- Chicago (Wikipedia)
Chicago (/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ shih-KAH-goh, locally also /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/ shih-KAW-goh; Miami-Illinois: Shikaakwa; Ojibwe: Zhigaagong) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third-most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. As the seat of Cook County, the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area.
- Illinois (Wikipedia)
Illinois (/ˌɪləˈnɔɪ/ IL-ə-NOY) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is its largest city, and the state’s capital is Springfield; other major metropolitan areas include Metro East (of Greater St. Louis), Peoria and Rockford. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area.
- Indiana (Wikipedia)
Indiana (/ˌɪndiˈænə/ (listen)) is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th state on December 11, 1816. It is bordered by Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the south and southeast, and the Wabash River and Illinois to the west.
- Michigan (Wikipedia)
Michigan (/ˈmɪʃɪɡən/) is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. It has land borders with Wisconsin to the southwest, and Indiana and Ohio to the south, and Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie also connect it to the states of Minnesota and Illinois, and the Canadian province of Ontario. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly 97,000 sq mi (250,000 km2), Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the largest by area east of the Mississippi River. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation’s most populous and largest metropolitan economies. Its name derives from a gallicized variant of the original Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ (mishigami), meaning “large water” or “large lake”.
- Wisconsin (Wikipedia)
Wisconsin (/wɪˈskɒnsɪn/) is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north.
- Lake Michigan (/ˈmɪʃɪɡən/) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume (1,180 cu mi (4,900 km3)) and the third-largest by surface area (22,404 sq mi (58,030 km2)), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that of Lake Huron through the 3+1⁄2-mile (5.6-kilometre) wide, 295-foot (90-metre; 49-fathom) deep Straits of Mackinac, giving it the same surface elevation as its easterly counterpart; the two are technically a single lake.
- next smaller lake is Lake Tanganyika