Cravath Lake is a

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

lake located near the center of

Whitewater Whitewater forms in the context of rapids, in particular, when a river's Stream gradient, gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that foam, froths, making t ...

, Wisconsin.

History

Cravath Lake was created in the mid-1850s at the intersection point of Whitewater Creek and Spring Brook to power a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

that was built upon the creek. It is named after

Prosper Cravath Prosper Cravath, Jr., (May 28, 1809May 20, 1886) was an American lawyer and Wisconsin pioneer. He was one of the original settlers of Whitewater, Wisconsin, and helped lay out the town plat. He represented Whitewater in the Wisconsin State Assem ...

, one of Whitewater's first settlers. Over time the lake's use for industry gave way to recreation, and it currently hosts Cravath Lakefront Park and Community Center on its northern shore near Whitewater's Main Street and downtown businesses. Lake Cravath

From 2019 through 2022, the city of Whitewater conducted a drawdown project on both Cravath Lake and its connected Trippe Lake to "freeze out invasive species, restore navigation channels, and improve overall health within the lakes". The draining of the lakes began in July 2019, followed by dredging in the winter of 2022, and a controlled burn to clear vegetation. The lakes were refilled in the spring of 2022, and underwent a fish restocking process in conjunction with the

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Wisconsin charged with conserving and managing Wisconsin's natural resources. The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board has the authority to set polic ...

Ecology

Cravath Lake hosts

panfish The word panfish, also spelled pan-fish or pan fish, is an American English term describing any food fish, edible freshwater fish that usually do not outgrow the size of an average frying pan. It is also commonly used by recreational fishing, re ...

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

, and

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

. It contains the invasive species curly-leaf pondweed and eurasian water-milfoil.

References

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External links

Wisconsin DNR Cravath Lake information
Lakes of Walworth County, Wisconsin Artificial lakes of the United States Whitewater, Wisconsin