Mendenhall Lake is a lake

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 the Mendenhall Valley

Mendenhall Valley

Mendenhall Valley is an area of Juneau in the U.S. state of Alaska. The valley, named for physicist and meteorologist Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, was formed by Mendenhall Glacier over the course of roughly three thousand years...

 at the 1962 terminus of Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier is a glacier about long located in Mendenhall Valley, about from downtown Juneau in the southeast area of the U.S. state of Alaska....

, 3 miles (4.8 km) North of the Juneau City and Borough

Juneau, Alaska

The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900...

 Airport in the Coast Mountains

Coast Mountains

The Coast Mountains are a major mountain range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges, of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia. They are so-named because of their proximity to the sea coast, and are often...

. It is the source of the short Mendenhall River

Mendenhall River

The Mendenhall River is an Alaskan river north of Juneau in the Mendenhall Valley. The river begins at the Mendenhall Lake, at the base of the Mendenhall Glacier.-Rafting on the river:...

.

Name

Like other geographic features with Mendenhall in their title, Mendenhall Lake is named for physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 and meteorologist Thomas Corwin Mendenhall

Thomas Corwin Mendenhall

Thomas Corwin Mendenhall was an autodidact US physicist and meteorologist.-Biography:Mendenhall was born in Hanoverton, Ohio to Stephen Mendenhall, a farmer and carriage-maker,...

.

Local name derived from the Mendenhall Glacier and published in 1962 by 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,...

. In 1909, the lake was called McCush Lake by miners because Neil McCush had mining property near it (DeArmond, 1957, p. 31).