Mountain Lake (Lake, Virginia)
| Mountain Lake | ||
|---|---|---|
| Geographical location | Giles County in Virginia (USA) | |
| Drain | Pond Drain → Little Stony Creek → New River | |
| Location close to the shore | Pembroke | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 37 ° 21 '42 " N , 80 ° 32' 2" W | |
|
||
| Altitude above sea level | 1181 m | |
| surface | 20 ha | |
| Maximum depth | 35 m | |
| Middle deep | 5 m | |
|
particularities |
Temporarily dries out completely |
|
The Mountain Lake belongs next to Lake Drummond to the only two natural freshwater lakes in the US state of Virginia . All other lakes in the national territory are man-made reservoirs or reservoirs .
Mountain Lake is located near the city of Pembroke in Giles County , Virginia. The lake, which is 1181 m above sea level, has a size of around 0.2 km² (320 acres ) and an average depth of 5 m, which, however, can grow to 35 m during high water. Presumably it was caused by a huge rock fall that dammed up the draining water about 6000 years ago. Giles County is considered to be the most seismically active area in Virginia, so an earthquake could have caused the rock fall. When Mountain Lake overflows, the water flows via a pond drain into Little Stony Creek and eventually into the New River . The edge of the lake withstood the forces of erosion, so that no drainage ditch was created and the lake could empty completely.
Mountain Lake was discovered by Christopher Gist of the Ohio Company of Virginia in 1751 when he was exploring the land for the Company and describing the lake in his report. In the spring of 1768, settlers came and drove their cattle into a valley with lush meadows. They discovered salt deposits as a food supplement for cattle, but not a lake, and named the place Salt Pond Mountain . The disappeared lake made the settlers question the truth of Christopher Gist's report. From 1950 to around 1990 the lake was full, but from 1998 to 2002 the surface shrank by more than half. In 2003 it filled again until it almost completely dried out in September 2008, despite above-average rainfall. The cause is a large number of leaks and crevices in the ground. When the silt and leaves close the openings, the level of the lake rises. The steady run-off of the water causes the sludge to erode and re-opens the cracks in the ground, so that the drainage exceeds the inflow. At times the lake dries up completely, as happened in 2008 and apparently also between 1751 and 1768. Another cause of this phenomenon could be the constant smaller earthquakes in this region that cause crevices to open and close.
Around 1856 a hotel and a sawmill were built on the lake. Travelers came to Mountain Lake by stagecoach and later on the Norfolk and Western Railway . The hotel has been rebuilt several times over the years and changed hands frequently. In 1987 it was the location for the US feature film Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray .
Web links
- Mountain Lake in Virginia , with pictures
- Mountain Lake Biological Station ( Memento from December 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- Unraveling the Mysteries of Mountain lake ( Memento from February 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Mountain Lake Hotel
- Why is the lake of dirty dancing disappearing?
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Mountain Lake, Virginia , accessed January 29, 2011