Lake Winnipeg is a very large (24,514 square kilometers (9,465 sq mi)) lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, about 55 kilometres (34 mi) north of the city of Winnipeg. It is the largest lake within the borders of southern Canada, and it is part of the most undeveloped and pristine large watershed of southern Canada.

 

It is the sixth-largest freshwater lake in Canada, but it is relatively shallow (mean depth of 12 m (39 ft) excluding a narrow 36 m (118 ft) deep channel between the northern and southern basins. It is the eleventh-largest freshwater lake on Earth. The east side of the lake has pristine boreal forests and rivers that are being promoted as a potential United Nations World Heritage Park. The lake is elongated in shape and is 416 km (258 mi) from north to south, with remote sandy beaches, large limestone cliffs, and many bat caves in some areas. Manitoba Hydro uses the lake as one of the largest reservoirs in the world. There are many islands in the lake and most are undeveloped and pristine.

 

 

Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba are remnants of prehistoric Glacial Lake Agassiz. The area between the lakes is called the Interlake Region, and the whole region is called the Manitoba Lowlands.

It is believed that Henry Kelsey was the first European to see the lake in 1690. He adopted the Cree language name for the lake: winipek, meaning "muddy waters". La Verendrye referred to the lake as Ouinipigon when he built the first forts in the area in the 1730s. Later, the Red River Colony to its south took the lake's name for Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba.

Lake Winnipeg lies along one of the oldest trading routes in North America to have flown the British flag. For several centuries, furs were traded along this route between York Factory on Hudson Bay (which was the longtime headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company) over Lake Winnipeg and the Red River Trails to the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Saint Paul, Minnesota. This was a strategic trading route for the First British Empire. With the establishment of the Second British Empire that occurred after Britain's loss of the Thirteen Colonies, a quite significant increase in trade occurred over Lake Winnipeg between Rupert's Land and the United States.

 

 

Because of its long, narrow shape, the lake exhibits a variety of interesting wind and wave effects, including waves of up to one metre in height at its southern shore, a process called seiche. This occurs when prevailing northerly winds blow along the length of Lake Winnipeg, exerting a horizontal stress on its surface. Surface waters move in the direction of the wind and pile up along the leeward south shores.

Furthermore, water depths are known to be extremely variable at the south end of the lake. Many of the recreational beaches on the southern end of the lake feature rustic, seasonal piers for swimmers. It is not uncommon to be able to walk off the end of one of these piers one day into more than waist-deep water, then return a few days later to the same spot to find the water only ankle deep, or even exposed sand.

Setups greater than 1 m above normal lake levels have been recorded along many of southern Lake Winnipeg's recreational beaches, and the associated high waves with their uprush effects have caused considerable storm damage, backshore flood and shoreline erosion. The highest setups occur in the fall, when the northerly winds are strongest.

 

 

Sources:

 

1 Great Canadian Lakes
2 International Lake Environment Committee