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Silver LakeThe hydraulic head between Silver Lake and Lake Dunmore has been used to generate electricity for almost a century.

MeandersThe Leicester River flows through a unique marsh and swamp which is a southern extension of the Salisbury Swamp.

Water TowerThis reservoir tank ensures constant pressure in the penstock carrying Silver Lake water to the power plant near Lake Dunmore.

Shard VillaThe tower of Shard Villa rises above the trees.

SwampThe lighter forested band is the Salisbury Swamp south of Morgan Road.

DeltaThe triangular flat area (shaped like the Greek delta) is a delta built into the lake by the proto-Sucker Brook.

<<< Hover over the captions, click on a snapshot.

Lake Dunmore from Rattlesnake Point
Location

This panorama was taken from the lower and more southern of the two Rattlesnake Point overlooks.  The elevation is about 1500 feet, not quite 1000 feet higher than the lake. The view is to the southwest across Salisbury and Leicester.

Landscape

Low bedrock ridges form the western (far) side of the Lake Dunmore basin.  This bedrock basin was partially filled in with sand, gravel, and rocks as the Laurentide glacier retreated to the north 13,600 years ago and meltwater rivers dropped sediment here.  It is likely that stagnant ice sat in this basin while these rivers were active, and this prevented the sediment from filling it entirely. 

The last glacial events here were the melting of the stagnant ice and the construction of sandy deltas as the waning rivers flowed into the newly formed lake.  One of these deltas is the sandy site of Branbury State Park (first snapshot).  The entire north end of the lake is bordered by a sandy plain which includes a large delta on the northwest side (including Kampersville and Songadeewin), and the smaller sandy plain under Camp Keewaydin.

GigaPan

This panorama is made from 735 images taken on September 2, 2009. It covers a field of view of 163 degrees, and includes 2.96 billion pixels (2960 MP).
What to look for
  • Mowing the Branbury lawn
  • Songadeewin's vegetable garden
  • Fern Lake
  • The Salisbury Congregational Church steeple
  • Heidi Willis's house
  • Swamp Road bridge (experts only)
  • Stack plume at International Paper Company
History (Dunmore)

Native Americans called this lake something like Moosalamoo (accent on both moos), which was translated as "Lake of the Shining Trout."  There are still lake trout in Lake Dunmore, although all indications are that the number and size of these fish 200 years ago would defy modern imaginations. The name Moosalamoo is now attached to the mountain which looms 2000 feet over the lake, and no one seems to mind that the mountain has the lake's name.

The name Dunmore came from the Fourth Earl of Dunmore who was the royal governor of the colony of New York for eight months in 1770.  On his only visit to the lake, he waded in and ceremoniously named it after himself. We can be thankful that he didn't climb the mountain.

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