Owasco Lake is the sixth largest and third easternmost of the

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

of New York in the United States. It is part of the traditional territory of the Cayuga nation.

History

Owasco Lake's name may have been derived from the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

word ''dwas-co'', meaning ''bridge on the water''. The name may also have been derived from the word ''was-co'', meaning ''floating bridge''. Cayuga territory was found between the territory of the Onondaga and

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

. Jesuits founded missions among the Cayuga in the mid-17th century. In 1660, there were approximately 1,500 Cayuga.Pritzker 412 In the nineteenth century, Owasco Lake was a popular vacation spot for the well-to-do. A casino located just north of Cascade hosted guests traveling by rail along the western length of the lake. Vestiges of the railway remain in the swampy waters, but the casino burned down in the early years of the twentieth century. The "indianist" composer

Arthur Farwell Arthur Farwell (April 23, 1872 – January 20, 1952) was an American composer, conductor, educationalist, lithographer, esoteric savant, and music publisher. Interested in American Indian music, he became associated with the Indianist movement ...

camped on the east shore in 1899, before assuming his teaching duties at Cornell University, and wrote a set of piano pieces depicting his experience, entitled "Owasco Memories." He included a representation of "The Casino Across the Lake."

Description

Owasco Lake is long, with a maximum width of . The lake reaches a maximum depth of and has a surface elevation of above sea level, controlled by a dam on the lake's outlet. The lake has a volume of , and drains a watershed of . The city of Auburn is located at the northern end and takes its drinking water from the lake. The lake lies entirely within the boundaries of

Cayuga County Cayuga County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 76,248. Its county seat and largest city is Auburn. The county was named for the Cayuga people, one of the Indian tribes in the Iroquois Confed ...

, and the watershed boundary includes portions of Onondaga County and Tompkins County. Located at the south end of the lake is the hamlet of Cascade, which consists of a community of cottages, a marina, and a restaurant. Owasco has the largest catchment area, or watershed, of all the Finger Lakes. This means that the land use has a large impact on water quality, and the lake especially vulnerable to nutrient loading from stormwater run-off. It is also downstream from the villages of

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The m ...

and Groton. Sewage treatment effluent from two communities flows into the lake, which is regulated and permitted by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. Owasco Lake and Skaneateles Lake are the only Finger Lakes that have rules and regulations to conserve water quality. The Owasco Lake Watershed Inspection and Protection Division (OLWIPD) enforces the 1984 Owasco Lake Watershed Rules and Regulations and inspects various types of land use to determine compliance. Owasco Lake is in the process of updating their rules and regulations which will provide protections comparable to Skaneateles Lake if passed.

Recreation

Owasco Lake is an excellent recreation spot. Because it is smaller and shallower than many other Finger Lakes, its waters warm up much more quickly, so swimming, water-skiing, and boating are popular. At the lake's northern end is Emerson Park, a county park featuring a beach and boat launch. The lake's northeastern corner is home to the private Owasco Yacht Club, founded in 1889.

Fishing

Fish species present in the lake include

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 ...

, brown trout, rainbow trout,

landlocked 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 ar ...

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,

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 p ...

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 ...

, bluegill, pumpkinseed sunfish,

rock bass The rock bass (''Ambloplites rupestris''), also known as the rock perch, goggle-eye, red eye, and black perch, is a freshwater fish native to east-central North America. This red eyed creature is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish fa ...

black bullhead The black bullhead or black bullhead catfish (''Ameiurus melas'') is a species of bullhead catfish. Like other bullhead catfish, it has the ability to thrive in waters that are low in oxygen, brackish, turbid and/or very warm. It also has barbels ...

, pickerel, and

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 ...

. There is access via county owned hard surface boat launch in the park on the north shore for a fee.

References

Dave Tobin. "A Watertight Watershed." Post-Standard, December 24, 2006
* Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. .

External links

Emerson Park

Owasco Yacht Club

Owasco Watershed Lake Association

Near-Real-Time Water Quality Data
{{authority control Finger Lakes Lakes of Cayuga County, New York Tourist attractions in Cayuga County, New York Lakes of New York (state)