Lake Pend Oreille
Also known as: Albeni Falls Dam and Lake Pend Oreille
Locations
Lake Pend Oreille Water Levels
Lake Pend Oreille: Description
Located in Idaho's northern panhandle, Lake Pend Oreille is the state's deepest and largest natural lake. A scenic glacial lake, its surface was enlarged when the US Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Pend Oreille River in 1955, to control flooding and to produce hydroelectric power. The dam was built at the site of the natural Albeni Falls. Bonneville Power Administration generates 200 million kilowatt hours annually.
At 1158 feet, Lake Pend Oreille is one of the world's deepest lakes, a superlative that attracted the US Navy's attention after Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of its similarities to the open ocean, Lake Pend Oreille became a major naval training station and a testing ground for large-scale submarines. The naval training station became today's 4,000 acre Farragut State Park, but the Navy continues acoustic research at the lake even today.
Lake Pend Oreille is about 43 miles long and 6 miles wide, with 111 miles of shoreline. Sandpoint is the largest of several residential communities on Lake Pend Oreille's mostly-steep shoreline. Sagle, Ponderay, Hope, Clark Fork, and a dozen smaller communities also attract vacationers and retirees.
Popular lake activities include world-class fishing, swimming, kayaking, power boating, scuba diving, and sailing. Lake cruises, fishing charters, and all types of boat rentals can be easily arranged. Lake Pend Oreille's open water can produce substantial wind and wave action, but protected coves draw water skiiers, wakeboarders and campers. Sailors enjoy the prevailing southwest winds; regattas are frequent during summer.
Local fauna include coyotes, bobcats, whitetail deer, black bears, grizzly bears, bald eagles, osprey, owls, and more.
Native fish species in Pend Oreille Lake are Pygmy whitefish, mountain whitefish, Westslope cutthroat trout, and bull trout. Many other species have been introduced (or migrated in) with mixed results: kokanee salmon, brook trout, rainbow trout, lake trout, catfish, muskie, pike, perch, crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and more. The Gerrard rainbow trout, a cold water species, was imported from Canada in 1941; the 37-pound world's record was caught here in 1947.
Whether you come for the scenery, the fishing, the boating, or simply to relax, you won't be disappointed with Lake Pend Oreille.
Lake Pend Oreille: Statistics
- Type: Natural Freshwater Lake, Dammed
- Water level control: US Army Corps of Engineers
- Area: 85,960 acres
- Shoreline length: 111 miles
- Normal elevation: 2,058 feet
- Minimum elevation: 2,050 feet
- Maximum elevation: 2,063 feet
- Mean depth: 538 feet
- Maximum depth: 1,152 feet
- Volume: 1,153,000 acre-feet
- Completion year: 1955
- Catchment area: 24,200 sq.miles
- Trophic state: Oligo-mesotrophic
