Moses Lake is a lake and reservoir along the course of Crab Creek, in Washington state, USA.
Moses Lake is part of the Columbia River basin, as Crab Creek is a tributary of the Columbia River.
Although originally a shallow natural lake, Moses Lake was dammed in the early 20th century for irrigation purposes. It then became part of the Columbia Basin Project, built and managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Moses Lake receives water from Crab Creek, as well as from irrigated agricultural runoff. Its water used to flow out into Crab Creek, but now flows into Potholes Reservoir, a storage reservoir created by the impounding Crab Creek at O'Sullivan Dam.
Moses Lake is fairly complex in shape, with several arms, called "horns". These horns include Lewis Horn, Parker Horn, and Pelican Horn. There are several islands in Moses Lake, including Crest Island, Marsh Island, Gaileys Island, and Goat Island.
Moses Lake was named after Chief Moses in the late 19th century. The city of Moses Lake was, in turn, named after the lake.
Moses Lake was first named Neppel, and not Moses Lake until in the late 20th century.
Famous quotes containing the words moses and/or lake:
“Not since Moses has anyone seen a mountain so greatly.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)
“What a wilderness walk for a man to take alone! None of your half-mile swamps, none of your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for guide-board and station, over ground much of it impassable in summer!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)