Chautauqua Lake from High Above

"Chautauqua" is an Iroquois word with multiple meanings, including "a bag tied in the middle" or "two moccasins tied together."  The word describes the shape of Chautauqua Lake located entirely within Chautauqua County, New York.  It is approximately 17 miles long with its narrowest point located in the Bemus Point area.  The surface area is approximately 13,000 acres and the maximum depth is 75 feet in the North basin and only 19 feet in the South basin with 42.5 miles of shoreline. 

The lake was formed during a glacial retreat at the end of the Ice Age.  During the retreat, the glacier first paused at Jamestown and deposited a mound of soil.  The underlying solid rock formed a natural dam barrier that established the southern end of the lake. The glacier paused twice more on its retreat northward with the next pause occurring at Bemus Point where another soil deposit occurred.  The third pause occurred at Mayville.  Several ridges of soil deposits were created there before the glacier resumed its retreat northward.  The Mayville ridges caused rain water falling there to subsequently flow in one of two directions:  North to Lake Erie which is part of the Great Lakes Basin that flows eventually into the Atlantic Ocean or South to Chautauqua Lake whose waters eventually flow to the Gulf of Mexico via the Chadakoin, Conewango, Allegany, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  The three glacial pauses resulted in Chautauqua Lake being created in the form of two basins, each initially having some differing properties due to the characteristics of the two glacial retreats.  

The divide, known as the Chautauqua Ridge (low irregular hills) can be used to mark the border between the Southern Tier and the Niagara Frontier forming a watershed.

During the winter months ice fishermen drill holes in the lake during the winter months and catch yellow perch, walleye, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and Muskellunge though a total of 81 species have been catalogued since 1902.  Surveys ranging from 1960 through 2000 catalogued 45 species of fish.  The largest fish taken from Chautauqua Lake occurred in 1872 weighing 126 pounds and measured 6'2" long.

Most publications list the lake's elevation as 1308 feet above sea level.  In comparison, nearby Lake Erie's height is 570 feet above sea level.  Lake Erie has the smallest depth (62 feet) of all the Great Lakes with its deepest point measuring 210 feet.  

The lake freezes in winter to a depth of 2-4 feet and in mid February over Valentine's Day weekend a full-scale ice castle is built from blocks of ice cut from the lake with area restaurants providing hot meals to the dedicated team of castle volunteers. Each year a king and queen are crowned with celebratory fireworks.