Actually, there is one natural lake in Hardy County.
Is it still there?
According to the newspaper article shown on this page, Trout Pond had “nearly disappeared” in 2002.
Well, the State of Michigan Wetlands Regulatory statute, which comes as close as I can find to providing a legal definition of the term, consistently uses it in a sense distinguishing “inland lakes” from Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior. So I would offer to you that the term has a distinct meaning in all of the Great Lakes states, of distinguishing the smaller bodies of water within them from the five honking big freshwater bodies that border them.
The thing is, I went to college in Minnesota and half of my family is from the Red River Valley, and I have never heard a Minnesotan refer to any of the state’s 10,000 lakes as “inland.” Of course, I’ve never spent any time by Duluth (for which I’m grateful, ten summers in Fargo was quite enough), but this is really odd to me.
I mean, it’s a blue spot on a map, surrounded by land. What more do you need to know?
Well, there you go. If you only associate with down-staters and North Dakotans, your education is limited. You should have spent more time visiting Virginia, Hibbing, and, perhaps, Tofte.
Finger.
Maybe it’s a smaller version of the Inland Sea surrounded (nearly) by three islands of Japan, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.
Ha! I completely agree. There’s Lakes, and there’s lakes (also referred to as inland lakes). Lakes are large, clean, and cold. lakes (small ‘L’) are stinky, murky, and to be distrusted.
From what I understand the water table is back where it should be and everything is fine and dandy.