Wenham Lake

Wenham Lake
Map of Wenham Lake, 1897, showing the now commuter rail.
Location	Beverly / Wenham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Coordinates	42°35′34.85″N 70°53′35.72″W / 42.5930139°N 70.8932556°W / 42.5930139; -70.8932556Coordinates: 42°35′34.85″N 70°53′35.72″W / 42.5930139°N 70.8932556°W / 42.5930139; -70.8932556
Basin countries	United States
Surface elevation	32 ft (9.8 m)

Wenham Lake (224 acres) is a lake located in the Essex County towns of Wenham and Beverly, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. In the 19th century the lake was famous for its ice, which was harvested and transported by ship throughout the world. Due to their purity, ice cubes from the lake were popular in Victorian Britain and are reputed to have been used by Queen Victoria herself. The lake is now a reservoir for the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board.

Wenham Lake collects water from the water table and from a system of brooks leading from Beaver Pond, Norwood Pond and Longham Reservoir in the fields and woods to the east. These streams are controlled waterways. Drainage into the lake is through a pipe running under Route 1A in the vicinity of the public golf course to the north of the lake. To the west drainage enters the lake through deeply cut ravines in glacial features forested with hemlock and pine, near Beverly Airport.

The lake and its shores are not accessible to the general public. The facilities at the southern end are restricted by high fences kept under surveillance by cameras. The shores of the lake are posted against trespassing. Stands of evergreens left on the knolls surrounding the lake are privately owned. Due to increased isolation of the lake bed migratory birds typically seen only in Wenham Swamp a mile to the north now rest and feed in larger numbers in the lake. Even though it is a non-trespassing area, most locals see It as one of the most consistent fishing places in the north shore of Massachusetts.

Although Native Americans probably lived around Wenham Lake before European settlements in 1635, no evidence of their activity has been found in the area. The Agawam tribe owned it as part of their tribal lands, which comprised all of eastern Essex County. Those lands were ceded to the English in a quitclaim deed by Chief Masconomet to John Winthrop the Younger as part of an amalgamation arrangement of what was left of the Agawam (they were decimated by disease) and the English colonists of Charlestown, Massachusetts.