4. erie

ERIE is the name of a Native American tribe that was conquered by the Iroquois. They lived along the southern shore of the lake that was named after them. Erie, or Eriez, is a shortened form of “Erielhonan,” which means “long tail” referring to the raccoon.

Lake Erie is the shallowest of the five Great Lakes, thought to have formed at the end of the most recent Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. Meltwater from the Laurentide ice sheet filled the depressed areas left by the glaciers.

The Battle of Lake Erie, also known as the Battle of Put-In Bay, was fought during the War of 1812 on September 10, 1813. Navy Commander Oliver Hazard Perry and Marine Commander Jesse Elliott defeated the British in one of the five naval battles regarded by Naval Academy professor Craig L. Symonds in his 2005 book Decision at Sea as instrumental in defining U.S. maritime supremacy.

Erie, Pennsylvania, is the state’s only lake port city and fourth largest city. It is home to the oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes, built in 1818 and replaced in 1867.

The Erie Canal, with its 18 aqueducts and 83 locks, was regarded as an engineering landmark when it was completed on October 26, 1825. The canal, which was originally intended to run to Lake Huron, was dubbed “Clinton’s Big Ditch” by skeptics who were doubtful of the project advocated by New York Governor Dewitt Clinton.

The governor broke ground on the canal in 1817. Once the canal was opened, “hoggees” led groups of pack animals along the adjacent towpath to help boats navigate the canal. The hoggees worked in six hour shifts to guide the boats over the 363-mile length of the canal. James A. Garfield, who would later become president, worked as a hoggee early in his life. The four-foot deep, forty-foot wide canal started at Albany and ended at Buffalo, passing through Rochester and Syracuse along the way.

Erie is a homophone of eerie, meaning scary or creepy.