Featured Lake
Hogan & Whitney Ponds (Oxford County)

Thanks to Scott Williams for contributing this article!

Hogan & Whitney Ponds - Near but dissimilar neighbors

Viewed from a drone or satellite image, one might expect that Hogan and Whitney Ponds, situated in the western foothills of Maine, would be as alike as “two peas in a pod”. As LSM certified lake monitor, Bruce Wilson’s, excellent photos show, the two lakes appear to be nearly identical in shape and surface area (178 and 167 acres respectively), as well as volume. The mean (average) depth of Hogan is 15 feet, and Whitney is 14 feet.

The two lakes are separated by a relatively narrow ridge of gravel and sediment, deposited several thousand years ago by meltwater from the retreating glacier. This “esker” between them is as little as ~40 feet wide. It is even possible at the narrowest point on the esker, which rises up between Hogan and Whitney approximately 25 feet, to stand in the middle and cast a stone into the water of either lake.

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What's New?
The Maine Lake Full of Sunken Steamboats

With an area of over 75 thousand acres, Moosehead is Maine’s largest lake (but not its deepest - that record is held by Sebago). Its size and its convoluted shape is why this lake has so many water quality monitoring stations. Daphne Merrill’s book “The Lakes of Maine” includes many tidbits of information (facts, legends) about Moosehead (link is HERE - scroll down to page 34).

The heyday of tourism at Moosehead was in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many tens of steamboats catered to tourists during these years. Following the decline of the steamboat industry, many vessels were scuttled in the lake. BBC Travel has recently published an article about the steamboats of Moosehead and includes links to several videos showing the sunken vessels. These pieces make for interesting reading & watching!

Click here for previous What's New stories

Did You Know?
Is it a Lake?    
    Is it a Pond?

People often ask: What is the difference between a lake and a pond? Back in 2010, Linda Bacon (ME DEP) wrote an informative article in VLMP’s Water Column newsletter *. Quoting Linda, “One classic distinction is that sunlight penetrates to the bottom of all areas of a pond in contrast to lakes, which have deep waters that receive no sunlight at all. Another is that ponds generally have small surface areas and lakes have large surfaces…..Some of Maine’s large and deep bodies of water are indisputably lakes. Others are ponds – small and shallow. But there is a transition between the two where the definition becomes fuzzy…..The one distinction that has any legal application is the designation of a body of water as a Great Pond. Maine state statutes define lakes and ponds greater than ten acres in size as Great Ponds…..” Read more about the differences between lakes and ponds HERE.

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Fridays at 4 for Lakes Webinars
Presented by Lake Stewards of Maine

Summer webinars covering a wide range of lake related topics are approximately one hour in length and a include Q&A session.

Attendance is free, but registration is required.

Aug. 12 - Breana Bennett (Maine CDC) presents Heavy Metals, PFAS, Cyanotoxins in Maine Lakes - How Maine CDC determines much is too much chemical contamination in fish tissue and how that is considered in deriving fish consumption advisories? Also: What are challenges developing advisories for harmful algae blooms?

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Current Conditions

Click here to view current water quality conditions on a representative sample of Maine lakes during summer, or view which lakes have experienced ice-cover in the fall and ice-out in the spring.

Get Involved

The majority of data on lakesofmaine.org comes from certified volunteer citizen scientists. If you are interested in finding a monitoring opportunity, please visit Lake Stewards of Maine or contact our office at 207-783-7733. Email is stewards@LakeStewardsME.org