Geneva Lake is a body of freshwater in southeastern Wisconsin in Walworth county. On its shores are the city of Lake Geneva, and the villages of Fontana-on-Geneva-Lake, and Williams Bay.
Commonly known as the iceboat capital of the world, locals sailed the frozen lake 32 days in 2009.
Lakeshore attractions include Big Foot Beach State Park, Lake Geneva Yacht Club, Chuck's Tavern, Aurora University, George Williams campus, and the Yerkes Observatory. Owned by the University of Chicago and used only as a teaching observatory, the university planned to sell it to a developer. When controversy developed, the university suspended those plans and established a study group to plan regional center for science education at the observatory.
The lake covers an area of approximately 8.14 square miles (21.1 km2), has a maximum length of 7.5 miles (12 km), mean depth of 62.7 feet (19.1 m) and a maximum depth of 144 feet (44 m). Geologists believe that it is a filled-in kettle formed from a receding glacier.
The lake and town were originally named after the town of Geneva, New York, located on Seneca Lake, in which government surveyor John Brink saw a resemblance. Geneva, to avoid confusion with the nearby town Geneva, Illinois, was renamed Lake Geneva; later the lake was renamed Geneva Lake. In practice both forms are used for the lake, but only the first for the city.
Famous quotes containing the words geneva and/or lake:
“Wise men read very sharply all your private history in your look and gait and behavior. The whole economy of nature is bent on expression. The tell-tale body is all tongues. Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces which expose the whole movement.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)