Orchard Lake is a medium-sized inland lake, 795 acres (3.2 km²). It has a 110 feet (34 m) maximum depth and is in the city of Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, in Michigan, USA. It is the second-largest lake in Oakland County after Cass Lake.
The lake is unusual in that there is a large 35 acre (142,000 m²) island in the middle of the lake, Apple Island. The island was frequently inhabited by local Native Americans before the coming of Western settlers, who later planted an apple orchard on the island, giving rise to the current name of the lake. Apple Island is now abandoned and has been designated a protected wildlife sanctuary. The small Cedar Island is near the western shore.
The campus of the old Michigan Military Academy is on the northeast shore of the lake. The campus is now home to SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary and St. Mary's Preparatory.
Famous quotes containing the words orchard and/or lake:
“Some spring the white man came, built him a house, and made a clearing here, letting in the sun, dried up a farm, piled up the old gray stones in fences, cut down the pines around his dwelling, planted orchard seeds brought from the old country, and persuaded the civil apple-tree to blossom next to the wild pine and the juniper, shedding its perfume in the wilderness. Their old stocks still remain.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)