Mornin' to everyone gearing up for an epic camp season. This is the Wiscampsin Weekly - the email that gets you in the know on the Wisconsin outdoors in 5 minutes or less. New reader? Subscribe here.

This week’s weekly:

• Lake Winnebago’s origins 🧊 

• Gray wolf found in lower MI 🐺 

• Winning and losing bird species 🐦

The glacial origins of Lake Winnebago

Today, we are in your inbox to talk about Lake Winnebago.

Is it because of it’s famous ice shoves, signaling the coming of spring?

Maybe ‘cause it’s the biggest lake entirely within Wisconsin?

Ope! Maybe it’s because our co-founder is attempting to run the Fastest Known Time (FKT) around Lake Winnebago next week—72 miles—and is raising funds for the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance???

All good answers!

Our biggest lake

• Formed 12,000 years ago from (you guessed it) - the glacier!

• Is the 28th largest lake in the US

• Has an average depth of 15.5’ and a max depth of 21’

How ‘bout them glaciers, eh?

Located about an hour from Madison, Milwaukee, and Green Bay, Lake Winnebago’s origin predates our major cities by just about 12,000 years.

Our infamous glacier created a giant ice dam, blocking the flowage of what’s now Lake Michigan into the Bay of Green Bay.

Essentially, it formed a huge basin/bathtub behind the dam that filled with water.

Over time, the glacier receded, leaving behind the Glacial Lake Oshkosh (now Lake Winnebago).

The basin holding Lake Winnebago is really unique, as the softer Ordovician rock eroded away, leaving behind the harder Silurian rocks to form its eastern shores.

It’s name comes from the Algonkian word meaning "people of the dirty water,” potentially alluding to the dead fish that can be found floating in the summer.

What makes Lake Winnebago so special?

Here’s why Lake Winnebago is worth a visit:

• It’s huge: Like we said, it’s the largest “inland” lake in Wisconsin, measuring 137,700 acres or 30 × 10 miles (with 88 miles of shoreline).

• Ice Shoves: As winter comes to a close, strong winds rip across the large open-water surface area, pushing large sheets of ice. These sheets collide with other flows as they hit the shore, creating “walls” of ice as high as 16 feet!

• Sturgeon: The Winnebago System boasts one of the biggest sturgeon populations in the world. Spearing these dinosaurs has been a long tradition, dating back to the natives in the area. Read more about the 16-day spearing season here.

• Fishing: Any Wisco angler knows of Lake Winnebago and the walleye, sauger, perch, musky, sturgeon, and smallmouth bass to be caught—both on water or the ice.

• Boating: A 1989 survey found that Lake Winnebago was the busiest waterway in Wisconsin, even surpassing the Mississippi River! Pleasure boaters and sailboats can be found out on any given sunny day, and it’s even known as the Ice Sailing Capital of North America.

How to get out ‘der

There are plenty of opportunities to enjoy Lake Winnebago. Charter a fishing boat, go birding, even check out the bike race that circumnavigates the lake.

Want to support Wiscampsin co-founder Kevin on his endeavor to set the Fastest Known Time running around Lake Winnebago?

He and his running mates are raising funds for the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance. They help protect and restore the water resources of Wisconsin’s Fox-Wolf River Basin, so we can continue to recreate safely in and around it.

You can donate via this donation link, or learn more about the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance here.

And if you’re really into it, track Kevin’s progress at this link!

Now get out der!

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Other great Wiscampsin reads…

Hunting the "Dinosaur of the Midwest"

The Fish of 10,000 Casts

Sailing through Death's Door

Wiscampsin Weekly Poll

Well 90% of you did not travel outside of Wisconsin to see the full solar eclipse. For the 10% that did, congrats! And for the rest of us… maybe next time.

Nuts and Seeds 🌰 

🐺 Gray wolves back in southern MI: The gray wolf hasn’t been seen in southern Michigan in a century… or at least, that was the case until a hunter, thinking it was a coyote, shot one this winter in Michigans’ southern peninsula. After a series of genetic testing, the “big coyote” that weighed 84 pounds (much heavier than a 25-40lb coyote), was determined to be a gray wolf.

🐟 Trout catches a bout of parasites: In another first, a Wisconsin brook trout was found to have microscopic parasite Myxobolus cerebralis, which is known to cause disease. Typically plaguing western states’ trout populations, the parasite’s discovery is a “serious” issue as it can cause a myriad of problems for trout and salmon (like whirling disease). They don’t pose a threat to humans, but the DNR still urges anglers not to consume fish showing sign of disease.

🐦 Who will be the winning and losing bird populations? As Wisconsin’s snowfall was abnormal, so too were many birds’ migration in our state. Some species were only gone for a month, while some didn’t fly south at all. David Drake, Professor and Extension Wildlife Specialist from UW-Madison, thinks that some birds will benefit from the shifting winter weather, while others stand to lose. Read his full opinion here.

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