One of my favorite professors when I was a student at Calvin College told me a story recently about his father. His father was from California and every time he came to visit his son at Calvin, he would refer to Lake Michigan as the "sweet water". In California, when they would try to dig wells for drinking water near the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, the water would often be undrinkable due to the salt content. If you were lucky enough to dig a well and hit "sweet water" you were considered very fortunate. Many people today that live near the Great Lakes take them for granted and don't realize how valuable they really are.