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Lake Champlain, Vermont’s “Great Lake” | New England by the Numbers

Trivia and tidbits about a fabled New England lake.

Photo Credit: Allen Karsh
1609 year French explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed into the Lake Champlain region 6.8 trillion gallons of water: Champlain’s estimated volume 120 & 12 miles: Champlain’s length and maximum width, more than three times the size of New England’s second-largest lake, Moosehead in Maine fifty-four public beaches 4000 canal boats plying Champlain’s waters between 1819 and 1940 Three Hundred documented shipwrecks on the lake’s bottom eighty-one species of fish in the lake 1 illustrious and oft-sighted lake monster, “Champ” 450-480 million years: age of Champlain’s Chazy Reef, one of the oldest in the world 400 feet: Champlain’s maximum depth seventy-one islands (including one that’s an entire county) 27 daily round-trip summer ferry crossings between Charlotte, Vermont, and Essex, New York 300 recorded sightings of “Champ” since 1609

Julia Shipley

Contributing editor Julia Shipley’s stories celebrate New Englanders’ enduring connection to place. Her long-form lyric essay, “Adam’s Mark,” was selected as one of The Boston Globe's Best New England Books of 2014.

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