Ganoga Lake
Encyclopedia
Ganoga Lake is a natural lake
in Colley Township in southeast Sullivan County
in Pennsylvania
, United States
. Known as Robinson's Lake and Long Pond for most of the 19th century, the lake was purchased by the Ricketts family in the early 1850s and became part of R. Bruce Ricketts
' extensive holdings in the area after the American Civil War
. The lake is one of the highest in Pennsylvania, which led Ricketts to name it Highland Lake by 1874 and rename it Ganoga Lake in 1881; Pennsylvania senator Charles R. Buckalew
suggested the name Ganoga from the Seneca language
word for "water on the mountain".
The Ricketts built a stone house
on the lake shore by 1852 or 1855; this served as a hunting lodge and tavern. In 1873 a large wooden addition was built north of the stone house, which became a hotel known as the North Mountain House. The hotel had one of the first summer school
s in the United States in 1876 and 1877. A branch railroad line to the lake served the hotel and also hauled ice cut from the lake for refrigeration. The hotel closed in 1903, though the house remained the Ricketts family summer home. After the death of R. Bruce Ricketts in 1918, his heirs sold much of his 80000 acres (32,374.9 ha) to the state for Pennsylvania State Game Lands
and Ricketts Glen State Park
. When the lake was sold in 1957, the state tried to purchase it but was outbid by a group of investors who turned the land around it into a private housing development.
Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau
, just north of the Allegheny Front
, in sedimentary rocks from the Pocono Formation
. The Wisconsin Glaciation
some 20,000 years ago changed the drainage patterns of the lake, this diverted its waters to Kitchen Creek
and carved the 24 named waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park
in the process. Ganoga Lake has a continental climate
, with average monthly high temperatures ranging from 33 °F (0.555555555559977 °C) in January to 82 °F (27.8 °C) in July. Ganoga Lake's drainage basin
is heavily forested and it is in an Important Bird Area
. The lake and its surroundings have a variety of flora and fauna, although the ecosystem has been damaged by acid rain
.
lake just west of Pennsylvania Route 487
in southern Colley Township in southeastern Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. It is near the meeting point of Sullivan, Columbia
and Luzerne
counties, and is less than 0.4 mile (0.643736 km) northwest of Ricketts Glen State Park
. Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau
at an elevation of 2260 feet (688.8 m). William Reynolds Ricketts
, who owned the lake in the first half of the 20th century, claimed it was the highest lake in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains
; Petrillo repeats this in his history of the region, Ghost Towns of North Mountain. While the United States Geological Survey
Geographic Names Information System
identifies Ganoga Lake as the second highest in Pennsylvania (after Siebert Lake in Somerset County
, at 2300 feet (701 m)), the Pennsylvania Audubon Society
says Ganoga Lake is "the highest elevation natural lake in Pennsylvania".
Ganoga Lake has a long narrow oval shape, oriented north-northwest to south-southeast. In 1936 William Reynolds Ricketts wrote that the lake has an average width of 700 to 800 ft (213.4 to 243.8 ) and is "about one mile long, lacking 600 to 700 ft." or about 0.88 miles (1.4 km) in length. However, according to a 1917 Pennsylvania Water Resources Inventory Report, in its largest dimensions it is 3720 feet (1,133.9 m) long (0.705 miles or 1.1 km) by 1025 feet (312.4 m) wide. It has an average depth of 10 feet (3 m) and a maximum depth of 13 feet (4 m). The drainage basin
for the lake is an area of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km²), and its capacity is 373 acre.ft (121500000 gal).
A branch of Kitchen Creek
flows from the southern end of the lake; 0.4 mile (0.643736 km) downstream it enters Lake Jean in Ricketts Glen State Park. From there the water flows through Ganoga Glen and its 10 named waterfalls
, then joins the main stem of the creek at Waters Meet; below this it flows over five more named waterfalls. Kitchen Creek is a tributary of Huntington Creek, which flows into Fishing Creek
, which is a tributary of the Susquehanna River
.
-speaking Susquehannock
s. Their numbers were greatly reduced by disease and warfare with the Five Nations of the Iroquois
, and by 1675 they had died out, moved away, or been assimilated
into other tribes. After this, the lands of the Susquehanna valley were under the nominal control of the Iroquois, who encouraged displaced tribes from the east to settle there, including the Shawnee
and Lenape
(or Delaware).
On November 5, 1768, the British acquired land, known in Pennsylvania as the New Purchase, from the Iroquois in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix
; this included what is now Ganoga Lake. After the American Revolutionary War
(1775–1783), Native Americans almost entirely left Pennsylvania. The lake was originally in Northumberland County
, then became part of Lycoming County
when it was formed in 1795. Sullivan County was formed from Lycoming County in 1847, and two years later Colley Township was formed from Cherry Township
. The lake drains into Kitchen Creek, where a Native American
pot, decorated in the style of "the peoples of the Susquehanna region", was found under a rock ledge around 1890.
A hunter named Robinson, whose cabin was at the lake's northern end about 1800, was the first recorded inhabitant. He gave the lake its earliest known name: Robinson's Lake. However, for most of the 19th century the lake was known as Long Pond, because of its elongated shape. From 1822 to 1827 the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike
, which followed the lake's western shore, was built between the Pennsylvania communities of Berwick
in the south and Towanda
in the north. Beginning in 1827 the northbound daily stagecoach
left Berwick in the morning and stopped for lunch at the Long Pond Tavern on the lake about noon. The stage operated until 1851; the road was the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike until 1908, when the modern Pennsylvania Route 487
was built. Route 487 follows the course of the turnpike as it approaches the lake from the south, then passes to the east of the lake instead.
While on a hunting trip north of the lake in 1850, brothers Elijah and Clemuel Ricketts were frustrated at having to spend the night on a hotel's parlor floor. In 1851 or 1853 they bought 5000 acres (2,023.4 ha), including the lake, as their own hunting preserve, and built a stone house
on the lake shore by 1852 or 1855. The stone house served as their lodge and as a tavern; it was known as "Ricketts Folly" for its isolated location in the wilderness. Clemuel died in 1858 and Elijah bought his share of the land and house.
, for whom Ricketts Glen State Park is named, joined the Union Army
as a private at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, and rose through the ranks to become a colonel. After the war, R. B. Ricketts returned to Pennsylvania and purchased the stone house, lake, and some of the land around it from his father on September 25, 1869 for $3,969.81 (approximately $ in ); eventually he controlled or owned more than 80,000 acres (32,000 ha), including the lake and the park's glens and waterfalls.
From 1872 to 1875 Ricketts and his partners operated a sawmill
near the lake, 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) southeast of his house. In 1872 Ricketts used lumber from the mill to build a three-story wooden addition next to the stone house; this opened as the North Mountain House hotel in 1873, and was run by Ricketts' brother Frank from then until 1898. The hotel hosted many of the Ricketts friends and relations as well as guests from Wilkes-Barre
, Philadelphia, New York City
, and other places. Many of the guests arrived after school let out in June and stayed all summer until school resumed in September. In 1876 and 1877, Ricketts ran the first summer school in the United States at his house and hotel; one of the teachers was Joseph Rothrock
, later known as the "Father of Forestry" in Pennsylvania.
Ricketts and the others living in the area were not aware of the waterfalls in what is now the state park until about 1865, when they were discovered by two of the Ricketts' guests who went fishing and wandered down Kitchen Creek. In 1879 Ricketts started the North Mountain Fishing Club, for anglers on the lake and creek. Guests of the hotel paid one dollar to fish as a club member. By 1874 Ricketts had renamed Long Pond as Highland Lake, and by 1875 had named the highest waterfall on Kitchen Creek as Ganoga Falls. In 1881, Ricketts renamed Highland Lake as Ganoga Lake. Pennsylvania senator Charles R. Buckalew
suggested the name Ganoga, an Iroquoian word which he said meant "water on the mountain" in the Seneca language
. Donehoo's A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania identifies it as a Cayuga language
word meaning "place of floating oil" and the name of a Cayuga
village in New York. Ganoga Lake is the source of the branch of Kitchen Creek that flows through Ganoga Glen, which has the tallest waterfall.
Ricketts was a lumberman who made his fortune clearcutting
nearly all his land, but no logging was allowed within 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) of the lake, and the glens and their waterfalls in the state park were "saved from the lumberman's axe through the foresight of the Ricketts family". One hemlock tree cut near the lake to clear land for a building in 1893 was 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter and 532 years old.
Ricketts and his business partners built the lumber town of Ricketts about 4 miles (6 km) northeast of the lake starting in 1890; it had up to 800 inhabitants and several saw mills and operated until 1913, when the timber was exhausted. A 3.85 miles (6.2 km) branch line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad
ran from Ricketts to the north end of the lake, opening in 1893. There was daily passenger service to Wilkes-Barre and Towanda on this line, which also served freight trains hauling ice from the lake for use in refrigeration from 1895 on. The ice cutting business on the lake employed 175 men, and had a 80 by ice house at the north end of the lake, near the small train station made of logs. The Ganoga Lake Ice Company was incorporated in 1897, and operated until about 1915. Ricketts' son William Reynolds Ricketts was one of five partners in the ice company. Ice skating was also a popular pastime on the lake. In 1913 the lake had a boathouse
and was used by rowboats.
The North Mountain House was threatened by a forest fire in 1900; the subsequent loss of much of the surrounding old-growth forest led to descreased numbers of hotel guests. In 1903 another large fire on North Mountain threatened the sawmill in the village of Ricketts. The wooden addition to the stone house was torn down in either 1897 or 1903, and the land became a garden. The hotel closed in November 1903, and the fishing club and passenger train service ended with the closure.
The stone house remained the Ricketts family's summer home. After the hotel closed, several small cabins were built around the lake for rental to sportsmen. Ricketts proposed moving the highway from his front yard in 1904; the Pennsylvania General Assembly
approved this in 1908, after he paid for the construction of the new highway. The house was renovated and added to in 1913, and Ricketts died there during the 1918 flu pandemic. His wife died shortly thereafter, and they are buried in the small Ricketts family cemetery near the north end of the lake.
bought 48,000 acres (19,000 ha) from the Ricketts heirs, via the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company. This became most of Pennsylvania State Game Lands
Number 13, west of the lake in Sullivan County. These sales left the Ricketts heirs with over 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) surrounding Ganoga Lake and the glens with their waterfalls. The stone house was listed on the Historic American Buildings Survey
in 1936, which gave its name as "Ganoga". The area was approved as a national park
site in the 1930s, and the National Park Service
operated a Civilian Conservation Corps
camp at "Ricketts Glynn" (sic
). Budget problems and World War II
brought an end to national plans for development.
In 1942 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought 1,261 acres (510 ha), including the glens and their waterfalls, from the heirs for $82,000. Ricketts Glen State Park opened in 1944. The state bought a total of 16,000 acres (6,500 ha) more from the heirs in 1945 and 1950 for $68,000; the park today has about 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) from the Ricketts family and about 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) acquired from others. After World War II, William Reynolds Ricketts also sold the old-growth timber around Ganoga Lake to help pay property tax
es.
William Reynolds Ricketts died in 1956 and the lake and surrounding land were sold in October 1957 for $109,000. The Department of Forests and Waters (predecessor of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
) bid on the 3140 acres (1,270.7 ha) including the lake, but were outbid by a group of private investors. They initially planned to sell up to 788 building lots around the lake, but when sales were slower than expected, they instead "formed the Lake Ganoga Association in September 1959 to regulate and preserve the recreation and residential facilities at Lake Ganoga". Thus, private development of houses on the lake only began in the 20th century.
The association built 2.5 miles (4 km) of roads around the lake; the Air Force
paved some of these to provide better access from the Benton Air Force Station
in the park to a radio transmitter southwest of the lake. The Ganoga Lake Association also cleared some land at the lake's southern end, and its members built more than 50 houses on the lake shore. The stone house serves as the association's headquarters and clubhouse, and is used for association meetings, weddings, and picnics; in 1983 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
as the Clemuel Ricketts Mansion. Today the lake is used by kayak
ers and wind surfers. As a private development, "To all outsiders that have no property around the lake, the lake and grounds are off limits."
, which is a "light-gray to buff or light-olive-gray, medium-grained, crossbedded sandstone
", with some siltstone
and conglomerates
. The Pocono Formation formed more than 340 million years ago, when the land was part of the coastline of a shallow sea that covered a great portion of what is now North America. The high mountains to the east of the sea gradually eroded, causing a build-up of sediment
made up primarily of clay
, sand
and gravel
. Tremendous pressure on the sediment caused the formation of the rocks that are found at the lake and in the drainage basin
for Kitchen Creek
: sandstone, shale
, siltstone, and conglomerates. In 1894 R. Bruce Ricketts planned to mine yellow ocher
near the lake.
Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau, just north of the Allegheny Front
, which is the boundary between the dissected plateau
to the north and the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
to the south. Kitchen Creek, which drains the lake, drops approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) in 2.25 miles (3.62 km) as it flows down the steep escarpment
of the Allegheny Front. About 300 to 250 million years ago, the Allegheny Plateau, Allegheny Front, and Appalachian Mountains all formed in the Alleghenian orogeny
. This happened long after the sedimentary rock
s at the lake were deposited, when the part of Gondwana
that became Africa collided with what became North America, forming Pangaea
. In the years since, up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of rock has been eroded away by streams and weather. At least three major glaciations in the past million years have been the final factor in shaping the land around the lake today.
Prior to the last ice age
, Ganoga Lake drained into Big Run, a tributary of Fishing Creek
. This changed when the glacier
s retreated to the northeast about 20,000 years ago, and formed glacial lake
s. The retreating glaciers also left deposits of debris 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) thick, which formed a dam blocking water from draining into Big Run. Instead, water from Ganoga Lake and the area that later became Lake Jean was diverted into the Ganoga Glen branch of Kitchen Creek. These diversions added about 7 square miles (18 km²) to the Kitchen Creek drainage basin, increasing it by just over 50 percent to 20.1 square miles (52.1 km²). The result was increased water flow in Kitchen Creek, which has been cutting the falls in the glens since. Glacial striations are found on the eastern side of the lake. The lake is in a shallow valley, 13 feet (4 m) deep, which is impounded by glacial till
up to 30 feet (9.1 m) thick at the southeast end, where Kitchen Creek exits.
The Allegheny Plateau has a continental climate
, with occasional severe low temperatures in winter and average daily temperature range
s (the difference between the daily high and low) of 20 F-change in winter and 26 F-change in summer. Ganoga Lake is part of the Huntington Creek watershed, where the mean annual precipitation
is 40 to 48 in (1,016 to 1,219.2 mm). Weather records are not available for Ganoga Lake, but they are known for the adjoining Ricketts Glen State Park. The highest recorded temperature at the park was 103 °F (39.4 °C) in 1988, and the record low was -17 F in 1984. On average, January is the coldest month, July is the hottest month, and June is the wettest month.
, 12.6% pasture
s, 4.7% other lakes (including Ganoga Lake's 78.8 acres (31.9 ha)), and 1.7% wetland
s. The park has more than 80 species of vines, shrubs, and trees; Black Gum, Black Spruce, Eastern Hemlock, Eastern White Pine
, Eastern Larch
, Red Maple, and Yellow Birch are found in area forests.
In the 19th century Ganoga Lake was home to trout
, bullhead catfish, pike
, pickerel, and black bass
. The lake had very few plants in it, but its shore was lined with Mountain Laurel
and, in the east, Mountain Ash
. After the Ganoga Lake Association's 1957 purchase, they drained the lake to kill its fish, then stocked
it with "30,000 fingerling brook trout". In 2007 Lake Jean, which is connected to Lake Ganoga via Kitchen Creek, was still home to many of the fish found there in the 19th century: Brook Trout
, Brown Trout
, Brown Bullhead
, Yellow Bullhead
, Chain Pickerel
, and Largemouth Bass
.
Although there are no pollution point sources in the drainage basin, acid rain
is a major concern. Acidification has altered the ecology of the lakes and region; in Lake Jean low pH
has decreased the number and quality of insects and plankton
at the base of the food chain
. Fish which are acid tolerant are predominant, including Fathead Minnow
, Muskellunge
, Pumpkinseed
, Walleye
, and Yellow Perch
. There are relatively few predators like Chain Pickerel and Largemouth Bass, and adult fish "appear to have good growth rates but poor reproductive success".
Despite the increased acidity, all of the Kitchen Creek drainage basin, which includes Ganoga Lake, is classified by the state of Pennsylvania as a "High Quality-Cold Water Fishery". Under the Clean Water Act
a Total Maximum Daily Load
(TMDL) has been established for acidic pollution in the Lake Jean watershed. Ganoga Lake's TMDL for acidity is 4.1 pounds (1.9 kg) per day. Long term exposure to acid rain also damages soil, depleting calcium
levels, which may in turn affect insect populations and reproduction in birds. Lake Jean is also "impaired for mercury
due to atmospheric deposition", although TMDLs have not yet been established for this.
Ganoga Lake and Ricketts Glen State Park are part of the much larger 114978 acres (46,530 ha) Pennsylvania Important Bird Area
(IBA) #48, which the Audubon Society
describes as "the largest extant forest in northeastern Pennsylvania and one of the largest in the Commonwealth". Over 75 species of bird are known to breed in the state park adjoining the lake. Lake Jean is home to Bald Eagle
and Canada Goose
; aquatic birds found in the IBA include American Bittern
, American Black Duck
, Great Blue Heron
, Green-winged Teal
, Hooded Merganser
, Mallard Duck
, Osprey
, Virginia Rail
, and Wood Duck
. Historically, Common Pheasant
were found in the woods around the lake.
Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau just north of the Allegheny Front; this region is known locally as North Mountain. Many bird species are found in the forests on North Mountain, including the state's only population of Blackpoll Warbler
; other birds seen there include Evening Grosbeak
, Northern Goshawk, Red Crossbill, and Swainson’s Thrush. Historically North Mountain was home to Olive-sided Flycatcher
, and "was one of the few places one could enjoy the songs of all of Pennsylvania’s native thrush
es"; today it is home to the state's largest Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
population.
Ganoga Lake and its surroundings have a variety of insects and animals. Butterflies in the region are studied by lepidopterist
s, and the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
threatens many of the hemlock trees. Animals found on North Mountain and in the park include squirrel
, Black Bear
, Fisher
, Hoary Bat
, Otter, Porcupine
, Raccoon
, and White-tailed Deer
. In 1912, White-tailed Deer around the lake became locally extinct
due to loss of habitat from lumbering and overhunting. Pennsylvania imported nearly 1,200 White-tailed Deer from Michigan
between 1906 and 1925 to re-establish the species, and made it the official state animal in 1959. By 2001, deer populations had increased to the point where it was feared that "Pennsylvania is losing its vegetative diversity from deer over-browsing".
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
in Colley Township in southeast Sullivan County
Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population is 6,428. Sullivan County was created on March 15, 1847, from part of Lycoming County and named for Charles Sullivan, leader of the Pennsylvania Senate...
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Known as Robinson's Lake and Long Pond for most of the 19th century, the lake was purchased by the Ricketts family in the early 1850s and became part of R. Bruce Ricketts
R. Bruce Ricketts
Robert Bruce Ricketts distinguished himself as an artillery officer in the American Civil War. He is best known for his battery’s defense against a Confederate attack on Cemetery Hill on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.-Early life:...
' extensive holdings in the area after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The lake is one of the highest in Pennsylvania, which led Ricketts to name it Highland Lake by 1874 and rename it Ganoga Lake in 1881; Pennsylvania senator Charles R. Buckalew
Charles R. Buckalew
Charles Rollin Buckalew was an American lawyer and Democratic party politician from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. He served in the state senate and represented Pennsylvania in both the U.S. House and Senate. He was a graduate of Harford Academy, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where he studied law...
suggested the name Ganoga from the Seneca language
Seneca language
Seneca is the language of the Seneca people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League. About 10,000 Seneca live in the United States and Canada, primarily on reservations in western New York, with others living in Oklahoma and near Brantford, Ontario.-Phonology:Seneca words are written with...
word for "water on the mountain".
The Ricketts built a stone house
Clemuel Ricketts Mansion
The Clemuel Ricketts Mansion is a Georgian-style house made of sandstone, built in 1852 or 1855 on the shore of Ganoga Lake in Colley Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was home to several generations of the Ricketts family, including R...
on the lake shore by 1852 or 1855; this served as a hunting lodge and tavern. In 1873 a large wooden addition was built north of the stone house, which became a hotel known as the North Mountain House. The hotel had one of the first summer school
Summer school
Summer school is a school, or a program generally sponsored by a school or a school district, that teaches students during the summer vacation....
s in the United States in 1876 and 1877. A branch railroad line to the lake served the hotel and also hauled ice cut from the lake for refrigeration. The hotel closed in 1903, though the house remained the Ricketts family summer home. After the death of R. Bruce Ricketts in 1918, his heirs sold much of his 80000 acres (32,374.9 ha) to the state for Pennsylvania State Game Lands
Pennsylvania State Game Lands
The Pennsylvania State Game Lands are lands managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission for hunting, trapping, and fishing. These lands, often not usable for farming or development, are donated to the PGC or purchased by the PGC with hunting license monies.The Pennsylvania Game Commission runs a...
and Ricketts Glen State Park
Ricketts Glen State Park
Ricketts Glen State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on in Columbia, Luzerne, and Sullivan counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. Ricketts Glen is a National Natural Landmark known for its old-growth forest and 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek, which flows down the Allegheny...
. When the lake was sold in 1957, the state tried to purchase it but was outbid by a group of investors who turned the land around it into a private housing development.
Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau
Allegheny Plateau
The Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Ohio...
, just north of the Allegheny Front
Allegheny Front
The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and eastern West Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front delineates the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians to its east from the Appalachian Plateau to its west...
, in sedimentary rocks from the Pocono Formation
Pocono Formation
The Mississippian Pocono Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, USA. It is also known as the Pocono Group in Maryland and West Virginia,...
. The Wisconsin Glaciation
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....
some 20,000 years ago changed the drainage patterns of the lake, this diverted its waters to Kitchen Creek
Kitchen Creek (Pennsylvania)
Kitchen Creek is a tributary of Huntington Creek in Fairmount and Huntington townships in Luzerne County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.It is best known as the main stream flowing through Ricketts Glen State Park and has 24 named waterfalls within the park. Kitchen Creek is in the larger...
and carved the 24 named waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park
Waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park
File:Ricketts Glen State Park Waterfalls Base Map Labels.png|alt=A map showing Kitchen Creek flowing southeast from Ganoga Lake, through Lake Jean, and then through the dry bed of Lake Rose into Ganoga Glen with ten waterfalls. A second branch of the creek flows south through the dry bed of Lake...
in the process. Ganoga Lake has a continental climate
Continental climate
Continental climate is a climate characterized by important annual variation in temperature due to the lack of significant bodies of water nearby...
, with average monthly high temperatures ranging from 33 °F (0.555555555559977 °C) in January to 82 °F (27.8 °C) in July. Ganoga Lake's drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
is heavily forested and it is in an Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
. The lake and its surroundings have a variety of flora and fauna, although the ecosystem has been damaged by acid rain
Acid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
.
Description
Ganoga Lake is a natural spring-fedSpring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
lake just west of Pennsylvania Route 487
Pennsylvania Route 487
Pennsylvania Route 487 is a long, north–south state highway running from PA 61 in Shamokin Township, Northumberland County to PA 87 in Dushore, Sullivan County. In Bloomsburg, PA 487 and US 11 share a brief wrong-way concurrency...
in southern Colley Township in southeastern Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. It is near the meeting point of Sullivan, Columbia
Columbia County, Pennsylvania
As of the census of 2000, there were 64,151 people, 24,915 households, and 16,568 families residing in the county. The population density was 132 people per square mile . There were 27,733 housing units at an average density of 57 per square mile...
and Luzerne
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
- Demographics :As of the 2010 census, the county was 90.7% White, 3.4% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 3.3% were of some other race, and 1.5% were two or more races. 6.7% of the population was of Hispanic or Latino ancestry...
counties, and is less than 0.4 mile (0.643736 km) northwest of Ricketts Glen State Park
Ricketts Glen State Park
Ricketts Glen State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on in Columbia, Luzerne, and Sullivan counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. Ricketts Glen is a National Natural Landmark known for its old-growth forest and 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek, which flows down the Allegheny...
. Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau
Allegheny Plateau
The Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Ohio...
at an elevation of 2260 feet (688.8 m). William Reynolds Ricketts
William Reynolds Ricketts
William Reynolds Ricketts , of Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, was a philatelist who created the largest index of philatelic literature available during his lifetime. He was considered as the “greatest philatelic indexer of all time.” Ricketts was the son of R...
, who owned the lake in the first half of the 20th century, claimed it was the highest lake in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
; Petrillo repeats this in his history of the region, Ghost Towns of North Mountain. While the United States Geological Survey
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
Geographic Names Information System
Geographic Names Information System
The Geographic Names Information System is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer...
identifies Ganoga Lake as the second highest in Pennsylvania (after Siebert Lake in Somerset County
Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Somerset County is a county located in the state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population was 77,742. Somerset County was created on April 17, 1795, from part of Bedford County and named for Somerset, United Kingdom. Its county seat is Somerset. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania,...
, at 2300 feet (701 m)), the Pennsylvania Audubon Society
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...
says Ganoga Lake is "the highest elevation natural lake in Pennsylvania".
Ganoga Lake has a long narrow oval shape, oriented north-northwest to south-southeast. In 1936 William Reynolds Ricketts wrote that the lake has an average width of 700 to 800 ft (213.4 to 243.8 ) and is "about one mile long, lacking 600 to 700 ft." or about 0.88 miles (1.4 km) in length. However, according to a 1917 Pennsylvania Water Resources Inventory Report, in its largest dimensions it is 3720 feet (1,133.9 m) long (0.705 miles or 1.1 km) by 1025 feet (312.4 m) wide. It has an average depth of 10 feet (3 m) and a maximum depth of 13 feet (4 m). The drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
for the lake is an area of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km²), and its capacity is 373 acre.ft (121500000 gal).
A branch of Kitchen Creek
Kitchen Creek (Pennsylvania)
Kitchen Creek is a tributary of Huntington Creek in Fairmount and Huntington townships in Luzerne County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.It is best known as the main stream flowing through Ricketts Glen State Park and has 24 named waterfalls within the park. Kitchen Creek is in the larger...
flows from the southern end of the lake; 0.4 mile (0.643736 km) downstream it enters Lake Jean in Ricketts Glen State Park. From there the water flows through Ganoga Glen and its 10 named waterfalls
Waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park
File:Ricketts Glen State Park Waterfalls Base Map Labels.png|alt=A map showing Kitchen Creek flowing southeast from Ganoga Lake, through Lake Jean, and then through the dry bed of Lake Rose into Ganoga Glen with ten waterfalls. A second branch of the creek flows south through the dry bed of Lake...
, then joins the main stem of the creek at Waters Meet; below this it flows over five more named waterfalls. Kitchen Creek is a tributary of Huntington Creek, which flows into Fishing Creek
Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River)
Fishing Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Fishing Creek joins the Susquehanna River near the village of Rupert, just southwest of the town of Bloomsburg.-Tributaries:travelling upstream...
, which is a tributary of the Susquehanna River
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
.
First inhabitants
Ganoga Lake is in the Susquehanna River drainage basin, the earliest recorded inhabitants of which were the IroquoianIroquoian languages
The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native American language family.-Family division:*Ruttenber, Edward Manning. 1992 [1872]. History of the Indian tribes of Hudson's River. Hope Farm Press....
-speaking Susquehannock
Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay...
s. Their numbers were greatly reduced by disease and warfare with the Five Nations of the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, and by 1675 they had died out, moved away, or been assimilated
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
into other tribes. After this, the lands of the Susquehanna valley were under the nominal control of the Iroquois, who encouraged displaced tribes from the east to settle there, including the Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
and Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
(or Delaware).
On November 5, 1768, the British acquired land, known in Pennsylvania as the New Purchase, from the Iroquois in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was an important treaty between North American Indians and the British Empire. It was signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York...
; this included what is now Ganoga Lake. After the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
(1775–1783), Native Americans almost entirely left Pennsylvania. The lake was originally in Northumberland County
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
There were 38,835 households out of which 27.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.40% were married couples living together, 9.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.10% were non-families. 30.20% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.50% had...
, then became part of Lycoming County
Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
-Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Plateau:Lycoming County is divided between the Appalachian Mountains in the south, the dissected Allegheny Plateau in the north and east, and the valley of the West Branch Susquehanna River between these.-West Branch Susquehanna River:The West Branch of the...
when it was formed in 1795. Sullivan County was formed from Lycoming County in 1847, and two years later Colley Township was formed from Cherry Township
Cherry Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
Cherry Township is a township in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,718 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water.Cherry Township is bordered by...
. The lake drains into Kitchen Creek, where a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
pot, decorated in the style of "the peoples of the Susquehanna region", was found under a rock ledge around 1890.
A hunter named Robinson, whose cabin was at the lake's northern end about 1800, was the first recorded inhabitant. He gave the lake its earliest known name: Robinson's Lake. However, for most of the 19th century the lake was known as Long Pond, because of its elongated shape. From 1822 to 1827 the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
, which followed the lake's western shore, was built between the Pennsylvania communities of Berwick
Berwick, Pennsylvania
Berwick is a borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, 22.6 miles southwest of Wilkes Barre. Berwick is one of two principal cities of the Bloomsburg–Berwick Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Columbia and Montour counties and had a combined population of 82,387...
in the south and Towanda
Towanda, Pennsylvania
Towanda is a borough in and the county seat of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Wilkes Barre, on the Susquehanna River. The name means "burial ground" in the Algonquian language...
in the north. Beginning in 1827 the northbound daily stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
left Berwick in the morning and stopped for lunch at the Long Pond Tavern on the lake about noon. The stage operated until 1851; the road was the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike until 1908, when the modern Pennsylvania Route 487
Pennsylvania Route 487
Pennsylvania Route 487 is a long, north–south state highway running from PA 61 in Shamokin Township, Northumberland County to PA 87 in Dushore, Sullivan County. In Bloomsburg, PA 487 and US 11 share a brief wrong-way concurrency...
was built. Route 487 follows the course of the turnpike as it approaches the lake from the south, then passes to the east of the lake instead.
While on a hunting trip north of the lake in 1850, brothers Elijah and Clemuel Ricketts were frustrated at having to spend the night on a hotel's parlor floor. In 1851 or 1853 they bought 5000 acres (2,023.4 ha), including the lake, as their own hunting preserve, and built a stone house
Clemuel Ricketts Mansion
The Clemuel Ricketts Mansion is a Georgian-style house made of sandstone, built in 1852 or 1855 on the shore of Ganoga Lake in Colley Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was home to several generations of the Ricketts family, including R...
on the lake shore by 1852 or 1855. The stone house served as their lodge and as a tavern; it was known as "Ricketts Folly" for its isolated location in the wilderness. Clemuel died in 1858 and Elijah bought his share of the land and house.
R. B. Ricketts
Elijah's son Robert Bruce RickettsR. Bruce Ricketts
Robert Bruce Ricketts distinguished himself as an artillery officer in the American Civil War. He is best known for his battery’s defense against a Confederate attack on Cemetery Hill on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.-Early life:...
, for whom Ricketts Glen State Park is named, joined the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
as a private at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, and rose through the ranks to become a colonel. After the war, R. B. Ricketts returned to Pennsylvania and purchased the stone house, lake, and some of the land around it from his father on September 25, 1869 for $3,969.81 (approximately $ in ); eventually he controlled or owned more than 80,000 acres (32,000 ha), including the lake and the park's glens and waterfalls.
From 1872 to 1875 Ricketts and his partners operated a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
near the lake, 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) southeast of his house. In 1872 Ricketts used lumber from the mill to build a three-story wooden addition next to the stone house; this opened as the North Mountain House hotel in 1873, and was run by Ricketts' brother Frank from then until 1898. The hotel hosted many of the Ricketts friends and relations as well as guests from Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
, Philadelphia, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and other places. Many of the guests arrived after school let out in June and stayed all summer until school resumed in September. In 1876 and 1877, Ricketts ran the first summer school in the United States at his house and hotel; one of the teachers was Joseph Rothrock
Joseph Rothrock
Joseph Trimbel Rothrock was an American environmentalist, recognized as the "Father of Forestry" in Pennsylvania. In 1895, Rothrock was appointed the first forestry commissioner to lead the newly formed Division of Forestry in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture...
, later known as the "Father of Forestry" in Pennsylvania.
Ricketts and the others living in the area were not aware of the waterfalls in what is now the state park until about 1865, when they were discovered by two of the Ricketts' guests who went fishing and wandered down Kitchen Creek. In 1879 Ricketts started the North Mountain Fishing Club, for anglers on the lake and creek. Guests of the hotel paid one dollar to fish as a club member. By 1874 Ricketts had renamed Long Pond as Highland Lake, and by 1875 had named the highest waterfall on Kitchen Creek as Ganoga Falls. In 1881, Ricketts renamed Highland Lake as Ganoga Lake. Pennsylvania senator Charles R. Buckalew
Charles R. Buckalew
Charles Rollin Buckalew was an American lawyer and Democratic party politician from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. He served in the state senate and represented Pennsylvania in both the U.S. House and Senate. He was a graduate of Harford Academy, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where he studied law...
suggested the name Ganoga, an Iroquoian word which he said meant "water on the mountain" in the Seneca language
Seneca language
Seneca is the language of the Seneca people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League. About 10,000 Seneca live in the United States and Canada, primarily on reservations in western New York, with others living in Oklahoma and near Brantford, Ontario.-Phonology:Seneca words are written with...
. Donehoo's A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania identifies it as a Cayuga language
Cayuga language
Cayuga is a Northern Iroquoian language of the Iroquois Proper subfamily, and is spoken on Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, Ontario, by around 100 Cayuga people.-Dialects:...
word meaning "place of floating oil" and the name of a Cayuga
Cayuga nation
The Cayuga people was one of the five original constituents of the Haudenosaunee , a confederacy of American Indians in New York. The Cayuga homeland lay in the Finger Lakes region along Cayuga Lake, between their league neighbors, the Onondaga to the east and the Seneca to the west...
village in New York. Ganoga Lake is the source of the branch of Kitchen Creek that flows through Ganoga Glen, which has the tallest waterfall.
Ricketts was a lumberman who made his fortune clearcutting
Clearcutting
Clearcutting, or clearfelling, is a controversial forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Clearcutting, along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, is used by foresters to create certain types of forest ecosystems and to promote select species that...
nearly all his land, but no logging was allowed within 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) of the lake, and the glens and their waterfalls in the state park were "saved from the lumberman's axe through the foresight of the Ricketts family". One hemlock tree cut near the lake to clear land for a building in 1893 was 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter and 532 years old.
Ricketts and his business partners built the lumber town of Ricketts about 4 miles (6 km) northeast of the lake starting in 1890; it had up to 800 inhabitants and several saw mills and operated until 1913, when the timber was exhausted. A 3.85 miles (6.2 km) branch line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad
Lehigh Valley Railroad
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...
ran from Ricketts to the north end of the lake, opening in 1893. There was daily passenger service to Wilkes-Barre and Towanda on this line, which also served freight trains hauling ice from the lake for use in refrigeration from 1895 on. The ice cutting business on the lake employed 175 men, and had a 80 by ice house at the north end of the lake, near the small train station made of logs. The Ganoga Lake Ice Company was incorporated in 1897, and operated until about 1915. Ricketts' son William Reynolds Ricketts was one of five partners in the ice company. Ice skating was also a popular pastime on the lake. In 1913 the lake had a boathouse
Boathouse
A boathouse is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats stored are rowing boats...
and was used by rowboats.
The North Mountain House was threatened by a forest fire in 1900; the subsequent loss of much of the surrounding old-growth forest led to descreased numbers of hotel guests. In 1903 another large fire on North Mountain threatened the sawmill in the village of Ricketts. The wooden addition to the stone house was torn down in either 1897 or 1903, and the land became a garden. The hotel closed in November 1903, and the fishing club and passenger train service ended with the closure.
The stone house remained the Ricketts family's summer home. After the hotel closed, several small cabins were built around the lake for rental to sportsmen. Ricketts proposed moving the highway from his front yard in 1904; the Pennsylvania General Assembly
Pennsylvania General Assembly
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times , the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. Since the Constitution of 1776, written by...
approved this in 1908, after he paid for the construction of the new highway. The house was renovated and added to in 1913, and Ricketts died there during the 1918 flu pandemic. His wife died shortly thereafter, and they are buried in the small Ricketts family cemetery near the north end of the lake.
Modern era
R. B. Ricketts and his wife had three children; their son William Reynolds Ricketts lived in the house after his parents' deaths. Between 1920 and 1924 the Pennsylvania Game CommissionPennsylvania Game Commission
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is the state agency responsible for wildlife conservation and management in Pennsylvania in the United States...
bought 48,000 acres (19,000 ha) from the Ricketts heirs, via the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company. This became most of Pennsylvania State Game Lands
Pennsylvania State Game Lands
The Pennsylvania State Game Lands are lands managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission for hunting, trapping, and fishing. These lands, often not usable for farming or development, are donated to the PGC or purchased by the PGC with hunting license monies.The Pennsylvania Game Commission runs a...
Number 13, west of the lake in Sullivan County. These sales left the Ricketts heirs with over 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) surrounding Ganoga Lake and the glens with their waterfalls. The stone house was listed on the Historic American Buildings Survey
Historic American Buildings Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
in 1936, which gave its name as "Ganoga". The area was approved as a national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
site in the 1930s, and the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
operated a Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
camp at "Ricketts Glynn" (sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
). Budget problems and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
brought an end to national plans for development.
In 1942 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought 1,261 acres (510 ha), including the glens and their waterfalls, from the heirs for $82,000. Ricketts Glen State Park opened in 1944. The state bought a total of 16,000 acres (6,500 ha) more from the heirs in 1945 and 1950 for $68,000; the park today has about 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) from the Ricketts family and about 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) acquired from others. After World War II, William Reynolds Ricketts also sold the old-growth timber around Ganoga Lake to help pay property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
es.
William Reynolds Ricketts died in 1956 and the lake and surrounding land were sold in October 1957 for $109,000. The Department of Forests and Waters (predecessor of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources , established on July 1, 1995, is the agency in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania responsible for maintaining and preserving the state's 117 state parks and 20 state forests; providing information on the state's natural resources; and...
) bid on the 3140 acres (1,270.7 ha) including the lake, but were outbid by a group of private investors. They initially planned to sell up to 788 building lots around the lake, but when sales were slower than expected, they instead "formed the Lake Ganoga Association in September 1959 to regulate and preserve the recreation and residential facilities at Lake Ganoga". Thus, private development of houses on the lake only began in the 20th century.
The association built 2.5 miles (4 km) of roads around the lake; the Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
paved some of these to provide better access from the Benton Air Force Station
Benton Air Force Station
Benton Air Force Station was a Cold War era Aerospace Defense Command radar facility in Colley Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. The station was operational from 1951 until 1975....
in the park to a radio transmitter southwest of the lake. The Ganoga Lake Association also cleared some land at the lake's southern end, and its members built more than 50 houses on the lake shore. The stone house serves as the association's headquarters and clubhouse, and is used for association meetings, weddings, and picnics; in 1983 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as the Clemuel Ricketts Mansion. Today the lake is used by kayak
Kayak
A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...
ers and wind surfers. As a private development, "To all outsiders that have no property around the lake, the lake and grounds are off limits."
Geology and climate
The rocks underlying Ganoga Lake are from the Mississippian Pocono FormationPocono Formation
The Mississippian Pocono Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, USA. It is also known as the Pocono Group in Maryland and West Virginia,...
, which is a "light-gray to buff or light-olive-gray, medium-grained, crossbedded sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
", with some siltstone
Siltstone
Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...
and conglomerates
Conglomerate (geology)
A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...
. The Pocono Formation formed more than 340 million years ago, when the land was part of the coastline of a shallow sea that covered a great portion of what is now North America. The high mountains to the east of the sea gradually eroded, causing a build-up of sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
made up primarily of clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
, sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
and gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
. Tremendous pressure on the sediment caused the formation of the rocks that are found at the lake and in the drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
for Kitchen Creek
Kitchen Creek (Pennsylvania)
Kitchen Creek is a tributary of Huntington Creek in Fairmount and Huntington townships in Luzerne County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.It is best known as the main stream flowing through Ricketts Glen State Park and has 24 named waterfalls within the park. Kitchen Creek is in the larger...
: sandstone, shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
, siltstone, and conglomerates. In 1894 R. Bruce Ricketts planned to mine yellow ocher
Ochre
Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...
near the lake.
Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau, just north of the Allegheny Front
Allegheny Front
The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and eastern West Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front delineates the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians to its east from the Appalachian Plateau to its west...
, which is the boundary between the dissected plateau
Dissected plateau
A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded so that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, metamorphism, extensive faulting, or magmatic activity...
to the north and the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
Ridge-and-valley Appalachians
The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending from southeastern New York through northwestern New...
to the south. Kitchen Creek, which drains the lake, drops approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) in 2.25 miles (3.62 km) as it flows down the steep escarpment
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...
of the Allegheny Front. About 300 to 250 million years ago, the Allegheny Plateau, Allegheny Front, and Appalachian Mountains all formed in the Alleghenian orogeny
Alleghenian orogeny
The Alleghenian orogeny or Appalachian orogeny is one of the geological mountain-forming events that formed the Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Mountains. The term and spelling Alleghany orogeny was originally proposed by H.P. Woodward in 1957....
. This happened long after the sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
s at the lake were deposited, when the part of Gondwana
Gondwana
In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
that became Africa collided with what became North America, forming Pangaea
Pangaea
Pangaea, Pangæa, or Pangea is hypothesized as a supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration....
. In the years since, up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of rock has been eroded away by streams and weather. At least three major glaciations in the past million years have been the final factor in shaping the land around the lake today.
Prior to the last ice age
Quaternary glaciation
Quaternary glaciation, also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, the current ice age or simply the ice age, refers to the period of the last few million years in which permanent ice sheets were established in Antarctica and perhaps Greenland, and fluctuating ice sheets have occurred elsewhere...
, Ganoga Lake drained into Big Run, a tributary of Fishing Creek
Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River)
Fishing Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Fishing Creek joins the Susquehanna River near the village of Rupert, just southwest of the town of Bloomsburg.-Tributaries:travelling upstream...
. This changed when the glacier
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
s retreated to the northeast about 20,000 years ago, and formed glacial lake
Glacial lake
A glacial lake is a lake with origins in a melted glacier. Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,000 years ago, glaciers began to retreat. A retreating glacier often left behind large deposits of ice in hollows between drumlins or hills. As the ice age ended, these melted to create...
s. The retreating glaciers also left deposits of debris 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) thick, which formed a dam blocking water from draining into Big Run. Instead, water from Ganoga Lake and the area that later became Lake Jean was diverted into the Ganoga Glen branch of Kitchen Creek. These diversions added about 7 square miles (18 km²) to the Kitchen Creek drainage basin, increasing it by just over 50 percent to 20.1 square miles (52.1 km²). The result was increased water flow in Kitchen Creek, which has been cutting the falls in the glens since. Glacial striations are found on the eastern side of the lake. The lake is in a shallow valley, 13 feet (4 m) deep, which is impounded by glacial till
Till
thumb|right|Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material , and this characteristic, known as matrix support, is diagnostic of till....
up to 30 feet (9.1 m) thick at the southeast end, where Kitchen Creek exits.
The Allegheny Plateau has a continental climate
Continental climate
Continental climate is a climate characterized by important annual variation in temperature due to the lack of significant bodies of water nearby...
, with occasional severe low temperatures in winter and average daily temperature range
Temperature range
Atmospheric temperature range is the numerical difference between the minimum and maximum values of temperature observed in a given location....
s (the difference between the daily high and low) of 20 F-change in winter and 26 F-change in summer. Ganoga Lake is part of the Huntington Creek watershed, where the mean annual precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
is 40 to 48 in (1,016 to 1,219.2 mm). Weather records are not available for Ganoga Lake, but they are known for the adjoining Ricketts Glen State Park. The highest recorded temperature at the park was 103 °F (39.4 °C) in 1988, and the record low was -17 F in 1984. On average, January is the coldest month, July is the hottest month, and June is the wettest month.
Ecology
Ganoga Lake is the largest tributary of Lake Jean, via a 0.4 mile (0.643736 km) branch of Kitchen Creek. While Lake Jean lies entirely within Ricketts Glen State Park, much of its 1998 acres (808.6 ha) drainage basin extends beyond the park, and Ganoga Lake's 960 acres (388.5 ha) watershed accounts for nearly half of the total area. Lake Jean covers 253 acres (102.4 ha); the remaining 1745 acres (706.2 ha) of the Lake Jean watershed are 81.0% hardwood forestTemperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Mixed forests are a temperate and humid biome. The typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of tall mature trees ranging from 33 to 66 m high. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade-tolerant understory that is roughly 9 to...
, 12.6% pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
s, 4.7% other lakes (including Ganoga Lake's 78.8 acres (31.9 ha)), and 1.7% wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s. The park has more than 80 species of vines, shrubs, and trees; Black Gum, Black Spruce, Eastern Hemlock, Eastern White Pine
Eastern White Pine
Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...
, Eastern Larch
Tamarack Larch
Tamarack Larch, or Tamarack, or Hackmatack, or American Larch is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and also south into the northeastern United States from Minnesota to Cranesville Swamp, West Virginia; there is also a...
, Red Maple, and Yellow Birch are found in area forests.
In the 19th century Ganoga Lake was home to trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
, bullhead catfish, pike
Esox
Esox is a genus of freshwater fish, the only living genus in the family Esocidae — the esocids which were endemic to North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Paleogene through present.The type species is E. lucius, the northern pike...
, pickerel, and black bass
Black bass
Micropterus , is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is M. dolomieu, the smallmouth bass...
. The lake had very few plants in it, but its shore was lined with Mountain Laurel
Kalmia latifolia
Kalmia latifolia, commonly called Mountain-laurel or Spoonwood, is a species of flowering plant in the blueberry family, Ericaceae, that is native to the eastern United States. Its range stretches from southern Maine south to northern Florida, and west to Indiana and Louisiana. Mountain-laurel is...
and, in the east, Mountain Ash
Sorbus americana
The tree species Sorbus americana is commonly known as the American Mountain-ash. It is a relatively small deciduous perennial tree, native to eastern northern North America....
. After the Ganoga Lake Association's 1957 purchase, they drained the lake to kill its fish, then stocked
Fish stocking
Fish stocking is the practice of raising fish in a hatchery and releasing them into a river, lake, or the ocean to supplement existing populations, or to create a population where none exists...
it with "30,000 fingerling brook trout". In 2007 Lake Jean, which is connected to Lake Ganoga via Kitchen Creek, was still home to many of the fish found there in the 19th century: Brook Trout
Brook trout
The brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, is a species of fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. In many parts of its range, it is known as the speckled trout or squaretail. A potamodromous population in Lake Superior are known as coaster trout or, simply, as coasters...
, Brown Trout
Brown trout
The brown trout and the sea trout are fish of the same species....
, Brown Bullhead
Brown bullhead
The brown bullhead, Ameiurus nebulosus, is a fish of the Ictaluridae family that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead and yellow bullhead...
, Yellow Bullhead
Yellow bullhead
The yellow bullhead, is a species of bullhead catfish. Yellow bullhead are typically yellow-olive to slatey-black on the back and sometimes mottled depending on habitat. The sides are lighter and more yellowish while the underside of the head and body are bright yellow, yellow white, or bright...
, Chain Pickerel
Chain pickerel
The chain pickerel, Esox niger , is a species of freshwater fish in the pike family of order Esociformes. The chain pickerel and the american pickerel belong to the Esox genus of pikes.-Range:...
, and Largemouth Bass
Largemouth bass
The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...
.
Although there are no pollution point sources in the drainage basin, acid rain
Acid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
is a major concern. Acidification has altered the ecology of the lakes and region; in Lake Jean low pH
PH
In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...
has decreased the number and quality of insects and plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
at the base of the food chain
Food chain
A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...
. Fish which are acid tolerant are predominant, including Fathead Minnow
Fathead minnow
The fathead minnow , is a species of temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Pimephales genus of the cyprinid family. The natural geographic range extends throughout much of North America, from central Canada south along the Rockies to Texas, and east to Virginia and the Northeastern United...
, Muskellunge
Muskellunge
A muskellunge , also known as a muskelunge, muscallonge, milliganong, or maskinonge , is a large, relatively uncommon freshwater fish of North America. Muskellunge are the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae...
, Pumpkinseed
Pumpkinseed
The pumpkinseed sunfish is a freshwater fish of the sunfish family of order Perciformes. It is also referred to as "pond perch", "common sunfish", "punkys", and "sunny".-Range and distribution:...
, Walleye
Walleye
Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...
, and Yellow Perch
Yellow perch
The yellow perch is a species of perch found in the United States and Canada, where it is often referred to by the shortform perch. Yellow perch look similar to the European perch, but are paler and more yellowish, with less red in the fins. They have six to eight dark, vertical bars on their sides...
. There are relatively few predators like Chain Pickerel and Largemouth Bass, and adult fish "appear to have good growth rates but poor reproductive success".
Despite the increased acidity, all of the Kitchen Creek drainage basin, which includes Ganoga Lake, is classified by the state of Pennsylvania as a "High Quality-Cold Water Fishery". Under the Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
a Total Maximum Daily Load
Total Maximum Daily Load
A Total Maximum Daily Load is a regulatory term in the U.S. Clean Water Act, describing a value of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive while still meeting water quality standards...
(TMDL) has been established for acidic pollution in the Lake Jean watershed. Ganoga Lake's TMDL for acidity is 4.1 pounds (1.9 kg) per day. Long term exposure to acid rain also damages soil, depleting calcium
Calcium
Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust...
levels, which may in turn affect insect populations and reproduction in birds. Lake Jean is also "impaired for mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
due to atmospheric deposition", although TMDLs have not yet been established for this.
Ganoga Lake and Ricketts Glen State Park are part of the much larger 114978 acres (46,530 ha) Pennsylvania Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
(IBA) #48, which the Audubon Society
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...
describes as "the largest extant forest in northeastern Pennsylvania and one of the largest in the Commonwealth". Over 75 species of bird are known to breed in the state park adjoining the lake. Lake Jean is home to Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...
and Canada Goose
Canada Goose
The Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body....
; aquatic birds found in the IBA include American Bittern
American Bittern
The American Bittern is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae. New evidence has led the American Ornithologists' Union to move the heron family into the order Pelecaniformes .-Description:...
, American Black Duck
American Black Duck
The American Black Duck is a large dabbling duck. American Black Ducks are similar to Mallards in size, and resemble the female Mallard in coloration, although the Black Duck's plumage is darker...
, Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
The Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...
, Green-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
The Green-winged Teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in the northern areas of North America except on the Aleutian Islands. It was considered conspecific with the Common Teal The Green-winged Teal (Anas carolinensis) is a common and widespread duck that breeds in the northern areas of...
, Hooded Merganser
Hooded Merganser
The Hooded Merganser is a small duck and is the only member of the genus Lophodytes.Hooded Mergansers have a crest at the back of the head which can be expanded or contracted. In adult males, this crest has a large white patch, the head is black and the sides of the duck are reddish-brown...
, Mallard Duck
Mallard
The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....
, Osprey
Osprey
The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...
, Virginia Rail
Virginia Rail
The Virginia Rail, Rallus limicola, is a small waterbird, of the family Rallidae.Adults are mainly brown, darker on the back and crown, with orange-brown legs. They have long toes, a short tail and a long slim reddish bill...
, and Wood Duck
Wood Duck
The Wood Duck or Carolina Duck is a species of duck found in North America. It is one of the most colourful of North American waterfowl.-Description:...
. Historically, Common Pheasant
Common Pheasant
The Common Pheasant , is a bird in the pheasant family . It is native to Georgia and has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe , it is simply known as the "pheasant"...
were found in the woods around the lake.
Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau just north of the Allegheny Front; this region is known locally as North Mountain. Many bird species are found in the forests on North Mountain, including the state's only population of Blackpoll Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
The Blackpoll Warbler, Dendroica striata , is a New World warbler. Breeding males are mostly black and white. They have a prominent black cap, white cheeks and white wing bars. The Blackpoll breeds in northern North America, from Alaska, through most of Canada, and into the Great Lakes region and...
; other birds seen there include Evening Grosbeak
Evening Grosbeak
The Evening Grosbeak is a large finch. In the past, it was treated in a genus of its own as Hesperiphona vespertina, but is now usually placed in the same genus as the Hawfinch of Eurasia....
, Northern Goshawk, Red Crossbill, and Swainson’s Thrush. Historically North Mountain was home to Olive-sided Flycatcher
Olive-sided Flycatcher
The Olive-sided Flycatcher, Contopus cooperi, is a passerine bird. It is a medium-sized tyrant flycatcher.- Description :Adults are dark olive on the face, upperparts and flanks. They have light underparts, a large dark bill and a short tail....
, and "was one of the few places one could enjoy the songs of all of Pennsylvania’s native thrush
Thrush (bird)
The thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur worldwide.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat small fruit. The smallest thrush may be the Forest Rock-thrush, at and...
es"; today it is home to the state's largest Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a small insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family.Adults have brownish-olive upperparts, darker on the wings and tail, with yellowish underparts; they have a white eye ring, white wing bars, a small bill and a short tail...
population.
Ganoga Lake and its surroundings have a variety of insects and animals. Butterflies in the region are studied by lepidopterist
Lepidopterist
A lepidopterist is a person who specialises in the study of Lepidoptera, members of an order encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
s, and the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
Hemlock woolly adelgid , commonly abbreviated as HWA, is a true bug native to East Asia that feeds by sucking sap from hemlock trees . In eastern North America, it is a destructive pest that poses a major threat to the eastern hemlock and the Carolina hemlock...
threatens many of the hemlock trees. Animals found on North Mountain and in the park include squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
, Black Bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
, Fisher
Fisher (animal)
The fisher is a medium-size mammal native to North America. It is a member of the mustelid family, commonly referred to as the weasel family. The fisher is closely related to but larger than the American Marten...
, Hoary Bat
Hoary bat
The hoary bat is a species of bat in the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae. It occurs throughout most of North America and much of South America, with disjunct populations in the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands...
, Otter, Porcupine
North American Porcupine
The North American Porcupine , also known as Canadian Porcupine or Common Porcupine, is a large rodent in the New World porcupine family. The Beaver is the only rodent larger than the North American Porcupine found in North America...
, Raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
, and White-tailed Deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
. In 1912, White-tailed Deer around the lake became locally extinct
Local extinction
Local extinction, also known as extirpation, is the condition of a species which ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere...
due to loss of habitat from lumbering and overhunting. Pennsylvania imported nearly 1,200 White-tailed Deer from Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
between 1906 and 1925 to re-establish the species, and made it the official state animal in 1959. By 2001, deer populations had increased to the point where it was feared that "Pennsylvania is losing its vegetative diversity from deer over-browsing".