Rice Lake (Ontario)

Rice Lake
Sunset
Rice Lake
Location	Ontario
Group	south of Kawartha lakes (Ontario)
Coordinates	44°11′N 78°10′W / 44.183°N 78.167°W / 44.183; -78.167
Primary inflows	Otonabee River
Primary outflows	Trent River
Basin countries	Canada
Max. length	32 km (20 mi)
Max. width	5 km (3.1 mi)
Max. depth	27 ft (8.2 m)
Surface elevation	187 m (614 ft)
Islands	Cow
Settlements	Bewdley, Gores Landing, Hastings, Bailieboro, Roseneath

Rice Lake is a lake located in Northumberland and Peterborough counties in south-eastern Ontario. The lake is located south of the city of Peterborough, and the Kawartha Lakes and north of Cobourg. It is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway, which flows into the lake by the Otonabee and out via the Trent. The lake is 28 kilometres (17 mi) long and 5 km wide. Its maximum depth is 10m, with a surface water level at 187 m above sea level, raised to its present height by the Hastings Dam, built in the 19th century as part of the Trent-Severn canal system.^[1] The Indigenous Mississaugas called it Pemadashdakota or "lake of the burning plains".^[2]

A drumlin field is located northwest of the lake, and the lake's islands are partially submerged drumlins. Rice Lake nearly bisects the Oak Ridges Moraine, with three wedges to the west (Albion, Uxbridge and Pontypool), and one wedge to the east (Rice Lake) which has terminus at the Trent River. A narrow corridor to the south of Rice Lake connects these wedges.^[3]

Rice Lake is fairly shallow and was named for the wild rice which grew in it and was harvested by native people of the area. Most of the extensive stands of wild rice originally found in here were wiped out when water levels were raised in the lake by the construction of the waterway.

The village of Bewdley sits on the west end of the lake and the town of Hastings sits on the east. Prehistoric burial mounds are found at Serpent Mounds Park on the north shore of the lake. Other places of interest include the Indian reserves of Alderville and Hiawatha. Other communities include Roseneath, Bailieboro, Gores Landing, Keene, Ontario and Harwood.