The Iowa Great Lakes, often referred to as ''Okoboji'',
is a group of natural lakes in northwestern
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
in 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 territori ...
. There are seven lakes in the region totaling with the three principal lakes of the group being
Big Spirit Lake,
West Okoboji Lake
West Okoboji Lake (sometimes known as West Lake Okoboji) is a natural body of water, approximately in area, in Dickinson County in northwestern Iowa in the United States. It is part of the chain of lakes known as the Iowa Great Lakes. The ar ...
, and
East Okoboji Lake
East Okoboji Lake is a natural body of water, approximately in area, in Dickinson County in northwest Iowa in the United States. It is part of the chain of lakes known as the Iowa Great Lakes. The area was long inhabited by the Santee or Easte ...
.
[''Okoboji, Milford, Spirit Lake, and Spirit Lake SE, Iowa''; 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangles, USGS, 1970] They are the largest natural lakes in the state of Iowa. The largest, Spirit Lake, is 5,684 acres (2,300 ha).
The lake area extends to the north into
Jackson County, Minnesota
Jackson County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,989. Its county seat is Jackson.
History
The county was created on May 23, 1857. It was named for Henry Jackson, the first merchant in St. ...
. The headwaters of
Little Sioux River
The Little Sioux River is a river in the United States. It rises in southwestern Minnesota near the Iowa border, and continues to flow southwest for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map ...
flow past the west side of the lake area.
[
]
History
The area around the Iowa Great Lakes was not known for permanent settlement by the Sioux but rather for recreation or hunting. When settlers arrived around 1856 it led to conflicts and eventually the Spirit Lake Massacre
The Spirit Lake Massacre (March 8–12, 1857) was an attack by a ''Wahpekute'' band of Santee Sioux on scattered Iowa frontier settlements during a severe winter. Suffering a shortage of food, the renegade chief Inkpaduta (Scarlet Point) led 14 ...
in 1857.
After the massacre, European settlers slowly returned and by 1900 nearly 8,000 people were living in the area. The Iowa Great Lakes Sanitary District was created in 1939 to protect the lakes from pollution and sanitary issues. Likewise, the Iowa Great Lakes Association was formed in 2008 when the waters were threatened by a large commercial agricultural development.
Geography
The Iowa Great Lakes region was formed 13,500 years ago along the southwest edge of the Des Moines lobe ice sheet as it pressed south into Iowa. The deepest part of the lake is in West Okoboji Lake.
The Iowa Great Lakes lie within the Spirit Lake Micropolitan Area[
]
See also
*University of Okoboji
The University of Okoboji is a fictional university in the state of Iowa in the United States of America. The university was the creation of three brothers in the early 1970s, who printed T-shirts with an "official" school crest. The word "Okoboji" ...
*Geography of Iowa
The geography of Iowa includes the study of bedrock, landforms, rivers, geology, paleontology and urbanisation of the U.S. state of Iowa. The state covers an area of 56,272.81 sq mi (145,746 km2).
Bedrock features
Iowa's bedrock geology ge ...
References
Bodies of water of Dickinson County, Iowa
Lakes of Iowa
Regions of Iowa
Tourist attractions in Dickinson County, Iowa
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