Abita Lake is a lake in West Cook, Minnesota, which, at an elevation of above sea level, is

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 ...

's ninth highest named lake. Prior to modern surveys, the lake was once believed to be Minnesota's highest elevation lake.

Name

Abita is

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

for "half."

Topography

Lake Abita is situated in the northern region of the

Duluth Complex The Duluth Complex, the related Beaver Bay Complex, and the associated North Shore Volcanic Group are rock formations which comprise much of the basement bedrock of the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota in central North America. The ...

, in the

Misquah Hills The Misquah Hills are a range of mountains in northeastern Minnesota, in the United States. They are located in or near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness within Superior National Forest. Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota at ...

.Hall, Christopher Webber. ''Geography and Geology of Minnesota,'' Vol. 1, p. 7. The H. W. Wilson Company, Minneapolis, 1903. The Duluth

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is che ...

of this region forms several ridges running east to west, which are punctuated by outcroppings of so-called "red rock," several of which is the highest points of land in Minnesota.Ver Steeg, Karl. ''The Influence of Geologic Structure on the Drainage Pattern in Northeastern Minnesota.'' p. 355. The Journal of Geology, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Jul., 1947), pp. 353-361. The University of Chicago Press. Lake Abita sits on the southern face of one of these, Brule Mountain. Brule Mountain rises on its northern approach, and the highland to its south, where Lake Abita sits, is only below its summit, which gives the lake the distinction of being Minnesota's highest.Winchell, N. H. ''Annual Report, for the Year 1881.'' Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. p. 74. St. Paul, 1882. It sits about above Lake Superior, which at , is Minnesota's lowest point, and is only about away from it. Lake Abita is part of the

Brule River The Brule River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed December 19, 2011 river in the U.S. states of Michigan and Wisconsin. Nearly the entire course forms a portion of t ...

watershed. Its water enters the Brule's south branch between Lake Brule and the junction with the north branch. It is located just within the border of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which can only be legally entered by water through certain points. The nearest canoe entry point is located on Bower Trout Lake.Public Water Access, Cook County West.
Retrieved July 27, 2010. The south shore can be reached by foot on a trail from Mit Lake Road.
Retrieved July 27, 2010.

Ecology

Lake Abita is a shallow lake, with a maximum depth of . This makes the lake suitable for smaller fish. In a 1990 survey, the overwhelming majority of fish caught in survey nets were

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii)'' is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonl ...

s, an average of 58.3 per net. An average of one

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 ...

was caught per net, but surveys failed to find any presence of the

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 ...

population which state fisheries had been trying to establish in the lake through three years of fry stocking. The state DNR thus concluded that lake Abita has minimal sport fishing value. Lake Abita's water clarity was measured at seven feet with a

secchi disk The Secchi disk (or Secchi disc), as created in 1865 by Angelo Secchi, is a plain white, circular disk in diameter used to measure water transparency or turbidity in bodies of water. The disc is mounted on a pole or line, and lowered slowly down ...

reading.

Geology

Late 19th century geological surveys of Minnesota found that the rock surrounding Lake Abita was predominately red and grey

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...

, specifically

plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more prope ...

, partially changed to

diallage Diallage is an inosilicate, meaning it is a chain silicate, and is a part of the pyroxene group. Diallage is a junction between augite and diopside, just like fassaite. It was named in 1801 by René Just Haüy. Its name derives from the Greek word ...

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...

, and

hornblende Hornblende is a complex inosilicate series of minerals. It is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole. Hornblende minerals are common in igneous and metamorphic rocks ...

.Winchell, N. H. ''The History of Geological Surveys in Minnesota.'' p. 78. Pioneer Press, St. Paul, 1880. This survey found the color changed to brown as one moved south from the lake, due to the presence of

Limonite Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as FeO(OH)·H2O, although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxid ...

.Winchell, N. H. ''The History of Geological Surveys in Minnesota.'' p. 76. Pioneer Press, St. Paul, 1880. Eozoon quartz, apatite, and pyrite were also noted in the vicinity of the lake.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abita Lakes of Cook County, Minnesota Lakes of Minnesota