Bad Medicine Lake

Bad Medicine Lake. . , Bad Medicine Lake also called the Lake of the Valley, was originally known to the Ojibway Indians as Ga-wimbadjiwegamag (Lake lying in a mountain depression). Among the many stories about the name’s origin are legends of serpentine fish and monster pike that dwelt in the lake’s blue-green depths. , Bad Medicine is one of the clearest and least polluted lakes in Minnesota. It is entirely spring fed and has no inlet or outlet. The Laurentian Divide separating the Hudson Bay and Mississippi River watersheds crosses Minnesota Highway 113 about one and a half miles west of this marker. , Between 1904 and 1918 the Nichols-Chisholm Lumber Company cut most of the majestic white and Norway pine stands that surround the lake. The pine logs were hauled to Commonwealth Landing on Elbow Lake, and from there they were carried in massive spring drives down the Otter Tail River to the company mill at Frazee. Old Headquarters logging camp, near Long Lost Lake, was the hub of an extensive network of standard gauge railroad lines used to haul the logs. The outlines of rotting ties still mark the locations of the railway beds in the surrounding forests. Blackened stumps and fire-scarred pines are mute reminders of the huge forest fires of 1918 which followed the logging operations.