Green Bay (Lake Michigan) in the context of "Illinois Country"

Lake Michigan (/ˈmɪʃɪɡən/ MISH-ig-ən) 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 km) and depth (923 ft; 281 m) after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (22,405 sq mi; 58,030 km), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that of Lake Huron through the wide and deep Straits of Mackinac, giving it the same surface elevation as its eastern counterpart; hydrologically, the two bodies are a single lake that is, by area, the largest freshwater lake in the world.

Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake located fully in the United States; the other four are shared between the U.S. and Canada. It is the world's largest lake, by area, located fully in one country, and is shared, from west to east, by the U.S. states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Ports along its shores include Chicago, Illinois, Gary, Indiana, Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Muskegon, Michigan. To the north, the lake is flanked by long bays, including Green Bay in the northwest, and Grand Traverse and Little Traverse bays in the northeast. The word michigan is believed to come from the Ojibwe ᒥᓯᑲᒥ (michi-gami or mishigami), meaning "great water".

Green Bay is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Green Bay inlet at the mouth of the Fox River on Lake Michigan. With a population of 107,395 at the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous city in Wisconsin and third-most populous city on Lake Michigan. The Green Bay metropolitan area has an estimated 335,000 residents.

Green Bay was settled in 1634 by Jean Nicolet as a fur trading post in New France. Its development was shaped by its location at the mouth of the Fox River and it emerged as a center for the lumber, shipping, and paper industries in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the contemporary period, Green Bay's economy encompasses manufacturing, healthcare, and service sectors. The city is widely recognized for its association with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League, a publicly owned franchise whose presence contributes significantly to the local economy and culture.

Grand Traverse Bay (/ˈtrævərs/ TRAV-ərss) is an arm of Lake Michigan, located along the west coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is separated from the rest of Lake Michigan by the Leelanau Peninsula. The bay is some 32 miles (51 km) long, ranges from 7 to 10 miles (11 to 16 km) wide, and up to 620 feet (190 m) deep in spots. It is the second-largest bay of Lake Michigan, behind Green Bay.

Grand Traverse Bay is further divided into an East Arm and West Arm by the 18-mile-long (29 km) Old Mission Peninsula. At the head of both arms of the bay is Traverse City, the largest city in Northern Michigan. The area surrounding the bay is renowned for its fruit production, especially for cherries and viticulture.

The eastern coast of the Jutland Peninsula, consisting of Danish Jutland and German Schleswig-Holstein features a type of narrow bay called Förde (plural: Förden) in German and fjord (plural fjorde) in Danish. These bays are of glacial origin, but the glacial mechanics were different from those of Norwegian Fjords and also from those of Swedish and Finnish Fjards. Inlets more similar to these are also found on the peninsulas of the Green bay and Georgian bay, and on Manitoulin island, and eastern Long island.

The words Förde, fjord and fjard are of the same origin as the English word firth, but today there are differences in the meaning between firth (Förde) and fjord in general.

The Door Peninsula is a peninsula in eastern Wisconsin, separating the southern part of the Green Bay from Lake Michigan. The peninsula includes northern Kewaunee County, northeastern Brown County, and the mainland portion of Door County. It is on the western side of the Niagara Escarpment. Well known for its cherry and apple orchards, the Door Peninsula is a popular tourism destination. With the 1881 completion of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, the northern half of the peninsula became an island.

Limestone outcroppings of the Niagara Escarpment are visible on both shores of the peninsula, but are larger and more prominent on the Green Bay side as seen at the Bayshore Blufflands. Progressions of dunes have created much of the rest of the shoreline, especially on the east side. Flora along the shore demonstrate plant succession during periods of low lake levels. The middle of the peninsula is mostly flat. Beyond the peninsula's northern tip is a series of islands, the largest of which is Washington Island. The partially submerged ridge extends farther north, becoming the Garden Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The Fox River is a river in eastern Wisconsin in the Great Lakes region of the United States. It is the principal tributary of the Green Bay, and via the bay, the largest tributary of Lake Michigan. The city of Green Bay, one of the first European settlements in the interior of North America, is on the river at its mouth on the Green Bay.

Hydrographers divide the Fox into two distinct sections, the Upper Fox River, flowing from its headwaters in south-central Wisconsin northeasterly into Lake Winnebago, and the Lower Fox River, flowing from Lake Winnebago northeasterly to the Green Bay. Together, the two sections give the Fox River a length of 182 miles (293 km). Counting the distance through Lake Winnebago gives a total of 200 miles (322 km).

The Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge is a bridge on the north side of Green Bay, Wisconsin. It carries Interstate 43 over the Fox River just south of its mouth into Green Bay. Formerly known as the Tower Drive Bridge, it was renamed in 2002 "in recognition and appreciation of Leo Frigo, a civic and philanthropic leader in the Green Bay area. The bridge opened to traffic in 1981. Because of the bridge's height and slope, it is prone to being shut down during inclement weather. The bridge carries roughly 40,000 vehicles per day as of 2015.

Sturgeon Bay is an arm of Green Bay extending southeastward approximately 10 miles into the Door Peninsula at the city of Sturgeon Bay, located approximately halfway up the Door Peninsula. The bay is connected to Lake Michigan by the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal. The Potawatomi name for Sturgeon Bay is "Na-ma-we-qui-tong".