What's up Chicago? I'm Erin Allen, and this is Curious City.

Lake Michigan is the crown jewel of Chicago.

She's beautiful and majestic.

We share the glory with surrounding states, our Great Lakes brethren,

and we're pretty serious about it. It's rooted in our identity.

Well, today, we're bringing you a story from our

friends at Interlock and Public Radio. Points North is a podcast about the land, water, and

inhabitants of the Great Lakes. The team takes us back to a time when another lake tried to

weasel its way in to this exclusive five lake club.

And if you were to take a look at the lake in question, between the borders of New York

and Vermont, you would probably say, that beauty thing? A great lake. Here's Point's North

host, Dan Wanchura. More than 25 years ago back in 1998, Tom Berry had a job in politics in Vermont.

It was late February when, out of the blue, Tom got a call from back home in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

My mother called and asked me, what's up with Lake Champlain thinking it could be a great lake.

There's only five great lakes, and Lake Champlain's not one of them.

Tom was completely caught off guard.

He hadn't heard anything about this from his colleagues in government.

So he was even more surprised to be getting the news from his mom.

And she said, well, you know, one of the Vermont senators just made it a great lake.

And it's not a great lake.

What Tom didn't know then was Congress had just passed a bill designating Lake Champlain as one of the great lakes.

It was quickly becoming this huge national story, like on NBC Nightly News.

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