Jordan Pond is an

oligotrophic An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates of ...

tarn in

Acadia National Park Acadia National Park is an American national park located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park preserves about half of Mount Desert Island, part of the Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, and ...

near the town of

Bar Harbor Bar Harbor is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. During the summer and fall seasons, it is a popular tourist destination and, until a catastrophic fire i ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. The pond covers to a maximum depth of with a shoreline of . The pond was formed by the

Wisconsin Ice Sheet The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cord ...

during the last glacial period. Penobscot Mountain (1194 ft) rises to the west, while Pemetic Mountain (1247 ft) rises to the east. Two

roche moutonnée In glaciology, a roche moutonnée (or sheepback) is a rock formation created by the passing of a glacier. The passage of glacial ice over underlying bedrock often results in asymmetric erosional forms as a result of abrasion on the "stoss" (upstr ...

s known as The Bubbles (North and South) rise above the northeastern shoreline. The southern end is constrained by

glacial debris 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 shee ...

and an artificial dam. The pond has clear water, with visibility normally and occasionally recorded up to , the deepest recordings in Maine. The pond exhibits high levels of dissolved oxygen, and low levels of plant nutrients and plant life. Some types of boating are permitted, but people and pets are prohibited from entering the water as it is the water supply for the village of Seal Harbor.

Park usage

Park officials estimate that roughly 60 percent of park visitors will visit the pond, primarily the tea-house at the southern end, at some point in their stay. The pond is ringed by a walking trail, from which trails branch off to other park features. One of the park's original carriage trails runs along an adjacent ridge. The Jordan family of Seal Harbor, for whom the pond is named, built a farmhouse near the pond. In the 1870s a restaurant known as the Jordan Pond House was built. Under the management of the McIntires, who operated the establishment from 1895 to 1946, the restaurant became a regular location for

high society High society, sometimes simply society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open to men based ...

events.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in ...

purchased the restaurant and gave it to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. The original building was destroyed by fire in June 1979, and a new building was financed through private fund raising. The Jordan Pond House has a gift shop and a restaurant serving lunch and dinner. The restaurant is known for its service of tea and

popover A popover is a light roll made from an egg batter similar to that of Yorkshire pudding, typically baked in muffin tins or dedicated popover pans, which have straight-walled sides rather than angled. Popovers may be served either as a sweet, t ...

s both on the enclosed veranda and outdoors on the lawn overlooking the pond.

Flora and fauna

Jordan Pond was previously thought to be the only pond containing the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

of a

quillwort ''Isoetes'', commonly known as the quillworts, is the only extant genus of plants in the family Isoetaceae, which is in the class of lycopods. There are currently 192 recognized species, with a cosmopolitan distribution but with the individual sp ...

species described by

Alvah Augustus Eaton Alvah Augustus Eaton (November 20, 1865 – September 29, 1908) was an American botanist who described many species of pteridophytes, orchids and grass. Early life Eaton was born in Seabrook, New Hampshire, and moved to a family farm in Salisbury ...

. The species was formerly known as ''Isoetes macróspora var. heteróspora'' (or ''Isoetes heterospora'') but is now considered to be a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

for ''

Isoetes lacustris ''Isoetes lacustris'', the lake quillwort or Merlin's grass, is a boreal quillwort native on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean. Synonyms include ''Isoetes hieroglyphica''. Description The lake quillwort has many long, narrow leaves fro ...

'', which is found in both North America and Europe. Four other quillwort species are also found in the lake, along with three species of

pondweed Pondweed refers to many species and genera of aquatic plants and green algae: *''Potamogeton'', a diverse and worldwide genus *''Elodea'', found in North America *''Aponogeton'', in Africa, Asia and Australasia *''Groenlandia'', a genus of aquatic ...

, two species each of rushes, bur-reeds, and carnivorous

bladderworts ''Utricularia'', commonly and collectively called the bladderworts, is a genus of carnivorous plants consisting of approximately 233 species (precise counts differ based on classification opinions; a 2001 publication lists 215 species).Salmon, Br ...

, and at least six other species of plants. Fish species in the lake include landlocked

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

rainbow smelt The rainbow smelt (''Osmerus mordax'') is a North American species of fish of the family Osmeridae. Walleye, trout, and other larger fish prey on these smelt. The rainbow smelt prefer juvenile ciscoes, zooplankton such as calanoid copepods ('' L ...

, four species of

minnow Minnow is the common name for a number of species of small freshwater fish, belonging to several genera of the families Cyprinidae and Leuciscidae. They are also known in Ireland as pinkeens. Smaller fish in the subfamily Leusciscidae are co ...

banded killifish The banded killifish (''Fundulus diaphanus'') is a North American species of temperate freshwater killifish belonging to the genus ''Fundulus'' of the family Fundulidae. Its natural geographic range extends from Newfoundland to South Carolina, ...

three-spined stickleback The three-spined stickleback (''Gasterosteus aculeatus'') is a fish native to most inland and coastal waters north of 30°N. It has long been a subject of scientific study for many reasons. It shows great morphological variation throughout its ra ...

pumpkinseed The pumpkinseed (''Lepomis gibbosus''), also referred to as pond perch, common sunfish, punkie, sunfish, sunny, and kivver, is a small/medium-sized North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Lepomis'' (true sunfishes), from family Centrarchi ...

sunfish, and the

American eel The American eel (''Anguilla rostrata'') is a facultative catadromous fish found on the eastern coast of North America. Freshwater eels are fish belonging to the elopomorph superorder, a group of phylogenetically ancient teleosts. The America ...

. The landlocked salmon, lake trout, smelt, sticklebacks, and at least one species of minnow are known to have been introduced or stocked by humans.

References

External links

Lake Overview and Data Access
compiled and organized by the University of Maine
Jordan Pond Buoy Project
{{authority control Acadia National Park Lakes of Hancock County, Maine Mount Desert Island