Shoshone Lake
| Shoshone Lake | |
|---|---|
1988
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| Location | Yellowstone National Park, Teton County, Wyoming, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 44°22′20″N 110°42′45″W / 44.37222°N 110.71250°WCoordinates: 44°22′20″N 110°42′45″W / 44.37222°N 110.71250°W |
| Primary outflows | Lewis River |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 8,050 acres (32.6 km2) |
| Max. depth | 205 feet (62 m) |
| Surface elevation | 7,795 feet (2,376 m) |
Shoshone Lake is a U.S. backcountry lake with the area of 8,050 acres (32.6 km2) elevated at 7,795 feet (2,376 m) in the southwest section of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It lies at the headwaters of the Lewis River a tributary of the Snake River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes that Shoshone Lake is the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states that cannot be reached by a road.
Shoshone Lake has had many names since it was first viewed by fur trappers in the early 19th century. Jim Bridger may have visited the lake in 1833, but certainly visited it in 1846. Trapper Osborne Russell visited the lake in 1839. During this period the lake was called Snake Lake. A map created by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet in 1851 showed the lake as DeSmet's Lake. Walter DeLacy, the Montana map maker named the lake DeLacy's Lake when he passed through the area in 1863.
During the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition, the party camped at the north end of the lake on September 29, 1869 but did not refer to it by name in their journals. They did however incorrectly believe at the time that Shoshone Lake was the source of the Firehole and Madison Rivers. The belief that Shoshone Lake was the headwater lake for the Madison drainage continued during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition in 1871. They viewed the lake to the south as they crossed the Continental Divide on September 17, 1870. Cornelius Hedges, a member of the Washburn expedition named the lake Washburn Lake to honor the expedition leader Henry D. Washburn, but that name was short-lived
A. C. Peale of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 visited Shoshone Lake in August 1871 but referred to it as Madison Lake.
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