Hi Kent. Just googling around, it looks like surface area, and enough depth to have 'thermal properties' are the factors that go into whether a body of water gets labeled a lake. Even though I read it less than 20 minutes ago, I have alread forgotten what the thermal bit is about. Enough depth to have thermal gradients perhaps? It also looks like most people who classify these things, consider 5 acres to be the minimum surface area for a body of water to be called a a lake instead of a pond. However, I did not stumble into anything that indicated there is a set, formal criteria to apply to determine if a natural body of water is a lake or a pond.

I used to visit Core Arboretum regularly during the years I worked in Morgantown. I don't remember the ox-bow, but that was at least 25 years ago, and my interests and attention were generally firmly focused on the herbaceous plants. (Oh, the spring ephemerals that grew there!) I have never done more than driven through the Eastern Panhandle. I know of the Trout Pond, but never visited there. Never visited Williamstown either.

Daggum! This and the Appalachia thread are making me homesick!)

Janie