Lake Namakagon is a large freshwater lake located in the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

. The lake derives it's name from the Ojibwe language

Ojibwe language

Ojibwe , also called Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems...

, and it means "Lake abundant with sturgeons. There are several restaurants and resorts located on Lake Namakagon, including, among several others, Lakewoods, and Telemark Pointe. Restaurants include Pla-Mor, and the Loon Saloon, plus the nearby Cable Nature Lodge.

Fish species include bluegill, sunfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappie

Crappie

Crappie is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is P. annularis, the white crappie...

, northern pike

Northern Pike

The northern pike , is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox...

, and 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...

. Namakagon is a premier muskellunge lake.

Islands in the lake

There are several natural islands in the lake including;

• Anderson Island
• Paines Island
• Chief Namakagon Island

Early History

Like most of the northern Wisconsin virgin white pine forest, this area was logged heavily during the timber boom years from post Civil War days through about 1925. The Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Omaha and Northwestern Railroad arrived nearby in 1880 delivering timber and tourists. Logging has given way to tourism as primary economic driver. Area forests are temperate deciduous forest

Temperate deciduous forest

A temperate deciduous forest, more precisely termed temperate broadleaf forest or temperate broadleaved forest, is a biome found in North America, southern South America, Europe, and Asia. A temperate deciduous forest consists of trees that lose their leaves every year...

 containing of many varieties trees and other vegetation. white spruce

White Spruce

Picea glauca is a species of spruce native to boreal forests in the north of North America, from central Alaska east to Newfoundland, and south to northern Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine; there is also an isolated population in the...

, and coniferous trees.

From the early 1830s through 1886, a Native American made his home on the lake. Known locally as Chief Namakagon, he became legend due to Ashland Daily Press articles about him trading chards of silver for supplies. His secret source for the silver was never discovered and people still search for it today. A Smashwords ebook, The Treasure of Namakagon, details his story.