Lake Shetek facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lake Shetek |
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Lake Shetek from Lake Shetek State Park
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 Lake Shetek
Location in Minnesota
Lake Shetek
Location in the United States
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| Location | The Lakes, Murray County, Minnesota |
| Coordinates | 44°7′12″N 95°41′24″W / 44.12000°N 95.69000°W |
| Type | Glacial lake |
| Primary outflows | West Fork of the Des Moines River |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 3,596 acres (1,455 ha) |
| Max. depth | 10 feet (3.0 m) |
| Shore length1 | 31.7 miles (51.0 km) |
| Surface elevation | 1,483 feet (452 m) |
| Islands | Keeley, Loon, and Valhalla |
| Settlements | Currie, Minnesota |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Lake Shetek is the biggest lake in southwestern Minnesota, USA. It's also where the Des Moines River starts! You can find it in Murray County, near a small place called The Lakes, not far from Currie. Its name, Shetek, comes from the Ojibwe language and means "pelican."
Big lakes are rare in this part of Minnesota, and even in nearby Iowa and South Dakota. That's why Lake Shetek is a popular spot for fun on the water! Lake Shetek State Park is right on its eastern side.
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Lake Shetek: Size and Location
Lake Shetek is huge, covering about 3,596 acres (1,455 ha). But it's also quite shallow, with a maximum depth of only 10 feet (3.0 m). This is normal for lakes in the Prairie Pothole Region, which has many shallow wetlands.
The lake's shoreline stretches for about 31.7 miles (51.0 km). Most of this shoreline (around 85%) has homes and buildings on it. The land around the lake that drains into it is mostly used for farming.
Lake Shetek is by far the largest of the many lakes in Murray County. The next biggest is Lake Sarah, which is about 1,176 acres (476 ha). Long ago, there was another large lake called Great Oasis Lake, but it was drained for farmland in the early 1900s.
Lake Shetek is the starting point for the West Fork of the Des Moines River. This is considered the main branch of the river. The lake has three main islands: Valhalla, Keeley, and Loon Islands. Two of these islands are connected to the western shore by special roads called causeways. The third island is connected to the eastern shore. Lake Shetek also connects to other smaller bodies of water like Bloody Lake, Fremont Lake, and Armstrong Slough.
How Lake Shetek Was Formed
Lake Shetek and the land around it, with its wetlands and rolling hills, were shaped by glaciers. The lake sits on something called the Altamont Moraine. This is a ridge of rock and dirt left behind by a huge ice sheet during the last ice age, about 15,000 years ago. This ice age covered the area with a very thick layer of dirt and rocks.
Lake Shetek began to form as the climate got warmer after the ice age. Water from the melting glaciers carved out channels in the land. Where one channel met another, dirt and collapsing banks partly blocked the water flow. This created the large, shallow lake we see today.
Animals and Plants of Lake Shetek
Lake Shetek has always been home to many "rough fish." These are native fish that aren't usually caught for sport. In 1987, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources started adding other types of fish. They introduced popular game fish like walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, crappie, sunfish, and black bass.
There aren't many aquatic plants in the lake, which is common for lakes in this area. Because the lake is shallow, its entire bottom is a "littoral zone." This means it's shallow enough for sunlight to reach the bottom, and it's home to small creatures like snails and insect larvae.
Five common types of waterfowl (birds that live near water) raise their young on Lake Shetek. These include the American coot, gadwall, mallard, northern shoveler, and ruddy duck. You can also often see white pelicans during their migration. These are the birds the lake is named after!
History of Lake Shetek
The first people to live around Lake Shetek probably followed the bison that came to drink there. Archaeologists believe the first permanent residents were part of the Great Oasis culture.
In 1838, a French explorer named Joseph Nicollet camped by the lake for three days. He wrote that the local Dakota people called the lake Rabechy, meaning "place where pelicans nest." However, Nicollet used the Ojibwe name for the lake in his journals and maps, which was already known by French fur traders.
A small group of pioneers started a settlement on the east shore of Lake Shetek in the late 1850s. But in 1862, the Dakota War of 1862 broke out. During this conflict, 15 settlers were killed and a dozen were taken captive at a place called Slaughter Slough. This slowed down European-American settlement for a while. However, within ten years, Archibald and Neil Currie built a flour mill and a general store near the lake's outlet. This led to the growth of the town of Currie.
In the early 1900s, two summer resorts opened on Lake Shetek: Tepeeotah on the east shore and Valhalla Pavilion on Valhalla Island. Two boats would take visitors on tours around the lake. To help protect the fishing and recreation, local people asked the state to build a dam in the mid-1920s. This dam helped keep the water level steady. The lake's tourist economy was at its best in the 1920s. But then the Valhalla Pavilion burned down in 1928, and the Great Depression began, causing tourism to decline.
During the Great Depression, the government started programs to create jobs. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) came to Lake Shetek in 1934. They had a big plan to build a road system across the lake and a state park on the wooded eastern shore. From their camp on Keeley Island, the WPA workers built five causeways, connecting the islands. However, the program ended in 1940, and the sixth and final causeway was never finished.
The Tepeeotah Resort closed in the 1960s. Around the same time, many new housing developments started popping up around the lake. Even though more homes were built, better ways of managing runoff from farms and lawns helped improve the water quality of Lake Shetek.
In the 1990s, a part of the Casey Jones State Trail was built between the lake and the nearby town of Currie.
Challenges for Lake Shetek
Because Lake Shetek is shallow and has a lot of land draining into it, it can be affected by environmental issues. Keeping the water level stable has been a concern for many years. The lake was first dammed in the 1920s, and then the water level was raised even more in the 1930s. More improvements were made to the dam in 1966 and 1995.
Dirt and sediment from human activities have been slowly filling in the lake. In 1973, the deepest part of Shetek was 12 feet (3.7 m), but today it's only 10 feet (3.0 m). Water running off from farms and lawns can carry too many nutrients into the lake. This can cause large growths of algae, which can harm the lake's health.
Also, because the lake is shallow, it freezes solid about every seven years. When this happens, many fish die during the winter. Since "rough fish" like carp recover faster than the fish people like to catch for sport, it's been a challenge to keep a good population of game fish in the lake.
