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The U.S. Coast Guard had to rescue 60 ice anglers in Wisconsin Thursday after the ice they were on broke free and moved away from the shore.

This story caught my attention because, while it happened on the ice on Lake Michigan, near Sturgeon Bay, in Door County, Wisconsin, I'm guessing something similar could also happen on one of Minnesota's 10,000 Lakes-- perhaps even on the Big Lake They Call Gitche Gummee (that'd be Lake Superior.)

According to a post on the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City Facebook page, the crew there had to launch two helicopters to rescue the group of ice fishers who became stranded on the now-frozen Lake Michigan after the ice on which they were fishing broke free and started moving away from the shore.

 

The post said high winds from the same storm system that gave us that 3 to 5 inches of snow Thursday made things worse and kept pushing the ice floes further from the shore. And then things got even more tense. According to the post:

Ice continued to crack into smaller sections throughout the crews' time on-scene. The helicopter crews lowered rescue swimmers to the ice to help coordinate the rescue as local first responders and other Coast Guard ice rescue assets arrived.

In all, the post continued, the Coast Guard and local responders rescued over 60 people who had been stuck on those ice floes as they were being pushed away from the shore!

That had to make for some finger-nail biting, don't you think? Can you imagine being out on the Lake Michigan ice, enjoying a winter day while doing some ice fishing and then all of a sudden the massive piece of ice you're standing on breaks free and starts floating away from the shore? Yikes!

Speaking of lakes, we sure do have a LOT of them here in Land of 10,000 Lakes (and, actually, we have over 11,800 lakes), each with their own unique characteristics. And some with names that are tough to pronounce-- even if you're a native Minnesotan. Keep scrolling to see how many YOU know how to how to correctly say!

Listen to Curt St. John from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5
and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on 103.9 The Doc

SAY WHAT? 20 of the Hardest Lake Names to Pronounce in Minnesota

 

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