Chain Lake is a large pond or small lake in

Mackinac County Mackinac County ( ) is a county in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 10,834. The county seat is St. Ignace. Formerly known as Michilimackinac County, in 1818 it was one of the first ...

near

St. Ignace St. Ignace is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Mackinac County. The city had a population of 2,452 at the 2010 census. St. Ignace Township is located just to the north of the city, but the two are administered auto ...

in the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

at an elevation of . The lake is served by

Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...

, which provides a rest area and lake overlook for southbound drivers at mile 346. The lake is also served by the

North Country Trail The North Country National Scenic Trail, generally known as the North Country Trail or simply the NCT, is a footpath stretching over from Middlebury in central Vermont to Lake Sakakawea State Park in central North Dakota in the United States; ...

, running in concurrence with the St. Ignace-Trout Lake Trail. This trail uses the right-of-way abandoned by a spur line of the

Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSS&A) was an American railroad serving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Lake Superior shoreline of Wisconsin. It provided service from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and St. Ignace, Michigan, west ...

, a logging-era railroad that helped remove most of the old-growth timber from around the lake. Second-growth woodland surrounding the small sheet of water is owned by the private sector and by

Hiawatha National Forest Hiawatha National Forest is a National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of the state of Michigan in the United States. Commercial logging is conducted in some areas. The United States Forest Service administers this National Forest; it is physical ...

. The lake is noted for rock bass, bullhead, sunfish, sucker, largemouth bass, perch, and northern pike. In winter seasons with suitable weather conditions it can be used to play

pond hockey Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey similar in its object and appearance to traditional ice hockey, but simplified and designed to be played on part of a natural frozen body of water. The rink is 50 to 80 percent the size of a standard NHL-specif ...

. It may be named for being part of a "chain" of streams and lakes that offered alternative canoe passage from St. Ignace westward. Although the eastern tip of the lake is less than 1 mile from

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

, it drains down the

Moran River The Moran River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed December 19, 2011 river on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States. It begins at the outlet of Chain Lake ...

and through ''Freschette Lake'' into West Moran Bay in

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

References

{{authority control Lakes of Michigan Bodies of water of Mackinac County, Michigan