European adventurers and missionaries sailed into the Great Lakes soon after the first settlements were made on the Atlantic shores. They sought new territories for their monarchs, and a route to the riches of the Orient, via the mythical North West Passage.

Frontier forts like St. Marie among the Hurons in Midland and Old Fort William in Thunder Bay, recreate life in those early years. Fort LeBoef at Erie, Fort Meigs near Toledo and Fort York in Toronto tell of the period when Britain and the nascent USA fought for supremacy, at a time when land west of the Ohio River was still Indian Territory. A whiff of that period still lingers in Erie, the home of Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship "Niagara", the victor in the war of 1812.

Other aspects of the early settlements in the region are recreated in places like Black Creek Farm Pioneer Village and Sauder Farm. Also Geauga County in Ohio, and Waterloo County in Ontario maintain strong links with these early years through Mennonite and Amish peoples and their farming and craft traditions.

The Great Lakes also have extensive maritime links from the days when roads were almost non-existent, and the railways provided only limited service. Almost every port of call has a maritime museum that offers insights into ships and trade, from the "Meteor", the only surviving whaleback, in Superior, to the "Keewatin" in Douglas, the sole remaining passenger liner of the lakes.

But the lakes were not just frontier missions, and farms carved out of the forest, cities around the lakes were also home to the industrial development of North America. Cities and towns have a rich architectural heritage from the Belle Epoch through the prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright to the studied calm of Mies van der Rohe and beyond. Many theaters and movie houses from the early part of the century have been carefully restored to give pleasure for the performing arts. Every great port of call has a unique heritage, from the pleasure palaces of the Victorian and Edwardian era to the painted ladies of the Michigan shore.