Lake Winnipesaukee
The largest lake in New Hampshire, Lake Winnipesaukee is also the sixth largest natural lake within the confines of the United States. It is 26 miles long and covers 72 square miles (186 km²), with a maximum depth of 180 feet (55 m). The lake contains some 274 islands and is indented by several peninsulas, a combination which yields a total shoreline of some 300 miles. It has been a tourist destination for more than a century, especially for residents escaping the summer heat of Boston and New York City.
Winnipesaukee is a "glacial lake", and an unusual one at that, since the last glaciation actually reversed the flow of its waters. Draining the central portion of New Hampshire, it once flowed southeast, leaving via what is now Alton Bay toward the Atlantic Ocean. When glacial debris blocked this path, flow was redirected westward through Paugus Bay into the Winnipesaukee River. The latter flows west from the lake and joins the Pemigewasset River in Franklin to form the Merrimack River, which flows south to Massachusetts and into the Atlantic.
The Cities and Towns which surround the lake are:
Along with the rest of New Hampshire's "Lakes Region", which also encompasses Squam Lake and Newfound Lake, Winnipesaukee is home to numerous summer theater troupes, and offers a wide variety of other land and water recreation activities.
Lake Winnipesaukee is also well known for its annual Ice-Out Contest, in which people try to guess the date that the Mount Washington, a large cruise ship that carries tourists around the lake, can safely leave her port on Saunders Bay and motor to four other ports. Since records began being kept in 1851, ice-out has happened as early as March 29 and as late as May 12, although 90 percent of the time it is declared during April.
