| Lake Nicolet | |
|---|---|
| Lac Nicolet (French) | |
 Lake Nicolet seen from Gosford street, nearSaints-Martyrs-Canadiens | |
  Lake Nicolet | |
| Location | Canada,Quebec,Centre-du-Québec,Arthabaska Regional County Municipality |
| Coordinates | 45°49′48″N71°33′37″W / 45.83°N 71.56028°W /45.83; -71.56028 |
| Primary outflows | Nicolet River |
| Catchment area | 9.4 kilometres (5.84 mi) |
| Max. length | 5.1 kilometres (3.2 mi) |
| Max. width | 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi) |
| Surface area | 4.1 kilometres (2.55 mi) |
| Average depth | 17 metres (56 ft) |
| Max. depth | 41 metres (135 ft) |
| Surface elevation | 350 metres (1,150 ft) |
| Frozen | Mid December to end of April |
| Islands | Boulanger, Linke, L'Heureux, Baril, Michel-Rheault, Rolland. |
Note: not to be confused with another "Lake Nicolet", inMichigan (USA), on theSt. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario) which linksLake Superior withLake Huron.
Lake Nicolet (in French: lac Nicolet) is located 50 km south ofVictoriaville, in the municipality ofSaints-Martyrs-Canadiens, inArthabaska Regional County Municipality (MRC), in administrative region ofCentre-du-Québec, Canada.
Lake Nicolet is the source of theNicolet River which flows 137 kilometres (85 mi) to the southeast shore oflake Saint-Pierre, inNicolet. The latest is crossed through the North-East by theSt. Lawrence River.
This lake is surrounded by Chemin du Lac-Nicolet (north-west side) and Chemin Gosford-Sud (south-east side).
The lake takes its name fromJean Nicolet (1598 - 1642), a French explorer at the time ofNew France who is known to have been the first European to explore Lake Michigan.
Lake Nicolet is 5.1 kilometres (3.2 mi) long and 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi) wide, resembling a misshapen crescent surrounded by mountains. It has seven islands: Boulanger, Baril, Linke, L'Heureux, à Michel-Rheault, Rolland and a little unnamed island. The main mountain peaks around the lake are: Brûlé Mountain (500 metres (1,600 ft)) at 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) on the south side of the bay leading to the mouth of the lake; a 419 metres (1,375 ft) vertex on the west side and another on the southeast side (492 metres (1,614 ft)). This lake has a hundred chalets all around.[1]
The toponym "Lac Nicolet" was made official on December 5, 1968, at theCommission de toponymie du Québec.[2]
Features extracted from the map geographic, database and site instrumentation