Carter Lake is a shallow

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. In South Texas, oxbows left by the Rio Grande are called '' resacas''. In Australia, oxbow lakes are call ...

in Nebraska and Iowa, located next to

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, and marks one of the only spots the Iowa-Nebraska border is not on the Missouri River. Soon after its formation the lake was called the East Omaha Lake, and then Lake Nakoma. The city of

Carter Lake, Iowa Carter Lake is a city in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. A suburb of Omaha, Nebraska, it sits surrounding the south and west sides of the region's major airport, Eppley Airfield. It is separated from the rest of Iowa by the Missouri ...

takes its name from the lake. The lake was formed from the Saratoga Bend in the Missouri River.

Overview

The lake has native

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus'') is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, the ...

common carp The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive The ...

, green sunfish, and largemouth bass. The lake is irregularly stocked with channel catfish and northern pike. Invasive species in the lake include

curlyleaf pondweed ''Potamogeton crispus'', the crisp-leaved pondweed, curly pondweed, curly-leaf pondweed or curled pondweed, is a species of aquatic plant (hydrophyte) native to Eurasia but an introduced species and often a noxious weed in North America. Descr ...

and eurasian watermilfoil. There are limited restrictions on fishing in the lake. There is one publicly available boat ramp, and boating is legal on the lake.

History

The Saratoga Bend was the impetus for the creation of the town of Saratoga, Nebraska Territory, a short mile from the river. However, the Bend was cut off from the river after a flood and subsequent river reroute in 1877. Because of this change in the path of the river, the city of Carter Lake, which sits between the lake and the river, is the only city in Iowa to be west of the Missouri River. A beach resort with a large boathouse and two-story pavilion, a Rod and Gun Club, and a YMCA camp had all settled on the shores of Lake Nakoma by 1906. The Carter Lake and

Levi Carter Park Levi Carter Park is located at 3100 Abbott Drive in East Omaha, Nebraska. It was named after one of Omaha's original industrialists, Levi Carter, who ran a white lead smelter in the area. History As recently as 1876, Levi Carter Park was the west ...

at 3100 Abbott Drive were named after one of Omaha's original industrialists named

Levi Carter Levi (; ) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's third son), and the founder of the Israelites, Israelite Tribe of Levi (the Levites, including the Kohanim) and the great-grandfather of Aaron, ...

, who ran a white lead

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...

in the area.

References

External links

History of Carter Lake with pictures and maps
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter Lake (Iowa-Nebraska) Geography of Omaha, Nebraska Bodies of water of Pottawattamie County, Iowa Bodies of water of Douglas County, Nebraska Landmarks in North Omaha, Nebraska Oxbow lakes of the United States Lakes of Iowa Lakes of Nebraska Parks in Omaha, Nebraska Missouri River Defunct resorts Borders of Iowa Borders of Nebraska

Overview

History

See also

References

External links