platte lake, photo by johnhoneyman.

John has some more beautiful photos of Northern Michigan and he’s thankfully uploaded them large enough to make great backgrounds for your computer!

The Platte River entry on Wikipedia gives you a pretty confusing look at the river’s watershed, so let’s turn to the Platte Lake Improvement Association which says that Big Platte Lake is located in Benzie County near the Village of Honor in northwest lower Michigan. It is approximately 3.3 miles long and 1.6 miles wide, covers approximately 2550 acres, has a maximum depth of 95 feet and an average depth of 24 feet. The primary source of water for Platte Lake is the inflow from the Upper Platte River. With an average inflow of about 4 million gallons per hour, water in the lake has a “residence time” of just 6 months – quite a bit faster than the 10 years most other lakes in the area average.

The site also includes a link to a 1901 article on from The Amateur Sportsman describing the fishing in the lake at the turn of the last century (pdf). I’m told that it’s still pretty darn good!

I’ve added Platte Lake to our Absolute Michigan map of Michigan.