Every Lake
Torch Lake
Nineteen miles of Caribbean blue in northern Michigan — the longest inland lake in the state.
- 36 ft · shore
- 71 ft
- 107 ft
- 143 ft
- 179 ft
- 214 ft
- 250 ft
- 285 ft · bottom
About Torch Lake
Torch Lake is a long, deep trough left by the glaciers a few miles inland from Grand Traverse Bay: 19 miles long, nearly 300 feet deep, and famous for a color that people who have never seen it assume is a filter. It isn't. Marl and sand on the bottom and very clear water give the shallows a turquoise that National Geographic once ranked among the most beautiful lakes in the world.
The name is a translation of the Ojibwe Was-wa-gon-ong, "place of torches," for the fires fishermen lit on their canoes at night to draw fish. The lake is part of the Chain of Lakes that drains through Elk Lake to the bay; Alden, Clam River and Torch River are its villages.
The sandbar at the south end is the lake's social center every summer weekend, and the shoreline is some of the most sought-after in Michigan — cottages that have been in families since the lumber days and are not for sale at any price.
- Alden, Torch River, Clam River, Eastport
- US-31 and the shore roads
- Ten depth layers on the 12"
Turn it in your hands
Live 3D of the actual cut files — drag to orbit, pinch to zoom. Every road you see is engraved on the real thing.
