Talk:Lake Champlain

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Contents 1 The new picture 2 picture 3 Sixth largest body of fresh water in the United States? 4 Winter railroad crossing(s)?

[edit] The new picture

Thanks for the new picture! It looks like a shot looking west from Burlington harbor towards the breakwater, taken with a wide-angle lens. Is it? We could put some of that info into the caption if so.

Atlant 1 July 2005 11:19 (UTC)

[edit] picture

You are correct, the picture was taken from burlington harbor last summer looking west out towards the breakwater. No fancy lenses though, just a standard digital point and shoot.

I'm glad you found the picture acceptable. I'm still new at this wikipedia thing and often feel a bit like a 'vandal' whenever I modify an article that other people have put a lot of work into.

Please feel free to change the caption to better reflect the location of the image etc.

[edit] Sixth largest body of fresh water in the United States?

Can anyone cite a source for this? I don't necessarily doubt it, but I am curious as to whether or not this includes all or any of the Great Lakes, the lakes of Alaska, and what the top five lakes are. -- Ithacagorges 05:54, August 8 2005 (UTC)

According to http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/mapping/a_general.html, the round-up of the top-twenty (when sorted by surface area) is as follows:

        Lake                      Location                                     Area in Square Miles
     1. Lake Superior             Michigan-Minnesota-Wisconsin-Ontario         31,700
     2. Lake Huron                Michigan-Ontario                             23,000
     3. Lake Michigan             Illinois-Indiana-Michigan-Wisconsin          22,300
     4. Lake Erie                 Michigan-New York-Ohio-Pennsylvania-Ontario   9,910
     5. Lake Ontario              New York-Ontario                              7,340
     6. Lake of the Woods         Minnesota-Manitoba-Ontario                    1,485
     7. Great Salt Lake           Utah                                          2,117
     8. Iliamna Lake              Alaska                                        1,014
     9. Lake Oahe (manmade)       North Dakota-South Dakota                       685
    10. Lake Okeechobee           Florida                                         662
    11. Lake Pontchartrain        Louisiana                                       631
    12. Lake Sakakawea (manmade)  North Dakota                                    520
==> 13. Lake Champlain            New York-Vermont-Quebec                         490
    14. Becharof Lake             Alaska                                          453
    15. Lake St. Clair            Michigan-Ontario                                430
    16. Red Lake                  Minnesota                                       427
    17. Selawik Lake              Alaska                                          404
    18. Fort Peck Lake (manmade)  Montana                                         393
    19. Salton Sea                California                                      347
    20. Rainy Lake                Minnesota-Ontario                               345

Their apparent sources:

About our Great Lakes, NOAA, 2002

U.S. Geological Survey, 2003

Apparently, the order varies slightly when sorted by volume (as some lakes are much deeper than others).

Atlant 13:16, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

The claim has been around for a while, at least since the turn of the previous century... which may also explain it. First, we can remove The Great Salt Lake, and Lake Ponchartrain from the list as neither are fresh water. Lakes Oahe and Sakakawea were not yet created when the claim was first made, and Iliamna would not have been counted because Alaska was not yet a State... That would move Champlain up to Number 8 (behind the five Great Lakes, Lake of the Woods and Lake Okechobee). I also suspect the historical validity of the claim is based on Volume. Blueboar 01:03, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

If you drop Lake of the Woods as being mostly in Canada, basing it on volume Champlain passes Okeechobee and is 6th (or was before Alaska became a state). Today it'd be 8th in the U.S. based on volume - behind the Great Lakes, Iliamna, and Sakakawea (volumes found on wiki pages and [1])Kmusser 16:28, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Revised as Lake Mead and Lake Powell would pass Champlain based on volume - so it'd be 10th. It would be the 7th largest natural lake in the U.S. (6th if you exclude Alaska). Kmusser 16:36, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

It is worth noting that Lake Champlain is part of the Great Lakes drainage in that it flows to the sea through the St. Laurence. Dmccabe

[edit] Winter railroad crossing(s)?

I've heard it told that, during the winter when the lake is frozen solid, in the old days they would build a temporary railroad across the lake to New York, simply sitting the railroad track directly on the ice.

This sounds a bit like a tall tale to me, but might have just been within the realm of possibility/practicality.

Does anyone know for sure whether or not this was done, and, if so, where on the lake it was done?

Atlant 18:55, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Don't know, but there was a RR crossing on barges; you can still see at least one of them with a shallow scuba diveDmccabe 12:44, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

It's possible. They did this for at least one winter, likely more, in Montreal during the lead-up to the construction of the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence. Winters in Vermont and southwestern Quebec were colder and longer-lasting during the 1800s, according to climate archives. Plasma east 18:45, 15 November 2006 (UTC)