Mille Lacs Lake

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This giant walleye statue, standing in a park just off U.S. Route 169 in Garrison, greets visitors and promises great fishing in Mille Lacs Lake.

Mille Lacs Lake (though the word is originally French, the 's' is pronounced in Minnesota), also called Lake Mille Lacs or simply Mille Lacs, is a lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota, located in the counties of Mille Lacs, Aitkin and Crow Wing, north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The lake is called Misi-zaaga'igan ("grand lake") in the Ojibwe language.

1 Physical features
2 History
3 Towns on Mille Lacs Lake
4 External links

[edit] Physical features

Minnesota DNR map of Mille Lacs Lake

At 207 sq mi (132,500 surface acres ), Mille Lacs is Minnesota's second-largest lake. Its maximum depth is 42 feet, while much of the main lake falls into the 20 to 38 foot depth ranges. The northern half contains most of the lake's mud flats and the southern half of the lake has more gravel and rock bars. All sides of the lake offer some shallow reef-top fishing. Deep-water angling takes place on the southern deep gravel and rocks as well as on dozens of mud flats in the north half of the lake. Shoreline break fishing on varied bottom types occurs all around the lake. The weed line is at nine to ten feet.

The lake has many species of fish including walleye, northern pike, muskie, jumbo perch, small mouth bass and tullibee. It is one of Minnesota's most popular fishing lakes in the summer and is also popular for ice fishing in the winter. It is a prime spawning grounds for walleye and billions of walleye eggs and fry are produced there every year. In the absence of a thermocline, fish can travel the whole area of the lake.

[edit] History

Archaeologists indicate that it is one of the earliest known sites of human settlement in the state. The Rum River drains from Lake Mille Lacs into the Mississippi River to the south in Anoka, Minnesota. Father Hennepin State Park and portions of the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation are along the lake. On early French maps, the lake was also known as Lac Baude or Minsisaugaigun. In the Dakota language, the lake is known as Mde Wakan (Spiritual/Mystic Lake), which was the basis for the name of the Mdewakanton division of the Santee Sioux.