Puckaway Lake also referred to as Lake Puckaway is a lake in Green Lake County and Marquette County,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. The lake has a surface area of and a max depth of . Most of the lake has a muck bottom and is shallow with an average depth of .

History

In 1673, French explorer

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette, Society of Jesus, S.J. (; June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. M ...

, made a passage through the

Fox–Wisconsin Waterway The Fox–Wisconsin Waterway is a waterway formed by the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. First used by European settlers in 1673 during the expedition of Marquette & Joliet, it was one of the principal routes used by travelers between the Great Lakes a ...

from Green Bay to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. Travelling through Puckaway Lake, he stated "the route is broken by so many swamps and small lakes that it is easy to lose one'sway, especially as the river is so full of wild rice that it is difficult to find the channel." Puckaway Lake is a natural formed lake however, the water level has been raised. In 1897, a lock and dam was built on the Fox River by the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

, eight miles downstream from the lake near

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

. This was done with hopes of raising the water level enough for commercial use of the river. By 1922, it was realized that this would not be feasible, and the lock was decommissioned however the dam remains.

Recreation

There are seven public boat landings around the lake.

Fishing

Recreational fishing is frequent on Puckaway Lake. 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 ...

lists six different species of fish in the lake: Musky, Panfish, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Walleye and Catfish. In 1952, the state record northern pike was caught on Puckaway Lake.

Invasive Species

First observed in 1984, invasive species have been found in Puckaway Lake. There are Brittle Waternymph, Curly-Leaf Pondweed, Eurasian Water-Milfoil, Hybrid Eurasian / Northern Water-Milfoil, and Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia. To stop the spread of invasive species in the Fox River Waterway, multiple locks have been permanently closed. This has been done to prevent other invasive species from the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Green Lake County, Wisconsin

History

Recreation

Fishing

Invasive Species

See also

References