In 1959 we drove the “Family Truckster” to Evanston, Illinois, to visit Great Aunt Daisy. She lived on the shore of Lake Michigan, just a few blocks from Northwestern University.

It was a big deal for a country boy from northwestern Oklahoma to dip a foot in one of the Great Lakes, one of five that hold 84 percent of the fresh water in North America.

How great are they? Shaped by the retreat of glaciers 11,000 years ago, they have a long history of interaction with humans. Home to the Anishinaabe tribe, hunting, fishing and trapping were the mainstays until the white men brought farming, indus...