Lake Saint Catherine (Vermont)
| Lake St. Catherine | |
|---|---|
| Location | Poultney / Wells, Rutland County, Vermont, US |
| Coordinates | 43°28′00″N 73°12′48″W / 43.46667°N 73.21333°WCoordinates: 43°28′00″N 73°12′48″W / 43.46667°N 73.21333°W |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | < 5 mi (8.0 km) |
| Surface area | 852 acres (3.4 km2) |
| Max. depth | < 68 ft (21 m) |
| Islands | 1 |
Lake Saint Catherine is an 852-acre (345 ha) body of water located in Rutland County, Vermont in the towns of Wells and Poultney. Lake St. Catherine State Park is located along its eastern shore.
History of Lake St. Catherine
From "A Natural Resource Planning Study of Wells, Vermont" Prepared by Raymond Lobdell, February, 1975.
"Lake St. Catherine is a large, long lake of 930 acres which begins at the Lily Pond in Poultney and drains south into Wells. The lake has a maximum depth of 68 feet, an average depth of 32.2 feet, and a volume of" 29,945 acre feet (36,937,000 m3). "It is about five miles long and drains into a narrow channel which connects it with Little Pond.
"Little Pond is a shallow lake of about 181 acres, with an average depth of two feet, a maximum depth of only four feet and a volume of" 362 acre feet (447,000 m3). "The lake bottom is covered by a thick layer of silt and organic matter."
From "Lake St. Catherine: A Historical Scrapbook" Complied by Iris Hopson Read Copyright: 1979
No one knows for sure how Lake St. Catherine got its name. To the early settlers the waters were simply Wells Pond or Lake Austin, also a term of uncertain origin but thought to have come from a family by that name at the North End. In Thompson's Vermont Gazetter, the lake is called St. Augustine and at least on one old map so designates it, while others, including Mitchell's Universal Atlas of 1854, give "Lake Austin". Some people think that the more familiar "Austin" is a contraction of Augustine.
In 1869, Hiland Paul, the local historian, wrote "We are of the opinion that the name St. Catherine as applied to this lake is of New York origin, as the oldest inhabitants of the town, who are over eighty years of age, do not remember of hearing it called otherwise than Lake Austin or Lake St. Austin."
In her book Vermont Place Names, Esther Swift says that in 1771 New York patented a town named St. Catherine, in nostalgic remembrance of St. Catherin's Point on the Isle of Wight, the last land seen by the British emigrants as they left England. She adds that when the Green Mountain Boys ran the Yorkers out, they kept the pleasant-sounding name for the lake.
There are other stories and legends but the accepted belief, locally at least, is that "St. Catherine" was so called by the Jesuits, who came, perhaps before the eighteenth century, carrying on their missionary work with the Indians. There is one story which says that two Jesuit priests arrived at the lake on November 25, St. Catherine's Day, and for that reason bestowed her name upon the waters.
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