonded over a shared devotion to landscape painting and sought to be free from the constraints of the conservative, European-centric traditions that dominated painting at the time. The group formally adopted its name for its first exhibition, which was held in Toronto in 1920.

Drawing inspiration from the post-impressionists and contemporary Scandinavian landscape painters, these painters focused on the ruggedly beautiful and unique character of the expansive Canadian outdoors. They often depicted landscape scenes rendered in impasto and composed of bright colors and bold forms.

Their works created a vivid visual language to describe the vast scale of Canada’s landscape while invoking the burgeoning sense of the new country’s identity and independence. This can be seen in works such as Jackson’s energetic The Red Maple (1914), the looming clouds and impressionist hills of MacDonald’s October Shower Gleam (1922) or the simplified and idealized landscape of Harris’ Mount Robson (1922).

Influential for more than a decade, the group went from receiving mixed reviews of their first exhibition to worldwide recognition as Canadian art pioneers. Having achieved their goal of establishing a distinctive Canadian artistic identity, the group officially disbanded in 1933. Its members went on to form the Canadian Group of Painters movement with other like-minded artists.

Today, many of the masterpieces created by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries can be seen on display at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario, one of the largest art museums in North America. Visitors can also take in some of the majestic Great Lakes scenery that inspired these artists, particularly in the stunning Muskoka region and near the historic town of Sault Sainte Marie.