Lake Abert (also known as Abert Lake) is a large, shallow,

alkali In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The a ...

lake in Lake County,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States. It is approximately long and wide at its widest point. It is located northeast of the small, unincorporated community of Valley Falls, Oregon. The lake was named in honor of Colonel John James Abert by explorer

John C. Fremont John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

during his 1843 expedition into

Central Oregon Central Oregon is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Oregon and is traditionally considered to be made up of Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties. Other definitions include larger areas, often encompassing areas to the north towards t ...

. No fish live in the alkaline waters of the lake; however, its dense population of

brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp or ''Sea-Monkeys, sea monkeys''. It is the only genus in the Family (biology), family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to t ...

supports a variety of shorebirds. The lake is an important stop on the bird migration route known as the

Pacific flyway The Pacific Flyway is a major north-south flyway for migratory birds in the Americas, extending from Alaska to Patagonia. Every year, migratory birds travel some or all of this distance both in spring and in fall, following food sources, heading ...

Ancient Lake Chewaucan

The arid land around Lake Abert was once lush. During the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epoch, vast areas of south-central Oregon were covered by

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

s and

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

. As the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

was ending, rain and runoff from melting snow filled the lowlands throughout this region of the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

, creating an immense freshwater lake called Lake Chewaucan. The lake covered at depths of up to .Deike, Ruth G. and Blair F. Jones
"Provenance, Distribution and Alteration of Volcanic Sediments in a Saline Alkaline Lake"
''Developments of Sedimentology'', vol. 28: Hypersaline Brines and Evaporitic Environments (A. Nissenbaum, editor), Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (distributed in the United States and Canada by Elsevier/North-Holland, Inc of New York), 1980.Bowker, Kimberly
"Salt of the Earth - At Lake Abert, beauty never smelled so bad"
, ''The Bulletin'', Bend, Oregon, 31 December 2009. Lake Chewaucan covered the Abert and Summer Lake basins for most of the late Pleistocene epoch. The last high water period occurred about 13,000 years ago. There is no archaeological evidence of human utilization of Lake Chewaucan during this time. The earliest evidence for possible human occupation of the basin comes from the

Paisley Caves The Paisley Caves or the Paisley Five Mile Point Caves complex is a system of eight caves in an arid, desolate region of south-central Oregon, United States north of the present-day city of Paisley, Oregon. The caves are located in the Summer L ...

, which were originally excavated by

Luther Cressman Luther Sheeleigh Cressman (October 24, 1897 – April 4, 1994) was an American field archaeologist, most widely known for his discoveries at Paleo-Indian sites such as Fort Rock Cave and Paisley Caves, sites related to the early settlement ...

in the late 1930s. Cressman found inconclusive evidence that humans could have begun an occupation of the area around 11,000 years ago. Further excavations of the site by Dennis Jenkins since 2002 have yielded evidence of occupation of the area as far back as 14,300 years ago. Lake Chewaucan began to dry up at the close of the Pleistocene epoch. As it shrank, salts and alkali were concentrated in its remaining waters, and the result was the formation of Lake Abert and Summer Lake. Today, the two lakes are apart and are the only remnants of Lake Chewaucan.Oregon topographic map
, United States Geological Survey, United States Department of Interior, Reston, Virginia; displayed via ACME mapper, ''www.acme.com'', 9 February 2010.

Lake environment

Lake Abert is an

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

body of water that occupies the eastern arm of

pluvial In geology and climatology, a pluvial is either a modern climate characterized by relatively high precipitation or an interval of time of variable length, decades to thousands of years, during which a climate is characterized by relatively high ...

Lake Chewaucan basin. The lake has an elongated triangular shape. It is approximately long and wide at the south end of the lake, growing to wide at the north end. In total, the lake covers approximately . Despite its size, the lake's maximum depth is only . Its average depth is ."Abert Lake"
, ''World Lakes Database'', International Lake Environment Committee Foundation, Shiga, Japan, 1999. The east side of Lake Abert is bounded by Abert Rim, a steep

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

that rises over above the lake surface. The lake is bordered on the west by a long ridge called Coglan Buttes and on the north by the Coleman Hills. The lake's only year-around source of fresh water comes from the Chewaucan River, which flows into the lake from the south. The Lake Abert drainage area covers . The environment in the Abert drainage basin is semi-arid. Most of the precipitation in the area occurs as snowfall during the winter months, and the Chewaucan River system is fed primarily by seasonal snowmelt. The lake's only other source of fresh water is summer thundershowers that produce a small amount of runoff from Abert Rim. Because the lake has no outlet, it has developed a high concentration of

sodium carbonate Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda, soda ash, sal soda, and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield alkaline solutions in water ...

common salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as ro ...

, and

in its water. Crystallized mineral crusts on rocks along the lakeshore can be several inches thick. Some mineral deposits are evident on boulders above the present lake surface.

Ecology

Fish cannot survive in the lake because of the high salinity and alkali content; consequently,

are abundant.Cain, Eric (producer)
"Abert Lake"
, ''Oregon Field Guide'' video (Episode 405), Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland, Oregon, 1993. The lake provides an excellent habitat for various shore birds. It is one of Oregon's few inland nesting sites for

snowy plover The snowy plover (''Anarhynchus nivosus'') is a small shorebird found in the Americas. It is a member of the bird family Charadriidae, which includes the plovers, dotterels, and lapwings. The snowy plover was originally described by John Cassin ...

s. The lake is also a stop on the Pacific flyway for many migrant bird species. During the annual migrations, it hosts tens of thousands of eared grebes,

Wilson's phalarope Wilson's phalarope (''Phalaropus tricolor'') is a small wader. This bird, the largest of the phalaropes, breeds in the prairies of North America in western Canada and the western United States. It is migratory, wintering in inland salt lakes n ...

red-necked phalarope The red-necked phalarope (''Phalaropus lobatus''), also known as the northern phalarope and hyperborean phalarope, is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a ...

American avocet The American avocet (''Recurvirostra americana'') is a large wader in the avocet and stilt family, Recurvirostridae, found in North America. It spends much of its time foraging in shallow water or on mud flats, often sweeping its bill from side ...

s, killdeer, and

northern shoveler The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and throughout the Palearctic and across most of North America, and winters in southe ...

black tern The black tern (''Chlidonias niger'') is a small tern generally found in or near inland water that breeds in Europe, Palearctic, Western Asia and North America. In winter the birds migrate to coastal areas of Africa and South America. Taxonomy T ...

Forster's tern Forster's tern (''Sterna forsteri'') is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name ''Sterna'' is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and ''forsteri'' commemorates the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. It breeds inland in North America ...

s, American avocet, white-faced ibis,

Clark's grebe Clark's grebe (''Aechmophorus clarkii'') is a North American waterbird species in the grebe family. Until the 1980s, it was thought to be a pale morph of the western grebe, which it resembles in size, range, and behavior. Intermediates between ...

s, and

black-necked stilt The black-necked stilt (''Himantopus mexicanus'') is a locally abundant shorebird of North and South American wetlands and coastlines. It is found from the coastal areas of California through much of the interior western United States and along ...

s are common during the summer months.

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), sometimes called Canadian goose, is a large species of goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North ...

snow geese The snow goose (''Anser caerulescens'') is a species of goose native to North America. Both white and dark morphs exist, the latter often known as blue goose. Its name derives from the typically white plumage. The species was previously placed ...

, Ross' geese and many

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

species are also common. Bird counts have recorded over 20,000 ducks at the lake at one time. Over 12,000

ring-billed gull The ring-billed gull (''Larus delawarensis'') is a medium-sized gull native to North America, breeding in Canada and the northern Contiguous United States, and wintering mainly in the United States and northern Mexico. The genus name is from Lat ...

s and

California gull The California gull (''Larus californicus'') is a medium-sized gull, smaller on average than the herring gull, but larger on average than the ring-billed gull (though it may overlap in size with both). Although named after California, it can b ...

s have been counted at the lake as well.Conte, Frank P. and Paul A. Conte
"Abundance and spatial distribution of Artemia salina in Lake Abert, Oregon"
''Hydrobiologia'' (Volume 158, Number 1), Springer Netherlands, New York, New York, January 1988, pp167-172."Lake Abert"
, Audubon Society of Portland, Portland, Oregon, 10 February 2010."Lake Abert"
, Basin and Range Birding Trail, Bureau of Land Management in cooperation with the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, Alturas, California, 10 February 2010.

Sage grouse Sage-grouse are grouse belonging to the bird genus ''Centrocercus.'' The genus includes two species: the Gunnison grouse (''Centrocercus minimus'') and the greater sage-grouse (''Centrocercus urophasianus''). These birds are distributed throug ...

and

burrowing owl The burrowing owl (''Athene cunicularia''), also called the shoco, is a small, long-legged, primarily terrestrial—though not flightless—species of owl native to the open landscapes of North and South America. They are typically found in gra ...

s are found near the lake, and

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

ferruginous hawk The ferruginous hawk (''Buteo regalis'') is a large bird of prey and belongs to the broad-winged buteo hawks. An old colloquial name is ferrugineous rough-leg, due to its similarity to the closely related rough-legged hawk (''B. lagopus''). The ...

s, and

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known simply as the peregrine, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family (biology), family Falconidae renowned for its speed. A large, Corvus (genus), cro ...

s hunt in the Lake Abert area."Rangeland Health Assessment West Lake #424"
, Lakeview District, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of Interior, Lakeview, Oregon, 12 August 1997.

History

Lake Abert was home to a series of prehistoric cultures that left behind an array of

archaeological sites An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

along the east shore of the lake. Stone house rings that are numerous in the area are not found elsewhere on the Great Basin. The first written record of the lake was made by John Work, the leader of a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

fur trapping expedition. Work recorded his party's visit in his journal on 16 October 1832. In his journal, Work called it ''Salt Lake''. Work's journal also implies that other trappers may have been to the lake before his expedition.McArthur, Lewis A. and Lewis L. McArthur, "Lake Abert", Oregon Geographic Names (Seventh Edition), Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, Oregon, 2003, p. 552.Brogan, Phil F., ''East of the Cascades'' (Third Edition), Binford & Mort, Portland, Oregon, 1965, p. 38. Lieutenant John C. Fremont named Lake Abert during his 1843 mapping expedition through central and southern Oregon. Fremont and his Army

topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scienc ...

team were mapping the

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Oreg ...

from The Dalles on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

Sutter's Fort Sutter's Fort was a 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in the Mexican ''Alta California'' province. Established in 1839, the site of the fort was originally part of a utopian colonial project called New Helvetia (''New Switzerland'') ...

in the

Sacramento Valley The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Fremont named the lake in honor of Colonel John James Abert, who was chief of the Army's

Corps of Topographical Engineers Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gene ...

. On 20 December 1843, Fremont described the discovery and naming of Lake Abert as follows: In 1986, a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

burned along the west side of the lake. After the fire, along the shoreline were seeded with a Eurasian species,

crested wheatgrass ''Agropyron cristatum'', the crested wheat grass, crested wheatgrass, fairway crested wheat grass, is a species in the family Poaceae. This plant is often used as Fodder, forage and erosion control. It is well known as a widespread introduced sp ...

. The remaining acres were left to natural restoration.

Human activity

Today, the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

is responsible for Lake Abert and its surrounding land. There is one grazing allotment that borders the southwest shoreline of the lake, covering of Bureau of Land Management land. The area is semi-arid with bluebunch wheatgrass, cheatgrass, and

big sagebrush '' Artemisia tridentata'', commonly called big sagebrush,MacKay, Pam (2013), ''Mojave Desert Wildflowers'', 2nd ed., , p. 264. Great Basin sagebrush or simply sagebrush (one of several related species of this name), is an aromatic shrub from the ...

as the primary vegetation. A 1997 study showed that the grazing practices on the allotment conformed to Federal and state standards. Because of the lake's extreme alkalinity, there are no recreational activities that occur on the lake, although kayakers occasionally paddle on the lake. Swimming or extended contact with the lake's water would be harmful to humans. There are no developed campgrounds at Lake Abert, but the Bureau of Land Management does allow dispersed camping in the area. The only common recreational activity at Lake Abert is

bird watching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

. A small brine shrimp collection enterprise on Lake Abert was begun in 1979. The brine shrimp's high tolerance for salinity and ability to withstand freezing temperatures during the winter make brine shrimp the lake's only residents. While the brine shrimp harvest from the lake is relatively small, the impact of harvest has never been studied."About our Company"
, Oregon Desert Brine Shrimp, ''www.oregondesertbrineshrimp.com'', Valley Falls, Oregon, 10 February 2010.

Location

Lake Abert is located in Lake County in south-central Oregon. The lake is north of

Lakeview, Oregon Lakeview is a city in Lake County, Oregon, United States. The population was 2,418 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lake County. The city bills itself as the "Tallest Town in Oregon" because of its elevation ...

, on U.S. Route 395. The highway runs along the east shore of the lake for approximately . There are several interpretive signs at highway turn-offs overlooking the lake. Lake Abert is approximately southwest of

Burns, Oregon Burns is a city in and the county seat of Harney County, Oregon, Harney County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 2,730. Burns and the nearby city of Hines, Oregon, Hines are ...

, also on Highway 395.

References

External links

''Lake Abert''
program on

Oregon Field Guide ''Oregon Field Guide'' is a weekly television program produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting focusing on recreation, the outdoors, and environmental issues in the state of Oregon. The show has become part of the Oregon zeitgeist. Steve Amen is th ...

Lake Abert Dries Up
Video produced by

Shrinking Lake Abert
Nasa earth observatory

Oregon Live {{DEFAULTSORT:Abert, Lake Lakes of Oregon Lakes of Lake County, Oregon Endorheic lakes of Oregon Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in the United States