How Michigan Sits on the Cusp of the Continental Divide

When you hear the term Continental Divide you almost certainly think of the mountains of the western United States and the divide between the water that flows to the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

That is a continental divide but not the only continental divide. There are several in North America and Michigan sits right on one of them.

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The St Lawrence River divide is a separation of the waters that flow to either the Atlantic Ocean via the St Lawrence or the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River.

The Great Lakes are at the focal point of the divide. It's easy to see on this map:

Most of Michigan is drained by rivers that flow to the Great Lakes and that accounts for virtually all of the state being above the St Lawrence Divide line. And the state is not, save for a few places, exactly on the divide. Notice how much of northwest Ohio and eastern Wisconsin also drain to the Great Lakes pushing the line a bit away from the state's border.

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However, there is a spot right on the Michigan/Indiana line where a small portion of Michigan does drain to the Mississippi. That spot is near Buchanan and Galien in southern Berrien County. Geyer Ditch rises there and flows to the Kankakee which itself heads to the Illinois and eventually Mississippi - so those Michigan waters reach the Gulf of Mexico putting the state squarely on the continental divide.

Also on the divide is a very small portion of the western UP in eastern Gogebic County. Lac Vieux Desert is a lake shared by Michigan and Wisconsin. The Wisconsin River, a tributary of the Mississippi rises from this lake, putting the Michigan shoreline on this continental divide.

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