Mountain Lake (Virginia)
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Mountain Lake is located in Giles County near Pembroke, Virginia in the United States. It is one of only two natural freshwater lakes in Virginia (the other being Lake Drummond in the Great Dismal Swamp). Located in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians, it is the highest lake in elevation east of the Mississippi River.
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[edit] An unusual lake
Mountain Lake typically covers about 50 acres (200,000 m²), its level was quite constant at an elevation of 3875 feet (1181m) over the 19th and 20th centuries. However, since 2002 it has been subject to dry-season level drops as much as 15 feet (5 m). The last such level fluctuations occurred between 1751 and 1804 as historical accounts give widely different accounts of the lake size. Natural lakes are common well to the north where the Appalacian Range was subject to geologically-recent glacial activity. But the basis upon which this lake exists, the only natural lake in the southern Appalacians, has been the source of much speculation. Recent scientific studies indicate that an unusual combination of natural processes created the lake, which is maintained due to a fissure at the bottom which provides an outlet for both sediment and water, preventing it from otherwise simply becoming a bog. Replenishment of the water lost is dependent upon rain levels, and apparent washing-out of sediment from the fisured bedrock bottom is causing the unstable lake levels.
The lake is estimated to be about 6,000 years old and geologists believe it must have been formed by rock slides and damming. Cold underground springs feed the lake and rarely allow the temperature to rise above 70 °F (22 °C) on the surface and 46 °F (5 °C) 50 feet (15 m) below the surface. Due to narrow channels and openings in the lake bottom, the level has a history of changing dramatically depending on the water flow through these channels. It is over 100 feet (30 m) deep when it is full. In proximity to the lake is one of Virginia's few virgin forests, including a rare virgin spruce bog named Mann's Bog, with an unusual array of northern disjunct species. The lake drains into Little Stoney Creek, which passes over "The Cascades", a spectacular waterfall, before reaching the New River.
[edit] Mountain Lake Hotel: The Resort and its History
The first known written evidence of the lake was by Christopher Gist of the Ohio Land Surveying Company, in 1751. It subsequently became known as The Salt Pond.
The Salt Pond had been frequented throughout the early part of the 19th century and prior, then in March, 1856, Henley Chapman incorporated the Mountain Lake Co. to provide accommodations and entertainment for its visitors. Soon afterwards, a wooden hotel and a saw mill were built. Stagecoach travelers from Christiansburg, Virginia and Union, West Virginia were the primary customers in the days before the Norfolk and Western Railway was built.
Following the Battle of Dublin in 1864, during the American Civil War, Union General George Crook marched his troops over to the present day town of Union, WV, via Salt Pond Mountain. Then, in 1869, following the Civil War, the hotel and its properties were sold to General and Mrs. Herman Haupt. Haupt had been head of the U.S. Military Railroad during the War. During their first year of ownership, though not operating publically, the Haupts received compensation from some of their guests for the accommodations provided, prompting Giles County to require them to purchase a hotel license. Subsequently, they decided to re-open the hotel to the general public. Due to the resulting popularity of the hotel in this first season, several additions to the hotel were required to meet the increasing demand for more accommodations.
During the days of primary travel by railroad, guests of the resort exited the train at either Pembroke or Eggleston and were met by horse-drawn carriages, which transported them up the dirt Doe Creek Road to the resort. The current primary paved route up the Mountain, SR 700, was built later, over a different route than the old dirt road.
Giles County attorney Gordon Porterfield managed the property briefly before turning it over to his son Gilbert Porterfield, who managed the resort for 25 years. During Gilbert Porterfield's tenure managing the resort, its current reputation for fine cuisine was established. Also during this time, individuals were allowed to build their own cottages. They received a 15 year lease, after which the ownership of the cottages returned to the hotel. During their individual ownership, these guests also received discounts on their meals and maid service. Presently, most of the original cottage names that were established by the original owners/builders over 100 years ago are still in use.
In the 1930's, William Lewis Moody bought the hotel. In 1938, after a fire destroyed much or all of the original wooden hotel, Moody replaced it with the current structure, built using stone native to the surrounding land. Moody's daughter, Mrs. Mary Northen, owned the hotel until her passing in 1986, following which the trustees of her estate established a foundation known as the Mary Moody Northen Endowment, which presently maintains and operates the resort. The foundation was specifically established according to Mrs. Northen's final wishes to maintain the hotel and surrounding land as she had always known it, without overbuilding and, particularly, without significantly changing the resort or upsetting the delicate ecology of the beautiful surrounding land. For most of its life as a resort, Mountain Lake Hotel was open from late spring through early fall, however, shortly after the establishment of the trust, the resort began operating year-round. Currently, it is open from early May to late November.
[edit] Mountain Lake Hotel: filming location for Dirty Dancing
Mountain Lake Hotel was the site for much of the on-location filming of the 1987 hit movie Dirty Dancing which starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. The Stone Lodge stood in for "Kellerman's Resort", a fictional mountain retreat in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. Like Kellerman's, the real Mountain Lake Hotel Resort also offers many indoor and outdoor activities for guests such as games like table tennis and billiards, water activities like paddle boating, canoeing, and fishing, and dry activities like mountain biking and hiking.
[edit] Mountain Lake Biological Station
In addition to the Mountain Lake Hotel resort complex, the Mountain Lake Biological Station, a field research and teaching station of the Biology Department at the University of Virginia originally established in 1930 is located nearby.
