Lake Coeur d'Alene, officially Coeur d'Alene Lake ( ), is a natural dam-controlled lake in

North Idaho The Idaho Panhandle—locally known as North Idaho—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, and ...

, located in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

region of 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 territo ...

. At its northern end is the city of Coeur d'Alene. It spans in length and ranges from 1 to wide with over of shoreline. The lake was named after the

Coeur d'Alene people The Coeur d'Alene (also ''Skitswish''; natively ''Schi̲tsu'umsh'') are a Native American nation and one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho. The Coeur d'Alene have sovereign control of their Coeur d'Alene Reservation, ...

Geology and geography

Lake Coeur d'Alene, like other lakes surrounding the

Spokane Valley The Spokane Valley is a valley of the Spokane River through the southern Selkirk Mountains in the U.S. state of Washington. The valley is home to the cities of Spokane and its suburbs Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, and Millwood. The valley i ...

and Rathdrum Prairie, was formed by the

Missoula Floods The Missoula floods (also known as the Spokane floods or the Bretz floods or Bretz's floods) were cataclysmic glacial lake outburst floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the la ...

, most recently 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. The Purcell Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet flowed south from Canada, carving the basin of present-day

Lake Pend Oreille Lake Pend Oreille ( ) in the northern Idaho Panhandle is the largest lake in the U.S. state of Idaho and the List of largest lakes of the United States by area, 38th-largest lake by area in the United States, with a surface area of . It is long, ...

and damming the Clark Fork river. The impounded river repeatedly filled to form

Glacial Lake Missoula Lake Missoula was a prehistoric proglacial lake in western Montana that existed periodically at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. The lake measured about and contained about of water, half the volume of Lake M ...

and broke through the ice dam, resulting in massive floods that filled the Rathdrum Prairie area with sand, gravel, and boulders. Large eddy bars formed downstream from bedrock obstructions, thereby damming

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

valleys and creating lakes. Lake Coeur d'Alene is fed primarily by two rivers, the Coeur d'Alene and the Saint Joe. The outflow is via the

Spokane River The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city o ...

. The lake's elevation varies from

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

in the summer to up to lower in the winter, controlled by the

Post Falls Post Falls is a city in Kootenai County, Idaho, between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, Washington. It is a suburb of Coeur d'Alene, to the east, and a bedroom community to Spokane, to the west. The population was 38,485 at the time of the 2020 cen ...

Dam below the lake on the Spokane River. The lake's average surface temperature between June 1 and September 30 is .

History

The first-recorded European to see the area was explorer David Thompson in 1807. Flooding as a result of the construction and operation of the Post Falls Dam drastically changed the shape and size of the lake, expanding it to combine several smaller lakes into one. The lake has been used for transporting lumber by water in Kootenai County since the timber industry started in the region. Prior to a fire in 1917, Harrison was planned as the county seat of Kootenai County, as the swiftly growing lumber town was at an opportune junction of the St. Joe and Coeur d' Alene rivers. After the fire, the mills were moved mostly to the city of Coeur d'Alene, which developed more and was designated as the county seat. A number of

Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

automobiles sitting on the bottom of the lake are the result of people in the early 1900s choosing to drive in winter across the frozen lake. But they did not always judge how thick the ice was, and went through. Also,

steamboats A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

on the bottom resulted from being burned and sunk as wrecks when they were no longer of use to ferry people around the lake. Since the late 20th century, divers frequently visit these ruins on the bottom as part of their recreation. Captain Sorensen of the '' Amelia Wheaton'', operating the Wheaton, named most of the bays and features of Lake Coeur d’Alene. The

Coeur d'Alene Tribe The Coeur d'Alene (also ''Skitswish''; natively ''Schi̲tsu'umsh'') are a Native American nation and one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho. The Coeur d'Alene have sovereign control of their Coeur d'Alene Reservation, ...

owns the southern third of Lake Coeur d'Alene and its submerged lands as part of its reservation, in addition to miles of the Saint Joe River and its submerged lands, all of which the United States holds in trust for the tribe. Its rights to the lake and river were established in the first executive order founding its reservation, which originally included all of the lake. In '' United States v. Idaho'' (2001), the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

held that an 1873

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of ...

issued by President Ulysses S. Grant formalized ownership by the tribe. While the court holding has not affected usage and access to Lake Coeur d'Alene, the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scal ...

has ruled that the tribe may set its own water-quality standards on its portion of Lake Coeur d'Alene. On July 5, 2020, a mid air collision between two small planes occurred over the lake. Eight people were killed in the accident.

Pollution

Environmental concerns have come as a result of upstream hardrock mining and smelting operations in the Silver Valley. The Coeur d'Alene Basin, including the Coeur d'Alene River, Lake Coeur d'Alene, and also the

is polluted with heavy metals such as

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, l ...

and was designated a

superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

site in 1983 that spans and of the Coeur d'Alene River. The majority of the lake bed is covered in a layer of contaminated sediment and local health officials at the Panhandle Health District advise the lake's visitors to wash anything that has come into contact with potentially lead-laced soil or dust in the Coeur d'Alene River basin.

Recreation

Eagle Watch 2015 at Mineral Ridge Boat Launch (23717145443)

Lake Coeur d'Alene is a popular tourist site for many people during the summer, offering great beaches and scenic views. A seasonal hobby of some local residents is viewing the bald eagles as they feed on the kokanee in the lake, mainly from the Wolf Lodge Bay. The fish that inhabit the lake include,

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 ...

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 Sam ...

, white crappie,

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

, smallmouth bass, kokanee,

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

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 ...

. The

North Idaho Centennial Trail The North Idaho Centennial Trail is a paved trail in Idaho used for transportation and recreational activities. Extending from Higgens Point on the northeast side of Lake Coeur d'Alene, a popular place for bald eagle watchers in early winter, the ...

, popular among cyclists, walkers, and joggers, follows along the lake's north and northeastern shore. The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes also runs along the southern shores. For a decade, the lake hosted unlimited hydroplane races for the Diamond Cup (1958–1966, 1968). Idaho State Parks and public facilities * Mineral Ridge National Recreation Trail *

Coeur d'Alene Parkway State Park Coeur d'Alene Parkway State Park is a paved trail in Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. The parkway is located south of Coeur d'Alene along the north shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene. It is a portion of the North Idaho Centennial Trail. Park f ...

Heyburn State Park Heyburn State Park is a public recreation area in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is located almost entirely in Benewah County, with a small portion extending into southern Kootenai County. The park was founded in 1908 and is the oldest state or pro ...

* Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes
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References

External links