Bad Medicine Lake

I knew that this marker existed someplace.  It is in the upper parking lot of the north public access.  We found it one day this spring.  Chance seems to know when I need him for a photo op!

Sometimes you can drive by these markers all the time and never really see them.

Bad Medicine Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in Minnesota. 

The Laurentian Divide is very near the historical marker.  North of this spot the water in rivers empties into Hudson Bay and the Artic Ocean, south of here water empties into the Mississippi River and flows south to the Gulf of Mexico.

Bad Medicine Lake has no inlet or outlet, it is spring fed.

Bad Medicine Lake also called the Lake of the Valley, was originally known to the Ojibway Indians as Ga-wimbadjiwegameq (Lake lying in a mountain depression).  Among the many stories about the  name’s origin are legends of serpentine fish and monster pike that dwelt in the blue-green depths.

Bad Medicine is one of the clearest and least polluted lakes in Minnesota.  It is entirely spring fed and has no inlet or outlet.  The Laurentian Divide separating the Hudson Bay and Mississippi watersheds crosses Minnesota Highway 113 about one and one half miles west of this marker.

Between 1904 and 1918 the Nichols-Chisholm Lumber Company cut most of the majestic White and Norway Pine stands that surrounded the lake.  The pine logs were hauled to Commonwealth Landing on Elbow Lake, and from there they were carried in massive spring drives down the Ottertail River to the company mill at Frazee.  Old Headquarters logging camp, near Long Lost Lake, was the hub of and extensive network of standard gauge railroad lines used to haul the logs.  The outlines of rotting ties still mark the locations of the railway beds in surrounding forests.  Blackened stumps and fire scarred pines are mute reminders of the huge forest fires of 1918 which followed the logging operations.

Erected by the residents of Bad Medicine Lake  1985

The lake itself has about five miles of shoreline and covers about 800 acres.