White Bear Lake (Minnesota)

White Bear Lake (Dakota: Bde Maṭo Ská ) is a lake in northeastern Ramsey County and western Washington County in the U.S. state of Minnesota, in the northeast part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.[2] The city of White Bear Lake takes its name from the lake.

This article is about the body of water. For other uses, see White Bear Lake.
White Bear Lake
Wildwood Amusement Park, early 20th century
Location of White Bear Lake in Minnesota, USA.
Location of White Bear Lake in Minnesota, USA.
White Bear Lake
Location of White Bear Lake in Minnesota, USA.
Location of White Bear Lake in Minnesota, USA.
White Bear Lake
LocationRamsey / Washington counties, Minnesota, United States
Coordinates45°04′29″N 92°58′41″W
Basin countriesUnited States
Surface area2,427.66 acres (982.44 ha)[1]
Max. depth83 feet (25 m)[1]
Surface elevation922 ft (281 m)[2]
SettlementsBellaire
Birchwood Village
Dellwood
Mahtomedi
White Bear Lake

History

In Life on the Mississippi (1883), American author Mark Twain wrote:

The White-bear Lake is less known. It is a lovely sheet of water, and is being utilized as a summer resort by the wealth and fashion of the State. It has its club-house, and its hotel, with the modern improvements and conveniences; its fine summer residences; and plenty of fishing, hunting, and pleasant drives. There are a dozen minor summer resorts around about St. Paul and Minneapolis, but the White-bear Lake is the resort.[3]

Twain also noted the Native American tradition of maple sugar making on the island in White Bear Lake:

Every spring, for perhaps a century, or as long as there has been a nation of red men, an island in the middle of White-bear Lake has been visited by a band of Indians for the purpose of making maple sugar.[3]

The Legend of White Bear Lake

In 1883, Mark Twain documented a version of The Legend of White Bear Lake which he ridiculed.[3]

In 2016 a musical, The Legend of White Bear Lake,[4] was produced by Youth Music Theatre UK and produced at the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth, England. Book music and lyrics were by Caroline Wigmore and Jennifer Green. The musical told the tale of the white bear after whom the lake is named.

References
  1. "Lake information report". Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  2. "White Bear Lake". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  3. Twain, Mark (1883). Life on the Mississippi. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
  4. "The Legend of White Bear Lake | Youth Music Theatre UK". www.youthmusictheatreuk.org. Archived from the original on 2016-08-08.


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