Cle Elum Lake

Cle Elum Lake is a lake and reservoir along the course of the Cle Elum River, in Washington state USA. At the site of the future city of Cle Elum, Washington, a Northern Pacific Railway station was named Clealum after the Kittitas name Tle-el-Lum (tlielləm), meaning "swift water", referring to the Cle Elum River. The lake was also labeled as Kleattam Lake in maps of the 1850s.[1]

Cle Elum Lake
Cle Elum Lake
Location of Cle Elum Lake in Washington, USA.
Location of Cle Elum Lake in Washington, USA.
Cle Elum Lake
Location of Cle Elum Lake in Washington, USA.
Location of Cle Elum Lake in Washington, USA.
Cle Elum Lake
LocationKittitas County, Washington
Coordinates47.2820°N 121.1075°W / 47.2820; -121.1075
Typenatural lake, reservoir
Primary inflowsCle Elum River
Primary outflowsCle Elum River
Catchment area260 sq mi (670 km2)
Basin countriesUnited States
Max. length7.4 mi (11.9 km)
Max. width1 mi (1.6 km)
Water volume436,900 acre-feet (538,900,000 m3)
Surface elevation2,223 ft (678 m)

Location

Cle Elum Lake is the easternmost lake of three large lakes (two are north and one is south of Interstate 90) in the Cascade Range. The middle one, Kachess Lake is also north of I-90 while the westernmost, Keechelus Lake is south of I-90.

Cle Elum Lake is part of the Columbia River basin, as the Cle Elum River is a tributary of the Yakima River, which is a tributary to the Columbia River.

Usage

The lake is used as a storage reservoir for the Yakima Project, an irrigation project run by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Although a natural lake, Cle Elum Lake's capacity and discharge is controlled by Cle Elum Dam, a 165-foot (50 m) high earthfill structure built in 1933. As a storage reservoir, Cle Elum Lake's active capacity is 436,900 acre feet (539,000,000 m³).[2]

In Pop Culture
  • In 1994, the fictional village of Monanash was filmed on Cle Elum Lake for the TV show Northern Exposure.[3]

References
  1. Meany, Edmond S. (1923). Origin of Washington Geographic Names. University of Washington Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780598974808.
  2. Yakima Project Archived 2014-08-27 at the Wayback Machine, United States Bureau of Reclamation.
  3. Northern Exposure Episode Guide - Season 6, Episode 8
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