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Deming Lake is a lake in Hubbard County and
Clearwater County, Minnesota
Clearwater County is a county in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,524. Its county seat is Bagley.
Clearwater County is home to Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi Rive ...
, in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
. It is within Itasca State Park
Itasca State Park (pronounced eye-ta-ska) is a state park of Minnesota, United States, and contains the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The park spans of northern Minnesota, and is located about north of Park Rapids, Minnesota and from Ba ...
.
History
Deming Lake was initially named 'Danger Lake' by Peter Turnbull, a land surveyor and civil engineer from Canada, because of water "flooding the ice surface in winter at its south shore". It was renamed after Portius C. Deming, a state park official who was later the President of the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners.Natural History
Deming Lake is ameromictic lake
A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters.
The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austr ...
. It has a relative depth of 6.7%. This is consistent with other meromictic lakes, whose relative depths generally exceed 4%.
Deming Lake is part of a tunnel valley drainage system within the Itasca Moraine consisting of three other lakes: Josephine Lake, Arco Lake, and Mary Lake. This system connects to the eastern arm of Lake Itasca
Lake Itasca is a small glacial lake, approximately in area. Located in southeastern Clearwater County, in the Headwaters area of north central Minnesota, it is notable for being the headwater of the Mississippi River. The lake is in Itasca St ...
.
Deming Lake has a turbidity maximum that persists across the lake basin at 5 m depth attributed to filamentous cyanobacteria of the genus ''Planktothrix
''Planktothrix'' is a diverse genus of filamentous cyanobacteria observed to amass in algal blooms in water ecosystems across the globe. Like all Oscillatoriales, ''Planktothrix'' species have no heterocysts and no akinetes. Planktothrix are ...
''. This feature shallows throughout the winter.
The varved sediments in Deming Lake are an archive of information about the Holocene. There was a relatively dry climate across central Minnesota during the early Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
. This dry period was due to an insolation
Solar irradiance is the power per unit area ( surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument.
Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre ...
maximum over the North Hemisphere. Pollen core
A pollen core is a core sample of a medium containing a stratigraphic sequence of pollen. Analysis of the type and frequency of the pollen in each layer is used to study changes in climate or land use using regional vegetation as a proxy. This a ...
s taken from Deming Lake indicate that vegetation around the lake and within the Itasca region has changed in response to Holocene climate change. Pollen in the core was attributed to pine forest, grassland, and deciduous forest. The area was a prairie ecosystem from 8000 to 5400 years ago and transitioned to an Oak savanna
An oak savanna is a type of savanna—or lightly forested grassland—where oaks (''Quercus ''spp.) are the dominant trees. The terms "oakery" or "woodlands" are also used commonly, though the former is more prevalent when referencing the Medite ...
h ecosystem from 5400 to 3300 years ago. The area is currently a pine forest ecosystem.
Recreation
Deming Lake is visible along its eastern shore from the South Entrance Road inItasca State Park
Itasca State Park (pronounced eye-ta-ska) is a state park of Minnesota, United States, and contains the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The park spans of northern Minnesota, and is located about north of Park Rapids, Minnesota and from Ba ...
. The Ozawindib Trail runs along its western shore. The Okerson Heights Trail connects the Red Pine Trail to the Ozawindib Trail near Deming Lake. In the winter, both the South Entrance Road and the Ozawindib Trail are groomed for cross-country skiing.
See also
*List of lakes in Minnesota
This is a list of lakes of Minnesota. Although promoted as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", Minnesota has 11,842 lakes of or more. The 1968 state survey found 15,291 lake basins, of which 3,257 were dry. If all basins over 2.5 acres were counted, Minn ...
References