Cass Lake is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in north central

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is approximately long and wide, located in

Cass Cass may refer to: People and fictional characters * Cass (surname), a list of people * Cass (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Big Cass, ring name of wrestler William Morrissey * Cass, in British band Skunk Anansie * Ca ...

and Beltrami counties, within the

Chippewa National Forest Chippewa National Forest is a National Forest located in north central Minnesota, United States, in the counties of Itasca, Cass and Beltrami. Forest headquarters are located in Cass Lake, Minnesota. There are local ranger district offices i ...

and the

Leech Lake Indian Reservation The Leech Lake Reservation (''Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag'' in the Ojibwe language) is an Indian reservation located in the north-central Minnesota counties of Cass, Itasca, Beltrami, and Hubbard. The reservation forms the land base for the federally ...

, adjacent to its namesake city of Cass Lake. It is the 11th largest lake in Minnesota, and the 8th largest lake lying entirely within the borders of the state.

Name

In the

Ojibwe language Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian lan ...

, the lake is called ''Gaa-miskwaawaakokaag'' (where there are many red cedars), and was known to early explorers and traders in French as ''Lac du Cedre Rouge'', and English as ''Upper Red Cedar Lake''.

Geography

The lake occupies a basin that formed over a

ground moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice she ...

on the lake's west side and

glacial outwash An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and ca ...

on its east side from melting glacial ice of th
Wadena
and

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

Lobes, respectively, during the retreat of the

Laurentide Ice Sheet The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered millions of square miles, including most of Canada and a large portion of the Northern United States, multiple times during the Quaternary glacial epochs, from 2.58 million years a ...

after the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

. The

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

flows through the lake from west to east. A second major stream, the Turtle River, enters the lake from the north. The lake has a large littoral area, particularly around Cedar Island. Historically, Cass Lake was considered to be much larger. Pike Bay is a lake lying to the south of Cass Lake; the two lakes are connected by a narrow long channel. Formerly, the two lakes were connected by a wide shallow narrows. Beginning in 1898, construction of a railroad, and later highway and pipeline, across the narrows led to decreased currents through and increased sedimentation in the narrows. The two bodies of water are now generally considered separate lakes, although Pike Bay retains its old name. The lake contains five islands, including Star Island, Cedar Island, the two Potato Islands, and a small unnamed island. Star Island is notable in that it contains the -sized Lake Windigo, thus forming "a lake within an island within a lake"

The Mississippi River leaves Cass Lake in the northeastern corner, flowing next into

Lake Winnibigoshish Lake Winnibigoshish is a body of water in north central Minnesota in the Chippewa National Forest. Its name comes from the Ojibwe language ''Wiinibiigoonzhish'', a diminutive and pejorative form of ''Wiinibiig'', meaning "filthy water" (i.e., "br ...

. Lake level was maintained and stabilized by Knutson Dam beginning in 1924. Knutson Dam was built to replace earlier brush and log dams built by lumber companies. In 2015, Knutson Dam was removed and replaced with a rock weir. This allows a natural setting for water flowing downstream from Cass Lake, accommodates higher flow rates and allows fish migration between lakes connected by the Mississippi.

History

The first recorded visits to the lake by Canadian fur traders were in the 1790s. Mapmaker David Thompson passed through the lake in the spring of 1798 while in the employ of the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

. He made the first designation of the location of the headwaters of the Mississippi River, naming Turtle Lake, located upstream of Cass Lake, as the source. This was a matter of great geopolitical importance, as the location of the headwaters was key to mapping the boundary between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

(British North America) and the United States agreed to in the

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

. Thompson's visit was followed by that of

Zebulon Pike Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson ...

in February 1806 as a part of a military expedition to explore the northern boundary of the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

. Pike designated Cass Lake as the 'upper source' and nearby

Leech Lake Leech Lake is a lake located in north central Minnesota, United States. It is southeast of Bemidji, located mainly within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, and completely within the Chippewa National Forest. It is used as a reservoir. The lake ...

as the 'lower source' of the river. In July 1820, an expedition led by General Lewis Cass visited the lake. They were prevented from traveling further upstream by low water, and so designated the lake as the headwaters of the Mississippi because below this point, the river is navigable throughout the ice-free season. In June 1832,

Henry Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi R ...

, who had been a member of the 1820 expedition, designated the source of the river as being further upstream at

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 Sta ...

, the source of the perennial stream. Subsequent to the Cass Expedition of 1820, the lake was renamed Cass Lake in order to distinguish it from Red Cedar Lake (known today as Cedar Lake) in

Aitkin County Aitkin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,697. Its county seat is Aitkin. Part of the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation is in the county. The county was created in 1857 and organized ...

. Formerly, the lake played an important role in the lumber industry. Log booms were towed across the lake by steamboat from surrounding lakes and streams to either be sawed into lumber at local mills or transported elsewhere by railroad.

Recreation

The lake is popular destination for recreational

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...

, and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

. The lake is known for its

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

muskellunge The muskellunge ''(Esox masquinongy)'', often shortened to muskie, musky or lunge is a species of large freshwater predatory fish native to North America. It is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae. Origin of name The name "muskell ...

, and

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...

fisheries.

Tullibee ''Coregonus artedi'', commonly known as the cisco, is a North American species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. The number of species and definition of species limits in North American ciscoes is a matter of debate. Accordingly ...

are important

forage fish Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food ...

. There are numerous campgrounds and

resorts A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort' ...

located on its shores. The southern and eastern shores of the lake, as well as all the islands, are protected within the Ten Section Area of the Chippewa National Forest. Norway Beach recreation area is located at the southeast corner of the lake and contains Norway Beach Lodge, a notable example of

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

-built Finnish-style log architecture. The city of Cass Lake sits near the southwestern side of the lake. On the isthmus between Cass Lake and neighboring Buck Lake lies Camp Chippewa, a boys camp founded in 1935 by Otto John Endres. Camp Chippewa is a non-profit, private camp for boys between the ages of 8 and 17. Camp Chippewa is renowned for its tripping program. The camp outfits multi week wilderness canoe trips in Minnesota, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The trips vary in length from overnight trips for the youngest campers, to 21 days for the oldest. The in-camp program allows campers to choose their own activities, including archery, riflery, swimming, sailing, canoeing, tennis, fencing, climbing, kayaking, water skiing and soccer. In the Summer of 2019 Camp Chippewa had finally purchased a plot of land on Star Island. Camp Chippewa is directed by Michael and Mary Endres. Another camp, UniStar, lies on a portion of Star Island.

References

External links