Cisco Sonar

How Bear Lake was Formed

By Bryce Neilson, Cisco Sonar

When I was flying back from bluefin tuna and shark fishing off Cape Cod, we flew over Bear Lake,  I snapped a picture and later looked at and studied it,  I began to put things together about the history of Bear Lake.

When I first studied Bear Lake over 40 years ago, the literature said that it was 28,000 years old.  Then the United States Geological Service did an intensive study of the lake’s limnology.  They answered many questions about the Lake including the “springs” are methane gas vents, that there are hundreds of undescribed ostracod species, how fast calcium carbonate is being deposited and much more.  They did some deep coring into the bottom of the Lake and reported that it is a minimum of 200,000 years old.  Significant cold and hot climate changes were also observed.  They also reported that during the Pleistocene ( 1.2 M to 18,000 years ago) groundwater came from many glacial cycles the Uintas, and periods when the Bear River flowed into Bear Lake contributed volume of water in the Lake.

As we know the Bear Lake valley is bounded by two large north-south faults.  During the early Pleistocene, when the Bear River flowed into the basin the lake increased to a maximum elevation of 5500 feet, 176 feet higher than the present elevation.  The threshold was at the Nounan Narrows.

Enough science.  What this all means to me is that we live by an extremely old, unique lake.  I watch all the debates about Corp of Engineers permit, beach grooming, man’s impact on the lake and in my mind they are insignificant in a blink of time of this ancient water.  I don’t mean we shouldn’t do everything we can to protect and preserve Bear Lake.  We should stay the course.  Just remember in the back of your mind that Bear Lake will be here in some form thousands of years after were are gone.  If you study the picture carefully and let your mind roam back thousands of year, you may also begin to understand.