This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(January 2011) |
Rainbow Lake | |
---|---|
Location | Navajo County, Arizona |
Coordinates | 34°8′59.59″N109°59′3.50″W / 34.1498861°N 109.9843056°W |
Basin countries | United States |
Surface area | 80 acres (32 ha) |
Average depth | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
Surface elevation | 6,700 ft (2,000 m) |
Rainbow Lake is a 116-acre manmade lake near the town of Pinetop-Lakeside and the community of Lake of the Woods in southern Navajo County, Arizona, United States. The lake was created in 1903 when Mormon settlers dammed Walnut Creek, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, to impound water for irrigation. [1] [2]
Settlers established communities in nearby Lakeside and Pinetop in the early 1880s. These settlements eventually grew into a single larger community called Lakeside, incorporated in 1986 as the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside. [3] Rainbow Lake was originally built as a reservoir for the Pinetop-Woodland Lake Irrigation Company, who own all the water in the lake used for irrigation purposes. Water levels in the lake vary widely, depending on the season, precipitation, and the needs of the irrigation company.
In 1998, the Show Low Irrigation Company and the Pinetop-Woodland Irrigation Company merged; however, the land under the lake (to the "high water mark") is still owned by the Irrigation company as well as all the water.[ clarification needed ] The land surrounding the lake is privately owned and not generally accessible to the public; however, the Arizona Game and Fish Department owns a small parcel of land on the northwest side of the lake at an elevation of 6,760 feet (2,060 m), where it maintains a Public Landing for fishing and recreational boating. Rainbow Lake now lies just outside the boundaries of the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside, adjacent to Arizona State Route 260.
Rainbow Lake is 116 acres (0.47 km2), with a maximum depth of 14 feet (4.3 m) and an average depth of 7 feet (2.1 m). It is a part of the Walnut Creek drainage, which fills three lakes in the area, including Woodland Park Lake (owned by the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside), Rainbow Lake, and the privately owned Lake of the Woods. Rainbow Lake is mostly surrounded by homes, including the private HOA Shores at Rainbow Lake on the southeast side. [4] It is a prominent recreational feature of the Pinetop-Lakeside area, known for its fishing, boating, and wildlife habitats.
Currently, Arizona Game and Fish stocks the lake with catchable-sized rainbow trout in the spring and early summer. Naturally propagating warm water species include largemouth bass, channel catfish, black bullhead, bluegill and green sunfish. The lake also contains illegally introduced northern pike. Because it is shallow and weedy, Rainbow Lake is subject to significant water quality problems.
In past years, Rainbow Lake has also had a significant problem with invasive aquatic weeds, particularly the Eurasian watermilfoil, Myriophyllum spicatum. Efforts by the local volunteer group Show Low Creek Watershed Enhancement Partnership (SLCWEP), in conjunction with the Little Colorado River Plateau Resource Conservation and Development Area, Inc., resulted in a systemic herbicide treatment of the lake in the summer and fall of 2011. The results were not as good as hoped, with the equally problematic coontail weed rapidly replacing the watermilfoil in the lake. Long-term efforts by the Rainbow Lake Coalition (a subcommittee of the SLCWEP) are now focused on the introduction of sterile white Amur carp, which have been proven to control excessive growth of watermilfoil for up to 10 years. Arizona Game and Fish requires mediation to ensure that the carp, a non-native fish, are prevented from escaping Rainbow Lake and potentially invading other water bodies. The Rainbow Lake Coalition is now working to design and construct a fish barrier on Walnut Creek below Lake of the Woods, which has used the carp for weed control for many years. [5]
Martinez Lake is a lake in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, about 60 miles north of Yuma, Arizona on the Lower Colorado River. Its area is about 300 to 500 acres, depending upon where its boundary with the Colorado River is taken to be. The community of Martinez Lake, Arizona is located on the lake.
Mittry Lake is located in the Mittry Lake Wildlife Area, just north of Yuma, Arizona, on the Lower Colorado River. It is located in between the upstream Imperial Dam and the downstream Laguna Dam. Mittry Lake comprises about 750 acres (300 ha), with much of the shoreline covered with cattails and bullrush. The lake has undergone rehabilitation work including marsh dredging, revegetation and fish habitat improvement, making it a great location for small game hunting and sport fishing. It is public land managed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management, and available to the public for recreational purposes.
Lake Pleasant Regional Park is a large outdoors recreation area straddling the Maricopa and Yavapai county border northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. The park is located within the municipal boundaries of Peoria, Arizona, and serves as a major recreation hub for the northwest Phoenix metropolitan area.
Patagonia Lake State Park is a state park of Arizona, US, containing Patagonia Lake. The 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km), 250-acre (100 ha) lake located near Patagonia, Arizona, is a popular southern Arizona site for fishing, camping, boat rental, picnicking, hiking, and birding. Located inside the park is the recently established Sonoita Creek State Natural Area, Arizona's first major state natural area. Created by the damming of Sonoita Creek, the lake is habitat for reproducing largemouth bass, black crappie, bluegill, green sunfish, flathead catfish, threadfin shad, redear sunfish, channel catfish, and American bullfrogs. Rainbow trout are stocked every three weeks from October to March. Sonoita Creek contains black bullhead, red shiner, mosquitofish, crayfish, American bullfrogs, largemouth bass, Gila topminnows, speckled dace, longfin dace, Sonora suckers, and desert suckers. Special events include an annual mariachi festival in March and bird tours and interpretive programs on request.
Show Low Lake is a 100-acre (0.40 km2) lake nestled at 6,500 feet (2,000 m) elevation in the White Mountains of Arizona which is administered by the Arizona Game and Fish Department along with the city of Show Low. Show Low Lake Park is located five miles (8 km) south of Show Low.
Lake Mary may refer to one of two reservoirs in northern Arizona southeast of Flagstaff. The name may also be used to refer to the two lakes as a whole. The pair of lakes impound the intermittent Walnut Creek upstream from Walnut Canyon. Recreational facilities at both lakes are maintained under the authority of the Coconino National Forest.
C.J. Strike Reservoir is a reservoir located in southwestern Idaho. Its main recreational features include the C. J. Strike Dam and its 7,500-acre (30 km2) reservoir, an impoundment of the Snake River and Bruneau River. This in turn provides excellent fishing and boating opportunities along with, to a lesser extent camping and hiking.
Built in 1928, Scott Reservoir is an irrigation impoundment on Porter Creek near Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona, USA. The least developed of the "in town" lakes, trees surround Scott Reservoir. It lies just outside the town limits on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests.
Located in the heart of Pinetop-Lakeside, Woodland Lake and the park surrounding it have been called the town's "Crown Jewel." In addition to trout fishing, the lake provides a host of other outdoor recreation opportunities. Woodland Lake lies on city and Apache-Sitgraves National Forest property, just west of White Mountain Blvd. in Pinetop.
Fain Lake is a reservoir located near Prescott Valley in Yavapai County, North Central Arizona.
The Cluff Ranch Ponds are located in the Cluff Ranch Wildlife Area at the base of the Pinaleno Mountains in southeastern Arizona. The town of Pima is 5 miles (8.0 km) away, and the city of Safford is 7 miles (11 km) away. The facilities are maintained by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Parker Canyon Lake is located in southeastern Arizona, 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Sierra Vista around the Huachuca Mountains and about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the border with Mexico. The lake is a reservoir formed by a dam in Parker Canyon in the south end of the Canelo Hills in southwestern Cochise County. Parker Canyon is a tributary to the Santa Cruz River in the San Rafael Valley. The facilities are maintained by Coronado National Forest division of the USDA Forest Service.
Patagonia Lake is a man-made reservoir in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States, located southwest of the town of Patagonia, Arizona and northeast of Nogales. The lake was created by damming Sonoita Creek, and is a popular area for boating and sport fishing. Facilities are maintained by Arizona State Parks as part of Patagonia Lake State Park.
Peña Blanca Lake is a reservoir in Arizona, United States, located 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Nogales. The facilities are maintained by the Coronado National Forest division of the USDA Forest Service. The lake was created in 1957 by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.Back then this lake was known for a plush resort that was located there. In 2008, the lake was closed to clean mercury contamination within the sediment, thought to be from old mines in the area. Also the former plush resort was removed as well. The lake was reopened in August 2009. In 2013, an Arizona Department of Environmental Quality report showed that mercury levels were similar to those before the lake was drained and dredged. One potential cause for the high mercury could be naturally occurring mercury seeping through the faults or a spring in the lake, though these claims are still under investigation.
Pleasant Creek Wildlife Management Area is located near Philippi, West Virginia in Barbour and Taylor counties. Located on 3,030 acres (1,230 ha) land that varies from wetlands to steeply forested woodlands, the Pleasant Creek WMA rises to an elevation of 1,600 feet (490 m).
Kirby Lake is a 740-acre man-made reservoir located on the south side of Abilene, Texas, just east of Highway 83, in the northeastern portion of Taylor County. Kirby Lake is within the Brazos River Basin, meaning that Cedar Creek, which feeds Kirby Lake, eventually feeds into the Brazos River. Kirby Lake resides in the Red Prairies portion of the Central Great Plains ecoregion. Management is under the City of Abilene.
Tenmile Lake is the largest and southernmost of a chain of lakes along the Oregon Coast south of the Umpqua River in the United States. The chain includes North Tenmile, Eel, Clear, and smaller lakes, which drain into the Pacific Ocean via Tenmile Creek. The lake is 8 miles (13 km) south of Reedsport and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) east of U.S. Route 101 near the community of Lakeside.
Highlandtown Lake is a man-made lake located in Washington Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. It was created in 1966 when the State of Ohio built a dam impounding 170 acres (0.69 km2) of water on the upper drainage of the Little Yellow Creek. A lot of habitat improvement was done on what would be the bottom of the lake prior to the impoundment. It has about 5 miles (8.0 km) of shoreline and a maximum depth of about 26 feet (7.9 m). The lake is about 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level.
Lake Henry is a small artificial lake formed by the construction of a dam across Dawson Creek in Bon Homme County, South Dakota, United States, about 0.75 mi (1.21 km) east of the town of Scotland.
Squantz Pond is a 288-acre lake in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It is located on the town line of Sherman and New Fairfield, and is bordered by manmade Candlewood Lake. The south shore is protected as Squantz Pond State Park, and is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The pond is named for Chief Squantz, a leader of the Schaghticoke tribe.