Androscoggin Lake is a body of water located in the towns of Wayne and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

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 ...

. The surface area of the lake is . Its greatest length is and its greatest width is . The lake is very shallow with a mean depth of and maximum depth of . The lake temperature is therefore quite warm during summer, and the temperature is the same on the bottom as it is on the top, making it a homothermous body of water. There are 4 islands on the lake: Androscoggin Island, Blodgett Island, Lothrop Island and Norris Island. Norris Island has a cabin that can be reserved for free on tklt.org. The islands support a diverse assemblage of rare species and natural communities. The most extensive areas are along and around the Dead River, which connects the lake to the

Androscoggin River The Androscoggin River ( Abenaki: ''Aləssíkαntekʷ'') is a river in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire, in northern New England. It is U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ...

. The islands also provide important nesting habitat for bald eagles,

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

s and

great blue herons The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos Isl ...

. Lothrop Island's

black sand Black sand is sand that is black in color. One type of black sand is a heavy, glossy, partly magnetic mixture of usually fine sands containing minerals such as magnetite, found as part of a placer deposit. Another type of black sand, found on ...

beaches are of

geological Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...

interest and are also home to several rare plants.

Development

Androscoggin is relatively undeveloped. The towns of Wayne and Leeds have populations of less than 2,500 people each. There is a public boat landing located off of Rt. 133 in Wayne. This is the only public access to the lake. The northern and eastern shores are part of the Winthrop Lakes Region. Androscoggin is the main water source for Camp Androscoggin, a boys'

summer camp A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part of the academ ...

located on the lake shore and formerly located on Androscoggin Island. Another summer camp
Camp Tekakwitha
is located at the southern tip of the lake in Leeds. The lake's purity is sustained by the Androscoggin Lake Dam located at the end of the Dead River in Leeds. The dam was built in 1940 to keep out water contaminated by waste from the surrounding towns.

Fishing and wildlife

Many different species of fish inhabit Androscoggin Lake. The most common species are large-mouth bass, small mouth bass,

chain pickerel The chain pickerel (''Esox niger'') is a species of freshwater fish in the pike family (family Esocidae) of order Esociformes. The chain pickerel and the American pickerel (''E. americanus'') belong to the ''Esox'' genus of pike. Taxonomy Fren ...

and brown trout. Other fish less commonly found in the lake include

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

and

white perch The white perch (''Morone americana'') is not a true perch but is a fish of the temperate bass family, Moronidae, notable as a food and game fish in eastern North America. In some places it is referred to as "Silver Bass". The name "White per ...

redbreast sunfish The redbreast sunfish (''Lepomis auritus'') is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (family Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to the river systems of eastern Canada and the United Stat ...

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. Fishing is permitted year-round with the proper permit. The cattail sedge is a plant found on Androscoggin Lake. The lake is the only place in

where this rare and endangered plant has been found. The exact location where the plant was discovered is unknown.

References

{{authority control Lakes of Androscoggin County, Maine Lakes of Kennebec County, Maine Lakes of Maine