Ogechie Lake

Ogechie Lake. Kathio Landmark Trail. , Ogechie is the first in a chain of three lakes formed in the Rum River as it flows from its source at Mille Lacs lake. Ogechie Lake's basin was originally formed by glacial action 18,000 years ago. When Humans first entered the area about 9,000 years ago, Ogechie was not a lake unto itself, but was a bay of Mille Lacs. On the southern end of Ogechie was a natural dam of remaining glacial ice. At that time, the Rum River flowed out of Mille Lacs at Cove Bay, about four miles southeast of the park entrance. Since the Ogechie ice dam melted and gave way between 8,000 and 7,000 years ago, the Rum River has flowed here, as the only outlet from Mille Lacs Lake. The river winds 154 miles to the Mississippi River at the present-day town of Anoka., 12,000 years ago the climate at the edge of the retreating glacier was cold and wet. A dam of ice held Ogechie Lake as a bay of Mille Lacs Lake., Extinct forms of wildlife roamed a landscape of tundra and spruce forest., The shoreline of Mille Lacs Lake and the flow of the Rum River have changed over time., What's in a Name? , The three lakes were called the Rice lakes in an 1847 timber resources report, due to their abundance of wild rice. On a map dated 1850, they were labeled Roberts lakes. The name Ogechie first appeared in a later government survey, and was derived from the Ojibwe word for an intestinal worm, referring to the lake's narrow, curved shape. Early documenters noted that the Ojibwe people more commonly called the lake Netumigumag, meaning "First Lake.", This map shows the name of Shakopee Lake to be "Lake Nassawae" and Lake Onamia is called "Onamio Lake."