Thumb Lake, also known as Lake Louise by the "Lake Louise Camp" community, is a
kettle lake
A kettle (also known as a kettle hole, kettlehole, or pothole) is a depression or hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating ...
located in
Hudson Township, Charlevoix County, Michigan, United States. The
epithet
An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...
''Thumb Lake'' derives from the lake's
bathymetry
Bathymetry (; ) is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors ('' seabed topography''), river floors, or lake floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography. The first recorded evidence of wate ...
. An
islet
An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...
protrudes from the lake's west basin. The total surface area of the lake is , with maximum depths of .
The misnomer "Lake Louise" comes from a former Camp director who wanted to rename the lake after his wife.
The lake is nestled in the highlands east of the village of
Boyne Falls, centered at , and is surrounded by wooded hills. Because of its depth and the dearth of run-off into the lake, its waters are exceptionally clear. The lake is inhabited by
splake
The splake or slake (''Salvelinus namaycush × Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a hybrid of two fish species resulting from the crossing of a male brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') and a female lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush''). The name its ...
, a stocked hybrid species (
lake trout
The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater Salvelinus, char living mainly in lakes in Northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, laker, and grey trout. In Lake Sup ...
and
brook trout
The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...
),
rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...
,
yellow perch
The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...
,
smallmouth bass
The smallmouth bass (''Micropterus dolomieu'') is a species of freshwater fish in the Centrarchidae, sunfish family (biology), family (Centrarchidae) of the order (biology), order Centrarchiformes. It is the type species of its genus ''Micropterus ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
smelt, and other panfish. Public access is available on the eastern shore of the lake in the form of a park with swimming beach, and on the southwestern shore in the form of a boat launch.
See also
*
List of lakes in Michigan
This is a list of lakes in Michigan. The United States, American state of Michigan borders four of the five Great Lakes, Great Lakes.
The number of inland lakes in Michigan depends on the minimum size. There are:
* 62,798 lakes ≥
* 26,266 la ...
External links
Thumb Lake Inventory Map produced and published by the
Institute for Fisheries Research (IFR)
References
Lakes of Charlevoix County, Michigan
Lakes of Michigan
{{CharlevoixCountyMI-geo-stub