There are five Great Lakes and there will be five hats, one for each, fifty of each. The first one is ERIE, and it is out now. Here is what is on it, where the shapes came from, and why Erie went first.
A lake, cut out of steel
The front of the hat is a brushed stainless piece in the outline of the lake itself — not a logo of a lake, the actual shoreline. Across it, engraved, are the depth contours, the way they would sit on a nautical chart: the lake gets deeper as the lines close in.
Under the plate, in raised capitals, the lake's name, and under that THE GREAT LAKES · I OF V.
On the side there is a small anodized aluminum tag, lake-blue on this one, and it reads:
210 FT (64 M) MAX DEPTH
That is Lake Erie at its deepest point. It is also, by a long way, the shallowest of the five — which turns out to be most of Erie's personality.
The numbers had to be right before anything was engraved
Shorelines and depth contours on these hats are drawn from public NOAA and USGS data, not traced off a picture. The maximum depth on each side tag was checked against two federal sources — NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the EPA — before a single plate was cut, because a number engraved into fifty numbered hats is not a number you get to revise later.
Here is the set, and the five numbers that go on the five tags:
- Erie — 210 ft (64 m)
- Huron — 750 ft (229 m)
- Ontario — 802 ft (244 m)
- Michigan — 925 ft (282 m)
- Superior — 1,332 ft (406 m)
Superior's deepest point is more than six times Erie's. Erie is the shallowest and the warmest of the five, and the one that freezes over.
The gold star on the Cleveland shore
Each plate carries one small raised gold star, marking one place on that lake. On ERIE the star sits on the Cleveland shore, at the harbor light.
That is not a neutral choice and it is not meant to be. This is the lake we are on. We are in Avon Lake, Ohio, just west of Cleveland, on Erie's south shore. It is our lake, so it goes first.
Fifty, numbered and authenticated
Fifty ERIE hats are being made. Each one carries its edition number on the inside rim — 1 of 50 through 50 of 50 — and each one is authenticated.
When the fifty are gone, that is the end of ERIE. There is no second run, and the next edition number is not a thing we can print more of.
The blank is a Richardson 112 structured trucker cap in Navy and White, mesh back, adjustable snapback, one size fits most. $75. Ships in 1–3 business days.
What comes next
Four more, one lake at a time, each with its own steel outline, its own depth contours, its own tag color and its own star:
- II · ONTARIO — the star at the east end, where the lake empties into the St. Lawrence
- III · MICHIGAN — the star on the eastern-shore dunes
- IV · HURON — the star at the Straits, in the northwest corner
- V · SUPERIOR — no star. Superior closes the set, and it gets the steel plain.
Each will be fifty, numbered and authenticated, the same as ERIE.
Ontario is also the lake that became Lake America. We wrote about it when it happened, and again when Google Maps showed the new name. Hat II is ONTARIO.
If you want one
The Great Lakes Collector's Edition is here, and ERIE is the one you can get today.
If you want Lake Erie on a hat without the edition, we make those too — the Port Clinton Lake Erie cap and a shelf of Cleveland lakefront designs have been around a while and are not going anywhere.
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