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Lake Erie Gazetteerlakeerie.info
Buffalo Main Lighthouse
Buffalo Main Lighthouse. Photo: Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Toned for this site.

The independent Lake Erie reference

Lake Erie, all five shores

Every lighthouse, every documented shipwreck and the lake's big questions, answered with sources and dates.

LighthousesShipwrecks

Three quick answers

How deep?

Average 62 ft[1] (19 m); deepest 210 ft[1] (64 m).

Source: U.S. EPA.

How deep is Lake Erie?

How big?

9,910 sq mi[1] (25,700 km²) of water, 241 mi[2] long.

Sources: U.S. EPA.

How big is Lake Erie?

Warmest month?

August, about 74.8 °F[3] (23.8 °C[4]) lake-wide on average, 1995–2025.

Source: NOAA GLERL.

Water temperature by month

The atlas

Lights and wrecks around the lake

Map of Lake Erie with its lighthouses and the rounded positions of shipwrecks that have a published positionMICHIGANONTARIOOHIOPENNSYLVANIANEW YORK83°W82°W81°W80°W79°W
  • Lighthouse
  • Shipwreck (rounded position)

Lighthouse positions are landmarks. Wreck pins are rounded to about 1 km and are not dive positions. NOT FOR NAVIGATION. Browse the lighthouse list or the shipwreck list.

On the shore

Lighthouses worth the drive

Under the water

Stories from the lake floor

  • Lost April 28, 1850 · fire

    Anthony Wayne

    An early Lake Erie passenger steamer, the Anthony Wayne blew up off Vermilion, Ohio, in the spring of 1850 when her boilers exploded. Between 38 and…

  • Lost December 7, 1909 · storm

    Marquette & Bessemer No. 2

    The railroad car ferry Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 left Conneaut, Ohio, for Port Stanley, Ontario, on December 7, 1909, and vanished in a storm with…

  • Lost June 17, 1850 · fire

    G.P. Griffith

    Before dawn on June 17, 1850, the immigrant steamer G.P. Griffith caught fire off Lake County, Ohio, ran onto a sandbar short of the beach and…

  • Lost October 17, 1936 · storm

    Sand Merchant

    The Canadian sand dredge Sand Merchant rolled over and sank in a northwest gale off Avon Point, west of Cleveland, on the night of October 17, 1936…

  • Lost 1829 · cause unknown

    Lake Serpent

    Built at Cleveland in 1821, the schooner Lake Serpent sailed to Put-in-Bay for a load of stone in the autumn of 1829 and was never seen again; the…

  • Lost August 20, 1852 · collision

    Atlantic

    In the early hours of August 20, 1852, the overcrowded steamer Atlantic, packed with immigrants bound west, was rammed by the propeller Ogdensburg…

All shipwrecks

Plan a visit

Which Lake Erie lighthouses can you climb?

10[5] towers have offered public climbs, usually seasonally. See the list, verified 2026-10, and print the free one-page guide.

See the climbable lights

The shop

Take it with you

Sponsor a page? "Nearby" sponsor slots are $79 for 365 days.

Sources for the numbers on this page

  1. Physical Features of the Great Lakes, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed .
  2. The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, 3rd edition (1995), Factsheet No. 1, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Government of Canada. Accessed .
  3. GLSEA lake-average daily surface water temperature, Lake Erie, 1995-present (degrees F, all_year_glsea_avg_e_F.csv), NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Accessed . Values computed by us from this data.
  4. GLSEA lake-average daily surface water temperature, Lake Erie, 1995-present (degrees C, all_year_glsea_avg_e_C.csv), NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Accessed . Values computed by us from this data.
  5. Lake Erie Gazetteer data: this site's own compiled records (lighthouses, shipwrecks, storms), Lake Erie Gazetteer (WeldonPC). Accessed . Values computed by us from this data.