Oneida Lake

Oneida Lake
View of Frenchman Island and Durham Island from Cicero, a suburban Syracuse town
Location	Oneida / Oswego counties, New York, United States
Coordinates	43°12′0″N 75°54′0″W / 43.20000°N 75.90000°W / 43.20000; -75.90000Coordinates: 43°12′0″N 75°54′0″W / 43.20000°N 75.90000°W / 43.20000; -75.90000
Primary inflows	Oneida Creek, Fish Creek, Chittenango Creek
Primary outflows	Oneida River
Basin countries	United States
Max. length	21 mi (34 km)
Max. width	5 mi (8.0 km)
Average depth	22 ft (6.7 m)
Surface elevation	369 ft (112 m)
Islands	Big Isle, Dunham's Island, Frenchman Island, Little Island, Long Island, Wantry Island
Settlements	(see article)

Oneida Lake is the largest lake entirely within New York State, with a surface area of 79.8 square miles (207 km²). The lake is located northeast of Syracuse and near the Great Lakes. It feeds the Oneida River, a tributary of the Oswego River, which flows into Lake Ontario. From the earliest times until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the lake was part of an important waterway connecting the Atlantic seaboard of North America to the continental interior.

The lake is about 21 miles (34 km) long and about 5 miles (8.0 km) wide with an average depth of 22 feet (6.7 m). The shoreline is about 55 miles (89 km). Portions of six counties and sixty-nine communities are in the watershed. Oneida Creek, which flows past the cities of Oneida and Sherrill, empties into the southeast part of the lake at South Bay. While not included as one of the Finger Lakes, Oneida is sometimes referred to as their "thumb". Because it is shallow, it is warmer than the deeper Finger Lakes in summer, and its surface freezes solidly in winter. It is relatively safe and popular for the winter sports of ice fishing and snowmobiling.

The lake is named for the Oneida, the Iroquoian Native American tribe that historically occupied a large region around the lake, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois. The Oneida called the lake Tsioqui in their language, meaning "White Water".

During the 18th and early 19th centuries Oneida Lake and its tributary Wood Creek were part of the Albany-Oswego waterway from the Atlantic seaboard westward via the Hudson River and through the Appalachian Mountains via the Mohawk River; travel westward then was by portage over the Oneida Carry to the Wood Creek-Oneida Lake system. The navigable waterway exited Oneida Lake by the Oneida River, which led to the Oswego River and Lake Ontario, from where travelers could reach the other Great Lakes.