Lake Life
Quick Facts
Also known as: Horne Pond
Native Tribal Lands: Pequawket Territory
MIDAS #: 3408
Area (acres): 166
Perimeter (miles): 3.9
Mean Depth (feet): 22
Max Depth (feet): 58
Fishery Type: Coldwater + Warmwater, stocked with Brook Trout and Brown Trout from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife
Click Map to Enlarge
Geography
Located entirely in the town of Limington, Pequawket Lake is a natural glacial lake: the result of deep glacial erosion that occurred nearly 15,000 years ago. It’s part of the larger Saco River watershed as well as the Little Ossipee River watershed. At approximately 280 feet above sea level, Pequawket Lake is considered both a warmwater and coldwater fishery and is primarily spring-fed, with additional inlets like Stone Brook, Hanscomb Brook, and Horne Pond Brook, providing some inflow as well. At the south-eastern end, a managed spillway allows overflow water to drain into Horne Pond Brook and further into Webster Mill Pond.
Over 150 privately owned camps, cottages, and residential properties surround the lake. Camp Moy-Mo-Dä-Yo and the now town-managed Moy-Mo-Dä-Yo Recreational Beach and Facilities are located on the south-western point of the lake. Pequawket Lake Road is the main access road for the bulk of these properties and is wholly maintained by the Pequawket Lake Road Maintenance Association (PLRMA) and it’s membership. Most of the roads that service these properties remain unpaved, and cooperative maintenance is imperative in keeping these roads safe, accessible, and clean for both seasonal and year-round residents and visitors.
The lake itself is currently listed as a threatened lake by Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection because it is sensitive to increased phosphorous. While phosphorous is a naturally occurring and necessary element in a healthy ecosystem, too much of it can wreak havoc in both the natural and built environments. Non-point source pollution, such as lawn and garden fertilizers, washing detergents, leaking septic systems, and erosion from the disturbance of the natural vegetative layer on the lakeshore leads to a decrease in available oxygen in the water, algae growth, toxic algal blooms, degraded habitats, and an increase in invasive species. To learn more about ways to manage the threats to our lake, explore the links below!
History
An excerpt from From Horn Pond to Pequawket Lake by Brandt et al. :
“Horn Pond? Horne Pond? Pequaket Lake? Pequawket Lake? If the name or names used by the Saco River Abenaki for this place were revealed to the first Europeans visiting the region in the 17th century, this information was not passed on by oral tradition. If recorded on an old document like a handwritten map or deed, they have not come to our attention.”
The earliest records we find of European settlement use “Horn Pond”. This original name was chosen because the eastern end is shaped like an ox head with horns (two coves). Then, in an article in the Portland Evening Express dated March 15, 1917, Elizabeth Moody and Helen Mayo, co-founders of Camp Moy-Mo-Dä-Yo, officially changed the name to Pequaket Lake (without the ‘w’). The official name change was not property registered with the State, however, so the usage of “Horne Pond” still exists in government documents and maps today.
While much is currently unknown about the extent of early humans’ history with the lake, we can surmise that the area was frequented by many indigenous communities travelling the Saco and Ossipee waterways. Only a single map has surfaced from the 18th century - a hand drawn map of early Limington Township by Joshua Small in 1774, which depicts a more ambiguous shape with far less coves and surface water than modern imagery can reveal today. This is likely due to the installation of the spillway in 1915, which undoubtedly raised the water level considerably.
To learn more about the history of Pequawket Lake and the book itself, “From Horn Pond to Pequawket Lake”, click the button below:
The Spillway
At the south end of Pequawket Lake, a 150 ft concrete and timber crib spillway helps regulate the overflow of water during regular storm events and ice melt. Completed in 1915, the spillway empties water further into Horne Pond Brook and subsequently Websters (Blakes) Mill Pond. Purchased in 1965 from Central Maine Power for the total sum of $1, the then Pequawket Lake Improvement Association (PLIA) set forth with the plans for continued maintenance. Over the years, maintaining the dam proved to be costly, and it became apparent in the early 1990’s that another “fix” was going to require more than a handful of additional sandbags. Following a restoration project in 1999, the Maine DEP recommended that the steel plate and guides of the dam be fully removed, allowing the water level to rise and fall naturally, and thus changing the function from an actual dam to a now spillway. Today, the water level changes seasonally and naturally, and the design of the spillway allows for fish and other aquatic species to pass through for feeding, breeding, and migration.
Flora & Fauna
The Pequawket Lake watershed is comprised mainly of a “lakeshore ecosystem”, which includes mixed hardwood and softwood forests, marshes, bogs, and beaches. Looking out over the landscape, you’ll notice the stately white pines (Maine’s state flower is the white pine cone, after all), hemlocks, maples, oaks, beeches, and alders to name a few. Along the banks, shrubs such as shadbush, chokeberry, winterberry, and sweet fern make up a dense, erosion-control habitat. Dotting the understory, you can find a variety of ferns, lady slippers, wintergreen, mosses, and several blueberry species. In the water column, water lilies are always a welcomed surprise. If you’re lucky, you can catch sight of a northern pitcher plant in the more acidic areas!
The lake is home to at least one mated pair of loons, who return each year from their winter in warmer (usually ocean) waters. We have been fortunate to see successful nests the past few years, and we are hoping for another! In addition to the beloved loons, you can also be sure to see a variety of ducks, migratory and non-migratory songbirds, eagles, turtles, frogs, snakes, white-tailed deer, racoons, porcupines, opossums, bats, and yes, even sometimes moose and bears!
The lake is stocked by Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife with brook trout and brown trout but is also home to a variety of perch, bass, and pickerels, and even the freshwater American Eel and freshwater jellyfish (don’t worry, neither of these incredible creatures sting!).
And we would be remiss to not mention the variety of beneficial (albeit sometimes tormenting) insects, such as butterflies and moths, dragonflies, fireflies, water beetles, mosquitoes, ticks, blackflies, and the ever-elusive spiders.
Did you know that bats eat mosquitos, opossums eat ticks, and spiders eat blackflies? There is a balance to everything, so please be understanding of our wild neighbors when managing conflicts with wildlife. Explore the links below to learn more about ecological landscaping, invasive species to look out for, and what to do when you encounter pest or nuisance wildlife.
