Largest U.S. Lakes - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Alaska. #14 at 453 square miles. The remote lake is an excellent site for hunting, fishing (including salmon), hiking, and observing wildlife (including the brown bears who feast on the salmon).
• A2) New York and Vermont (also in Quebec). #13 at 490 square miles. Burlington, Vermont is the most populous city on the lake, which empties into the Richelieu River.
• A3) Utah. #6 at 2,117 square miles. The Great Salt Lake is the largest remaining remnant of the nearly 20,000-square mile Lake Bonneville, which also left us the Bonneville Salt Flats.
• A4) Alaska. #8 at 1,014 square miles. The state's largest lake empties into Bristol Bay via the Kvichak River.
• A5) Florida. #10 at 662 square miles. The Big O, whose name simply means "Big Water", is the headwaters of the Everglades.
• A6) Louisiana. #11 at 631 square miles. Lake Pontchartrain borders New Orleans on the north and is the second largest salt lake in the U.S.
• A7) Minnesota (also in Ontario). #20 at 345 square miles. Rainy Lake has hosted the annual Canadian Bass [Fishing] Championship since 1996.
• A8) Minnesota. #16 at 427 square miles. The state's largest freshwater lake is a popular spot for ice fishing in the winter.
• A9) California. #19 at 347 square miles. The surface of the Salton Sea is 226 feet below sea level, and the bottom is only five feet higher than Death Valley.
• A10) Alaska. #17 at 404 square miles. Selawik Lake, which is named for its sheefish, extends across the Arctic Circle and therefore receives twenty-four hours of daylight during the middle of the summer.
• A11) Michigan (also in Ontario). #15 at 430 square miles. Lake St. Clair, which is part of the Great Lakes system, feeds into the Detroit River.
• A12) Minnesota (also in Manitoba and Ontario). #7 at 1,485 square miles, just 60 square miles less than the state of Rhode Island. A small section of Minnesota is cut off from the rest of the 48 contiguous U.S. states by the Lake of the Woods.

Three large artificial lakes complete the top twenty:

• Lake Oahe in North Dakota and South Dakota (#9 at 685 square miles).
• Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota (#12 at 520 square miles).
• Fort Peck Lake in Montana (#18 at 393 square miles).

Michigan leads the pack with at least a share of five of the top twenty lakes (Lake St. Clair and all of the Great Lakes except for Ontario), Minnesota is in second place at four and Alaska earns the bronze with three.

Note: lake sizes fluctuate, sometimes dramatically, depending on environmental conditions. The order given here is as listed by Wikipedia and the most recent edition of the National Atlas of the United States.