How Low Can You Go in Crystal Lake?

Yesterday, McHenry County Blog reported on the depth measurements made in the West End of Crystal Lake by the Illinois Geological Survey,

The bathymetric survey was done during the middle of last year.

Today, we look at the main body of water. The much larger, eastern basin of the lake was measured, too.

“Maximum depth exceeds 40 feet in a small area in the north central part of the lake,” the report by Timothy H. Larsen and B. Brandon Curry says.

The 40 foot point is directly north of about half way between the South Shores Gate 11 and 13—pretty much directly north from where Lakewood Village Trustee Brian Davis is building a new home. The deepest point is just slightly south of a line running straight east from the tip of Rumsey’s Point. I don’t know the North Shore well enough to tell you what the hole is just south of.

There was some wading around the northeastern and east shore, plus pole and old-fashioned weighted line measurements there.

In that area, “the lake bottom dips very gently to about 4 to 6 feet depth where there is an abrupt steepening of the bottom slope to the deeper parts of the basin.”

The two authors compared their modern research with a bathymetrical study performed by Robert Sasman in 1957. It marked ten foot intervals.

“Although less detailed than our map (click to enlarge), the general features of the earlier map, including the maximum depth, shape and depth of the shallows on the north and east and the two eastern channels were similar to our map,” the report revealed.

The researchers also estimated the amount of water in Crystal Lake. At 889.3 feet above sea level, they calculated almost 1.2 billion gallons.


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