Lake Pend Oreille...at a glance
Lake Pend Oreille is the largest fresh water lake in Idaho, the fifth deepest lake in the nation at 1,158 feet, and the thirteenth largest lake by volume in the world. Pend Oreille is more than 43 miles long, 6.2 miles in width, and offers more than 111 miles of shoreline. It's also exceptionally beautiful.
The unparalleled scenery comes in part from the surrounding mountain ranges which tower above, and in place plunge directly into the dark emerald waters. The three major mountain ranges which surround the lake are the Selkirks to the north, the Coeur d' Alenes to the south and the Cabinets to the east.
Legend has it that Lake Pend Oreille was named for a local Indian tribe which the French Canadian fur trappers called Pend Oreilles because of the pendants they wore in their ear lobes. Others contend the lake was named as such because it is shaped like an ear with a long ear lobe.
The formation of the lake happened about 12,000 years ago when Lake Pend Oreille was part of the huge inland sea called Glacial Lake Missoula. The valleys of western Montana lay beneath a lake nearly 2,000 feet deep. Glacial Lake Missoula formed as the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, a glacier extending from Canada, dammed the Clark Fork River just as it entered Idaho. The rising water behind the glacial dam weakened it until water burst through in a catastrophic flood that raced across Idaho, Oregon, and Washington toward the Pacific Ocean. Thundering waves and chunks of ice tore away soils and mountainsides, deposited giant ripple marks, created the scablands of eastern Washington, carved the Columbia River Gorge, and forever changed the landscape of the Pacific Northwest.
With the lake's size comes lots of room to play. Pend Oreille is rarely crowded; in fact, on a normal day you are only likely to see a few other boats on the horizon.
Keokee Creative Group of Sandpoint, Idaho
