Louisiana’s Deepest Lake Might Shock and Surprise You

Whether you love to fish or pull your camper up to a lake in Louisiana to just take in the sights you have plenty of lakes to choose from.

As you gaze out at the beautiful water at any of the wonderful lakes in our state, you are going to wonder exactly how far down this lake goes.

If someone asked, "Which lake in Louisiana is the deepest" you may immediately respond that it's Toledo Bend, but is that correct?

Would Lake Pontchartrain be one of the guesses, or would you guess a lake in central Louisiana?

Grand Lake, How Deep Is It?

Grand Lake in Cameron Parish is impressive-looking on a map, taking up over 42,000 acres.

Did you know that Grand Lake is only about 8 miles across? Another interesting bit of information is that Grand Lake sits about 12 feet above sea level.

As far as depth, While its name is grand its depth is not. Grand Lake, at its deepest, is around 15 feet.

Toledo Bend, Is This Louisiana's Deepest Lake?

Did you know that Toledo Bend is the 5th-largest man-made lake in the country? According to officials, Toledo Bend is one of the lakes in America that is very lard.

As far as the details of Toledo Bend is 10 miles across. The length of Toledo Bend is six times larger than it's width coming in at a whopping 65 miles wide.

In our quest thought we are tying to answer the question of which lake is the deepest, and Toledo Bend is not in the number one spot!

It's estimated that Toledo Bend is only around 24 feet deep and that's not the deepest in our state.

Sabine Lake, Is This The Lake That Can Claim The Title Of Deepest Lake?

If you are familiar with the Sabine River and Louisiana's border with Texas then you likely know all about the Sabine River. If you know about Sabine River, you likely know about Sabine Lake, but is it the biggest in the state of Louisiana?

When you look at Sabine Lake, this beautiful lake surely is a contender for being the deepest possible, but it falls short. Sabine Lake is only about 10 feet deep which is pretty short of the record.

The lake may not be the deepest but it's home to beautiful wildlife.

Calcasieu Lake Is Beautiful, But How Deep Does It Go? 

Not all that far from the Sabine Lake is Calcasieu Lake. This lake is a beautiful area that actually boasts 76 square miles of space! You'll have plenty of space to spread out

If you are not as familiar with Calcasieu Lake it's close to the Lake Charles area. But, how deep is the water in Calcasieu Lake? Not very deep at all.

The average depth for the Calcasieu Lake only comes it around 3.3 feet!

Lake Pontchartrain Is Great For Fishing, But How Deep Is It?

Could the deepest Lake be Lake Pontchartrain? Anyone who has ever traveled the Bonne Carret spillway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans might automatically assume it's the deepest.

Lake Pontchartrain is a big lake. There is plenty of space in Lake Pontchartrain for you not to bump into others when you are on the lake. It's 40 miles in length and 25 miles wide.

Lake Pontchartrain is deep, but not our winner. The Pontchartrain can go from 12 to 14 feet in some areas, but it can get as deep as 65 feet.

So, at 65 feet at its deepest, this makes Lake Pontchartrain Louisiana's SECOND DEEPEST lake.

So, what is the deepest lake in Louisiana? First, let's take a little history lesson.

The deepest lake in Louisiana wasn't always Louisiana's deepest lake. At one time, it was "just another lake", until one fateful day in 1980.

That gave it away, didn't it?

The Lake With the Deepest Depth Is In Iberia Parish

On November 20th, 1980, Delcambre's Lake Peigneur was the location of a drilling rig incident that would forever change the landscape of that lake.

If you recall, a Texaco oil rig was doing some exploratory drilling in Lake Peigneur, looking for oil.

The oil company was using a technique called "directional drilling", which allows them the option of drilling at an angle, not just straight down from the oil rig.

Under Lake Peigneur, though, there was more than just oil; there was salt.

A salt mine had been pulling salt out of caverns below Lake Peigneur since 1919 and, for reasons still (claimed to be) a mystery today, one of the caverns was pierced, eventually sending a cascade of water into the salt mine.

Luckily, no lives were lost in the tragedy, but the resulting sinkhole swallowed up acres of land, several barges, one tug boat, and the drilling platform itself.

Several documentaries about the tragedy have been produced and they give a pretty good idea of the dangers the salt miners were faced with on that day.

As a result of the incident, Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish went from a maximum depth of around 10 feet to its current maximum depth of about 200 feet, making it Louisiana's deepest lake.