My hometown, Duluth, Minnesota, was once projected to be a city as large or larger than Chicago, because of its strategic location at the western end of Lake Superior. Grain, timber and iron ore poured out of the port for decades, creating an enormous amount of wealth for the industry barons who arrived early to take advantage of the natural resources of the region. Little wonder that Northland Country Club could afford to hire Donald Ross to come to town and design a new 18 hole golf course in the early 1920s.
As the mines and forests were depleted, Duluth fell on hard times (Bob Dylan addressed that history on a couple of early songs) and became essentially a tourist town with a few lingering industrial elements and a port operating well under capacity. But the city is still situated strategically at the head of the largest freshwater lake in the Western Hemisphere (we grew up thinking it was the largest in the world, but those sneaky Russians came up with a bigger one).
It has not escaped the attention of longtime Duluth residents that someday the southern states might come begging, borrowing or even trying to steal that water. I don't expect to live to see it, but maybe Duluth will once again become a boomtown. The weather would have to improve, however.