|
Ohio’s 33 Natural Lakes
as listed by the
Cleveland Museum
of Natural History |
|
LAKE |
COUNTY |
| Aquilla |
Geauga |
| Bass |
Geauga |
| Kelso |
Geauga |
| Punderson |
Geauga |
| Snow |
Geauga |
| Braden |
Logan |
| Newell |
Logan |
| Ruby |
Logan |
| Silver |
Logan |
| Chippewa |
Medina |
| Silver |
Miami |
| Crystal |
Portage |
| Dollar |
Portage |
| East Twin |
Portage |
| Muzzy |
Portage |
| Pippen |
Portage |
| Sandy |
Portage |
| Stewart Pond |
Portage |
| West Twin |
Portage |
| Wingfoot |
Portage |
| Congress |
Stark |
| Luna |
Stark |
| Meyers |
Stark |
| Odell |
Stark |
| Bath Pond |
Summit |
| Long |
Summit |
| Singer |
Summit |
| Springfield |
Summit |
Turkeyfoot
Mud and Rex |
Summit |
| White Pond |
Summit |
| Fox |
Wayne |
| Mud |
Williams |
| Nettle |
Williams |
When is a lake not a lake? That may sound like the kind of riddle you passed around in the second grade. But the answer might stump a classroom-full of PhDs.
Ohio has at least 50,000 lakes and ponds worthy of those names, with more than 2,000 that cover five acres or more. But not all are true lakes, or at least not true “natural” lakes that were here in Ohio before early settlers began building farm ponds, reservoirs and canals.
In fact, aside from Lake Erie, most of the well-known recreational lakes in Ohio the water we enjoy the most to boat, swim, fish or otherwise unwind are definitely man-made. Virtually all are reservoirs, held back by dams and built for water supply or flood control where no lake existed before. Today these reservoirs are centerpieces for popular state parks or wildlife areas. Lake Hope, East Fork, Alum Creek, Dillon Lake, Mosquito Creek Reservoir and Salt Fork Lake come to mind.
Some popular reservoirs fall into a separate category of man-made lakes, tracing their origins to small, natural bodies of water that were greatly enlarged in the 1800s to become feeder-lake reservoirs for Ohio’s canals. You would be hard pressed to find any trace of their natural shorelines today. These include Indian Lake, Buckeye Lake and the Portage Lakes chain now among the most-visited Ohio State Parks. And don’t forget western Ohio’s Grand Lake St. Marys, a canal feeder that was once the largest reservoir in the world.
Just where are the true, natural lakes in Ohio? How many are there and how can you tell the difference? That’s where the answers get tricky, for even the experts don’t always agree.
Geologists with the Ohio Department of Natural History say there are two types of natural lakes in Ohio. First are the glacial and kettle-holes lakes, both kinds created thousands of years ago when glaciers moved out of Ohio and left behind a trail of melting ice. Think of those as large, Ice Age puddles and look for them mostly in northern Ohio, where glaciers once reigned.
Lake Erie is of course Ohio’s grand-champion glacial remnant, followed in size by 385-acre Chippewa Lake in Medina County. Perhaps Ohio’s best known and best preserved inland glacial lake is the 100-acre beauty at Punderson State Park in Geauga County. While so many of Ohio’s glacial lakes have disappeared over the past two centuries filled in or drained as the state was settled Punderson Lake has remained an open body of “natural” water. What ancient glaciers left behind, modern-day Ohioans can enjoy today for fishing, swimming and boating (electric motors only).
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| Triangle Lake is a kettle-hole bog that supports a wide variety of unique plants. |
Other glacial lakes have been lost over time to natural processes that transformed them into something quite different: glacial bog meadows. One fascinating example, still in transition, is
Triangle Lake Bog State Nature Preserve, just off Interstate 76 in Portage County. While some of the ancient lake remains, you can clearly see how vegetation is slowly closing in on the open water. This nature preserve protects one of the finest and least disturbed kettle-hole bogs in Ohio, supporting a wide variety of unique plants. For example, there’s a stand of tamarack trees, themselves a remnant of Ohio’s Ice Age.
The second type of natural lake in Ohio is more likely to be found in southern counties, though they’re few and far between. These are oxbow lakes, formed when a bend in a winding river became separated from the main flow either by floods or erosion then was left on its own as a free-standing body of water. These lakes are not very large and are not very long lasting, therefore most of them tend not be named.
Even knowing all of this about reservoirs, glacial lakes and oxbows, you still might be surprised to learn that only three dozen or so of Ohio’s 50,000 lakes and ponds make the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s list of “natural” lakes. Jim Bissell, the museum’s curator of botany, places the count at 33. He’s been helping compile a list since 1988, and he includes one special qualifier that goes beyond the lake’s geological history.
Bodies of water making Bissell’s list must not only have natural origins, but also be home to certain floating and deep-water vegetation often these plants are rare and even endangered. In some cases, these plants may be found exclusively in just one specific lake! He says there are other naturally occurring lakes in Ohio beyond his list of 33, but they no longer support the types of vegetation he looks for as hallmarks of these unique ecosystems. Bissell fears that Ohio’s precious few natural lakes will become fewer still, as human encroachment and invasive plant species yellow iris, purple loosestrife and the like continue to take their toll.
When is a lake not a lake? For those of us without science degrees or clever second-graders, the answer to that riddle is whatever you want it to be. For me: if it’s wet, if you can fish or swim in it, boat on it or just sit back and enjoy the sun setting across its waters then it’s a lake. And in this season of Earth Day, we can be grateful that Ohio is blessed with so many of them.