Lake Champlain’s brush with ‘Great’-ness

There are five Great Lakes: Superior, Ontario, Michigan, Huron and Erie. But for a few fleeting weeks in the late 1990s, Lake Champlain made six. How did this happen? To answer that question from Erin Robbason of West Rutland, we pass the mic to our friends at Interlochen Public Radio and the podcast Point North for a story about Lake Champlain’s brief and controversial stint as the sixth Great Lake. Find the web version of this story here . This episode was reported and produced by Ruth Abramovitz and Dan Wanschura. It was edited by Morgan Springer. Additional editing from Dan Wanschura, Ellie Katz and Claire Keenan-Kurgan. The Brave Little State team is Josh Crane, Sabine Poux and Burgess Brown. Our intern is Camila Van Order González. Our Executive Producer is Angela Evancie. Theme music by Ty Gibbons; Other music by Blue Dot Sessions. As always, our journalism is better when you’re a part of it: Ask a question about Vermont Sign up for the BLS newsletter Say hi on Instagram and Reddit @bravestatevt Drop us an email: hello@bravelittlestate.org Make a gift to support people-powered journalism Tell your friends about the show! Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.

You can listen to Lake Champlain’s brush with ‘Great’-ness online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Lake Champlain’s brush with ‘Great’-ness is an episode from Brave Little State by Vermont Public Radio.

This episode is 24:53 long.

This episode was published on Sep 25, 2025.

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