Jordan Pond
| Jordan Pond | |
|---|---|
 Jordan Pond | |
| Location | Hancock County, Maine |
| Coordinates | 44°19′54.6″N 68°15′18.4″W / 44.331833°N 68.255111°WCoordinates: 44°19′54.6″N 68°15′18.4″W / 44.331833°N 68.255111°W |
| Type | oligotrophic tarn |
| Primary inflows | Deer Brook [1] |
| Primary outflows | Jordan Stream [1] |
| Catchment area | 1.92 sq mi (5.0 km2)[2] |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 1.2 mi (1.9 km) |
| Max. width | 0.4 mi (0.64 km) |
| Surface area | 186 acres (75 ha)[2] |
| Average depth | 84 ft (26 m)[2] |
| Max. depth | 150 ft (46 m)[2] |
| Water volume | 14,097 acre·ft (17,388,000 m3)[2] |
| Residence time | 6 years[2] |
| Surface elevation | 273 ft (83 m)[2] |
| Settlements | Mount Desert |
Jordan Pond is an oligotrophic tarn in Acadia National Park near the town of Bar Harbor, Maine. It covers 187 acres (76 ha), with a maximum depth of 150 feet (46 m) and a shoreline of 3.6 miles (5.8 km).[3][4][5]
The pond was formed by the Wisconsin Ice Sheet during the last glacial period. It is flanked on the west by Penobscot Mountain and to the northeast by the two mountains known as "The Bubbles". The southern end, and outflow, are limited by the natural Jordan Pond moraine, which has been supplemented by a small dam.[3][5][2][6]
The pond has clear water, with visibility normally 46 feet (14 m) and occasions of up to 60 feet (18 m) recorded, the deepest in Maine. It serves as the water supply for the village of Seal Harbor. It does not experience dissolved oxygen depletion in the depths of the lake.
Some types of boating are permitted, but human beings and pets must stay out of the water.[3][7]
Park usage
Park officials estimate that roughly 60 percent of park visitors will visit the pond, primarily the tea-house at the southern end, at some point in their stay. The pond is ringed by a walking trail, from which branch off trails to or over several other park features. One of the park's original carriage trails runs along a ridge adjoining the pond.[3][5]
The Jordan family of Seal Harbor, for whom the pond is named, built a farmhouse near the pond. In the 1870s a restaurant known as the Jordan Pond House was built. Under the management of the McIntires, which ran from 1895 to 1946, the restaurant became a regular location for high society events. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. purchased the restaurant and gave it to the National Park Service. The original building was destroyed by fire in June 1979, and a new building was financed through private fund raising.[8][9] The Jordan Pond House has a gift shop and a restaurant serving lunch and dinner; it is perhaps best known for its service of tea and popovers both on the enclosed veranda and outdoors on the lawn overlooking the pond.[10]
Flora and fauna
Jordan Pond was for a period the type locality for the type specimen for the quillwort species described by Alvah Augustus Eaton and formerly known as Isoetes macróspora var. heteróspora or Isoetes heterospora. It was then thought to be located only in this pond.[11][12] This is now considered to be a synonym for Isoetes lacustris, which is found in both North America and Europe.[13] Four other quillwort species are also found in the lake, along with three species of pondweed, two species each of rushes, bur-reeds, and carnivorous bladderworts, and at least six other species of plants.[14]
Fish species in the lake include landlocked Atlantic salmon, lake trout, brook trout, rainbow smelt, four species of minnow, banded killifish, three-spined stickleback, pumpkinseed sunfish, and the American eel. The landlocked salmon, lake trout, smelt, sticklebacks, and at least one species of minnow are known to have been introduced and/or stocked by humans.[1][15]
External links
- Lake Overview and Data Access compiled and organized by the University of Maine
- Jordan Pond Buoy Project
References
- 1 2 3 "Jordan Pond" (PDF). Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. 1999. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Maine Depts. of Environmental Protection and Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (March 2006). "Maine Lakes: Morphometry and Geographic Information". Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research, The University of Maine. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- 1 2 3 4 Moore, Joshua F. (June 2008). "Acadia's Forgotten Lakes". Down East: the Magazine of Maine: 19.
- ↑ "Watersheds - Ponds". National Park Service. 2000-08-12. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
- 1 2 3 Kandell, Jonathan (May 2008). "Acadia Country". Smithsonian magazine.
- ↑ "Summary of Glacial History". The Geology of Mount Desert Island: A Visitor's Guide to the Geology of Acadia National Park. Maine Department of Conservation, Maine Geological Survey. 2008-01-11. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- ↑ Maine Department of Environmental Protection (March 2006). "Water Quality Summary". Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research, The University of Maine. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- ↑ Balyeat, Steve (2005). "History". Jordan Pond House Restaurant. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
- ↑ "Jordan Pond House Burned". New York Times. 1979-06-22. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
- ↑ http://www.jordanpond.com/
- ↑ Gray, Asa (1908) [1847]. Benjamin Lincoln Robinson and Merritt Lyndon Fernald, ed. Gray's New Manual of Botany: A Handbook of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Central and Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (Seventh edition - Illustrated ed.). New York: American Book Company. p. 59. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- ↑ Underwood, Lucien Marcus (1906). "American Ferns - VI: Species Added to the Flora of the United States From 1900 to 1905". Contributions from the Department of Botany of Columbia University - Vol. 9 Nos. 201-225. Contributions from the Department of Botany of Columbia University - No. 225. New York: Columbia College. p. 204. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
Isoetes Heterospora A. A. Eaton, Fernwort Papers 8. 1900. (Type from Jordan Pond, Mt. Desert Island, Maine, Rand.) Known only from its type locality.
- ↑ "Synonymy - Isoëtes lacustris". Northern Ontario Plant Database. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- ↑ Craig Green et al., College of the Atlantic. "Freshwater Plant Surveys: Mount Desert Island". Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research, The University of Maine. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- ↑ Stone, Jennifer; Le, Bao C; Moring, John R (2001). "Freshwater fishes of Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine". Northeastern Naturalist (2001). Retrieved 2008-07-23.