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To our knowledge, no one has attempted a detailed ground survey to measure the shorelines of Lakes Superior or Michigan. While some sections might be relatively easy, imagine the challenges of dealing with rocky coastlines such as Door County or the Apostle Islands.

Estimates of the distances can be extracted from any one of several maps. The accuracy of the result depends both on how and from what data the map was made and how measurements are taken from the maps to construct the distance. Based on digital versions of USGS maps, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' Geo Services Section calculated the following length for Wisconsin's Great Lakes shoreline:

Map Scale	Shoreline Length
1:2 million	816 miles
1:100,000	950 miles
1:24,000	1017 miles

Why are these results so different? The scale for each of the three map series directly effects how much detail and generalization is seen. The map with the smallest scale, 1:2 million, shows Wisconsin in an area less then 1 foot square. This is highly generalized and, as a result, depicts only major shoreline irregularities. This degree of smoothing makes the length appear much shorter than actual. Theoretically, one could map the shoreline's detail down to the level of the shapes of individual rocks. A shoreline distance measured this way could easily exceed 2,000 miles. All of this discussion goes to show that measuring natural features relies on standards which must be followed consistently to end up with a result that is acceptable for the purpose at hand.
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