How Lake Superior Was Created When the world was new, the gods decided to have a competition

to see which of them could make their part of the world the most beautiful. They traveled all over the world until they found the spot they wanted to work on. Zeus wanted to stick with mountains like Olympus, so he went to the Himalayas. He made them more sharp and jagged, just like his lightning bolts. Poseidon, however, surprised everyone by choosing a place far from the ocean, in the middle of the North American continent. One day it would be called Minnesota, but for now it was just a giant plain. Poseidon went to work. He scooped out areas and filled them with water, making it the land of 10,000 lakes. He dug a trench with his trident, and it became the Mississippi River. He asked his friend Pan to help him, and they planted trees and invited birds to come live there, along with squirrels and rabbits and deer and other creatures. Poseidons land was very beautiful. When all the gods gathered to vote, they thought Poseidon had done a better job than Zeus, which made Zeus angry. In his jealousy, Zeus threw his biggest lightning bolt at Poseidon. He missed his brother, and the bolt made a deep gouge in Poseidons land. It was a big ugly scar in the land. Poseidon was determined to still have the most beautiful land, so he filled the ugly place with deep blue water. He used his trident again to carve many rivers with pretty waterfalls flowing into the new lake. He and Pan planted more trees and filled the forests around the new lake with animals. When Poseidon was finished fixing the mess that Zeus had made, he had created what he thought was the best lake of all. He decided to call it Superior. He liked it so much that he decided to make four more great lakes to go with it. He connected all five lakes to each other and then to the ocean, because he wanted to be able to easily visit his lake whenever he wanted to.