History
The lake was first named in a map of New France made by Guillaume Delisle at the request of Louis XIV of France in 1703. The lake is thought to be named after Pépin le Bref, father of Charlemagne, as it was not a common surname in the area at the time.
Nicolas Perrot erected the first of a number of fur trade posts, Fort Saint Antoine, in 1786. In 1727 René Boucher de La Perrière and Michel Guignas built Fort Beauharnois on the lake. In 1730 it had to be rebuilt on higher ground. Boucher was the military leader and Father Guignas was a missionary to the Sioux.
In 1890 it was the site of one of the worst maritime disasters on the Mississippi, known as the Sea Wing disaster when the Sea Wing ferry capsized in a bad storm, killing 98 people.
In 1922, Lake City native Ralph Samuelson invented the sport of water skiing on the lake which. Ever since that date, Lake City is known world wide as "the birthplace of waterskiing" and the city celebrates with a festival called Waterski Days every year on the last weekend in June.
The lighthouse at the entrance to the Lake City Marina is the only working lighthouse on the entire Mississippi River
Read more about this topic: Lake Pepin
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