This county, established March 1, 1856, received its name from its being bounded on the southeast by Lake Superior, which the Ojibwe call "Kitchigumi, meaning great water," as spelled by Rev. Joseph A. Gilfillan, or "Gitche Gumee, the Big-Sea-Water," of Longfellow in The Song of Hiawatha. Its very early French name, Lac Superieur, used by Father Jacques Marquette, Father Louis Hennepin, and Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin, denotes its situation as the highest in the series of five great lakes tributary to the St. Lawrence River, which are named collectively the Laurentian lakes. This largest body of fresh water in the world by surface area has a mean level 602 feet above the sea and a maximum depth of 1,026 feet.