Lac la Nonne

Lac la Nonne
Location County of Barrhead No. 11 / Lac Ste. Anne County, Alberta
Coordinates 53°56′14″N 114°19′11″W / 53.93722°N 114.31972°WCoordinates: 53°56′14″N 114°19′11″W / 53.93722°N 114.31972°W
Type Hyper-Eutrophic
Primary inflows Majeu Creek
Primary outflows MacDonald Creek, Pembina River
Catchment area 130 km2 (50 sq mi)
Basin countries Canada
Max. length 7 km (4.3 mi)
Max. width 2.5 km (1.6 mi)
Surface area 12.28 km2 (4.74 sq mi)[1]
Average depth 7.8 m (26 ft)[1]
Max. depth 20 m (66 ft)
Residence time 6.5 years
Surface elevation 664 m (2,178 ft)
Settlements Birch Cove
References [1]

Lac la Nonne is a lake in central Alberta, Canada. It is located between Lac Ste. Anne County and the County of Barrhead No. 11, 85 km north-west from Edmonton, east of the Grizzly Trail.

The lake is controlled by a dam, and drains through MacDonald Creek into the Pembina River.

History

Lac la Nonne is fairly large (11.8 km2) and deep (maximum depth 19.8 m) lake located about 90 km northwest of Edmonton in the counties of Barrhead and Lac Ste. Anne. This is a highly developed and popular recreational lake. The closest large population centre is the town of Barrhead, 20 km to the north. The name of the lake, “the nun” in French, has an uncertain origin. In 1827, Edward Ermatinger recorded the lake’s name in his journal as Lac La Nane. It has been suggested that the name comes from the White-winged Scoter, a duck with features similar to ducks in England known as “the nun”.

The Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post at the lake in the early 19th century; by the 1830s there were many Métis, and by the 1870s a Catholic mission had been established. In the 1890s several families had settled around the lake, and by 1912 most of the available land had been homesteaded.

Killdeer Beach Resort and Elksbeach Campground are the two commercial facilities at the lake. No commercial fisheries exist on the lake, although sport fishery, with the main catches being walleye and northern pike, is very popular in the summer.

Land acquisition around this lake and cottage development on the shoreline increased through to the 1970s until most of the shoreline became privately owned. Many cottages have been winterized and general lake use has intensified over the last half of the 20th century. Due to concerns about the quality of the lake, further development around the lake was halted through regulations enforced by Alberta Environment.”[2]

Sammy Majeau was the first Metis President at the Lac la Nonne Local.[3]

References

External links