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Lake Winnipesaukee
sunset
Surface area	72 sq mi (186 km²)
Max depth	212 ft (64.6 m)
Surface elevation	504 ft
Islands	253
Settlements	see article

Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in New Hampshire. It is approximately 26 miles long (north-south) and from one to 10 miles wide (east-west), covering 72 square miles (186 km²), with a maximum depth of 212 feet (64.6 meters). The lake contains some 253 islands (list of islands) and is indented by several peninsulas, a combination yielding a total shoreline of some 288 miles. The driving distance around the lake is 63 miles. The lake is 504 feet above sea level. It is the third-largest lake in New England (after Lake Champlain and Moosehead Lake) and second only to Moosehead for lakes entirely contained within New England.

Contents 1 History 2 Cities and towns 3 Lakes region 4 Steamship Mount Washington and its successor 5 Ice-Out Contest 6 In popular culture and the arts 7 References 8 External links

Lake Winnipesaukee has been a tourist destination for more than a century, especially for residents escaping the summer heat of Boston and New York City. The Native American name Winnipesaukee means either "smile of the Great Spirit" or "beautiful water in a high place". At the outlet of the Winnipesaukee River, the Winnipesaukee Indians, a subtribe of the Pennacook, lived and fished at a village called Acquadocton. The site is today called The Weirs, named for the weirs colonists discovered when first exploring the region.

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 communities that surround the lake, clockwise from the southernmost town, are:

• Alton
• Gilford, home to Gunstock Recreation Area, noted for its skiing and hiking
• Laconia, the main commercial city on the lake (surrounding Paugus Bay). Included in Laconia is Weirs Beach, the largest public bathing area on Winnipesaukee.
• Meredith, whose harbor lies on the northwestern reach of the lake
• Center Harbor
• Moultonborough
• Tuftonboro, which contains Melvin Village
• Wolfeboro, which bills itself as the "oldest summer resort in America"

Along with the rest of New Hampshire's Lakes Region, which also encompasses Lake Winnisquam, Squam Lake and Newfound Lake, Winnipesaukee has been a vacation community for at least a century, particularly drawing people from the Boston region. The area is home to numerous summer theater troupes and offers a variety of land and water recreational activities. There are numerous hiking trails in and around the surrounding mountains, which include the Ossipee Mountains to the east, the Belknap Range to the west, and Red Hill to the north.

The paddlesteamer Mount Washington, named after the highest of New Hampshire's White Mountains, was launched in spring 1871 to carry mail, goods, and passengers on Lake Winnipesaukee, under the flag of the Boston and Maine Railroad. With a hull length of 178 feet and a beam of 49 feet she appeared as a typical representative of the North American sidewheelers around the second half of the century and was the largest steamer on the lake at that time. The huge paddle wheels were driven by a single-cylinder steam engine of 450 HP at approximately 26 RPM. The power was transferred from the vertical single cylinder to the wheel shaft by the walking beam, high above the upper deck, oscillating in the frequency of the paddle wheels. Known as "The Mount", her kitchen and restaurant service became famous.

On December 23, 1939, a nearby railroad station caught fire from an overheated stove. The fire soon spread to the ship, tied at the dock, and destroyed it. Efforts to cut the Mount loose were to no avail as it was a time of extremely low water and the hull was stuck fast in the mud of the lake bottom. Soon after, a local company was formed to build a new ship. Since Europe was already at war, obtaining steel was impossible. Instead, they purchased an old sidewheel vessel on Lake Champlain: the Chateaugay, a 203-foot, iron-hulled sidewheeler that was being used as a club house for the Burlington yacht club. It was cut into sections and transported to Lake Winnipesaukee on rail cars. A new twin-screw vessel was designed for the hull being welded back together at Lakeport. Powered by two steam engines taken from another ocean-going yacht, the new MS Mount Washington made her maiden voyage on August 15, 1940.

Two years after her launch, the new Mount's engines were removed for use in a navy vessel during World War II. After the war, the Mount Washington returned to the water. The ship was a success in the post-war tourist boom. ^[1]

In 1982, the Mount was cut open and extended with an additional 20-foot hull section to add larger lounge and food service facilities. Still popular, it makes one or two round trips on the lake per day during the summer season, as well as numerous dinner dance cruises in the evenings.

Lake Winnipesaukee is known for its annual Ice-Out Contest, in which people try to guess the earliest date that the Mount Washington can safely leave her port in Center Harbor and motor to four other ports (Weirs Beach, Alton Bay, Wolfeboro, and Meredith). Since records began 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.

• The 1981 movie On Golden Pond was mainly filmed on Squam Lake, just northwest of Winnipesaukee, with a few scenes shot on Winnipesaukee itself.
• In 1982, the American composer Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), who spent much of his childhood in New Hampshire, composed Lake Winnipesaukee, Op. 363, a sextet for flute, oboe, cello, two percussion, and piano.
• The 1991 movie comedy What About Bob? was set at Lake Winnipesaukee (although the actual filming was done at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia).
• The 2006 comedy Click has a flashback depicting Adam Sandler as a kid playing on a beach on Lake Winnipesaukee.
• In a Three Stooges short in which the Stooges are census takers, Curly answers a query about his birthplace with "Lake Winnipesaukee." When Moe asks him to spell it, he switches course, and says "Make that Lake Erie. I've got an uncle there."

1. ^ Paul H. Blaisdell: Three Centuries on Winnipesaukee, published 1975 by the New Hampshire Publishing Company, Somersworth, N.H.

The New Hampshire State Almanac

• Lake Winnipesaukee Website (lakewinnipesaukee.net)
• Lake Winnipesaukee Website (winnipesaukee.com)
• Lakes Region Association
• Paintings of Lake Winnipesaukee