When I was asked to be the speaker for the Lake Wicwas Association annual meeting, my first thought was how about many people have told me this lake is "a gem". That got me wondering just why it's such a gem - what makes this particular lake so special. So I spent the week looking at the many aspects of how Lake Wicwas became the gem it is today, and I decided that's what I would present: how this gem came to be. The presentation was recorded, and I'll post it on the journal when it's available. But for now, here's a link to the charts and a short summary of the discussion.
Formation of a Gem - A Natural Tour of Lake Wicwas
I began with a story of how the lake was formed during and immediately following the most recent ice age in North America. 
Before the beavers came and did their work, Wicwas may have just been a muddy swamp with a stream running along the present northern bank.
But as beavers dammed the stream up, a lake began to take shape. It likely remained smaller than today for the 12,000 years the Native Americans lived here before the Europeans arrived and started building mills on beaver dams to power gristmills. As the need for larger and more powerful mills arose, they raised and reinforced these dams for greater water storage. The first mills in all of Meredith were right next door to where we were sitting in Meredith Center; the original stone mill foundations, and even a newer water turbine, can still be seen in the Mill Brook where it crosses under Meredith Center Road.
The dam at the outlet of Wicwas was raised to store more water so it could be released all year long to power mills throughout the year. As the need for better roads arose, the dam was built up again to keep the road over the dam from flooding, though Meredith Center Road does still flood during major rain events. This final improvement brought the lake to its current size and depth, though beavers continue to provide critical benefits including water filtering, erosion control, water storage, and flood control.
A gem has many facets. The remainder of the presentation showed some of the many perspectives of the lake - there are so many different ways people appreciate our gem: peaceful reflection, recreation, social connections, and family heritage spanning generations.
