Otsego Lake is a small 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,...

 located in Otsego County, New York

Otsego County, New York

Otsego County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. The 2010 population was 62,259. The county seat is Cooperstown. The name Otsego is from a Mohawk word meaning "place of the rock."-History:...

 in the USA and is the source 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...

. Cooperstown, New York

Cooperstown, New York

Cooperstown is a village in Otsego County, New York, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat of Otsego County, New York...

 is at the southern end. Glimmerglass State Park

Glimmerglass State Park

Glimmerglass State Park is located north of Cooperstown, in Otsego County, New York, USA. Most of the park is located inside the Town of Springfield....

 is located on the northeastern shore. Glimmerglass Opera

Glimmerglass Opera

Glimmerglass Festival is an opera company which was founded in 1975 by Peter Macris and presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake eight miles north of Cooperstown, New York, United States.The summer-only season usually consists of four operas performed in...

 is located on the western shore.

The lake was known to James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...

 as Glimmerglass and was a principal feature in several of his novels, including The Pioneers, The Deerslayer

The Deerslayer

The Deerslayer, or The First Warpath was the last of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking tales to be written. Its 1740-1745 time period makes it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the hero of the Leatherstocking tales, Natty Bumppo...

, and Last of the Mohicans in which one may find mention of such local landmarks as Council Rock and Sunken Island

Sunken Island

Sunken Island is a submerged sandy plot located near the western shore of Otsego Lake, approximately seven miles from Cooperstown, New York, in Otsego County. It is the supposed remains of an island described in the writings of James Fenimore Cooper upon which a structure once stood...

.

Hyde Hall

Hyde Hall

Hyde Hall was the unusually large home—a neoclassical country mansion—of George Clarke, 1768–1835, heir of George Clarke ....

, a mansion that was probably the largest in the United States at the time of its construction in 1817, overlooks the lake.

Otsego Lake is nine miles (14.5 km) long. It is geologically related to the Finger Lakes

Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States. They are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are long and thin , each oriented roughly on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in...

, but is not counted among them.

External links

• Otsego County Tourism