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characteristics.
characteristics.
:Even if you are correct, the word lake is commonly used for salty lakes and reservoirs, so this wording is needed to avoid confusion. And I'm not convinced you are correct. Sometimes the word "lake" is defined as you say, sometimes not. Wikipedia's [[lake]] page's first sentence says they can be fresh or salty. Since this page links to [[lake]] right in the sentence claiming it is the largest in the west it would be confusing to not specifically exclude salty lakes from the claim. And anyway, the distinction between natural vs. reservoir, and fresh vs. salty is not always clear cut. Kerr Dam raised Flathead Lake ten feet. How large was it before the dam? Was it smaller than [[Pyramid Lake (Nevada)]] (188 sq mi). And does Pyramid Lake, which is brackish, count as a freshwater "lake" or a salty "sea"? In short there is no single, strictly defined, universally accepted definition of "lake". Also, I changed the claim to say "west of the Mississippi" instead of "in the western United States", since the latter is vague and may or may not include larger lakes like [[Mille Lacs Lake]]. I don't know what to make of [[Red Lake (Minnesota)]], which is much larger than Flathead Lake (427 sq mi according to nationalatlas.gov [http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/mapping/a_general.html#ten]) and neither east nor west of the Mississippi (it is due north of the Mississippi's headwaters). Then there is the [[Lake of the Woods]]. Even if you only count the part of it that is in the United States it is still larger than Flathead Lake (the US portion is about 535 sq mi by my calculation). [[User:Pfly|Pfly]] ([[User talk:Pfly|talk]]) 06:40, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
:Even if you are correct, the word lake is commonly used for salty lakes and reservoirs, so this wording is needed to avoid confusion. And I'm not convinced you are correct. Sometimes the word "lake" is defined as you say, sometimes not. Wikipedia's [[lake]] page's first sentence says they can be fresh or salty. Since this page links to [[lake]] right in the sentence claiming it is the largest in the west it would be confusing to not specifically exclude salty lakes from the claim. And anyway, the distinction between natural vs. reservoir, and fresh vs. salty is not always clear cut. Kerr Dam raised Flathead Lake ten feet. How large was it before the dam? Was it smaller than [[Pyramid Lake (Nevada)]] (188 sq mi). And does Pyramid Lake, which is brackish, count as a freshwater "lake" or a salty "sea"? In short there is no single, strictly defined, universally accepted definition of "lake". Also, I changed the claim to say "west of the Mississippi" instead of "in the western United States", since the latter is vague and may or may not include larger lakes like [[Mille Lacs Lake]]. I don't know what to make of [[Red Lake (Minnesota)]], which is much larger than Flathead Lake (427 sq mi according to nationalatlas.gov [http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/mapping/a_general.html#ten]) and neither east nor west of the Mississippi (it is due north of the Mississippi's headwaters). Then there is the [[Lake of the Woods]]. Even if you only count the part of it that is in the United States it is still larger than Flathead Lake (the US portion is about 535 sq mi by my calculation). [[User:Pfly|Pfly]] ([[User talk:Pfly|talk]]) 06:40, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

A reservoir is not a lake. It's a reservoir. A salt lake is an inland sea, such as the Caspian SEA and Aral SEA, hence their names. The ancient Bonneville Sea (aka Bonneville 'lake' is the origin of the so-called Great Salt Lake, which is really an inland sea. We need to be using terminology routinely applied in geography and geology, not
wishy washy. "largest natural freshwater lake" is grossly tautological. Flathead Lake is the largest lake west of the Mississippi River, both before and after the
existence of Kerr Dam. Your (Pfly) arguments are invalid.


== Valley not formed by glacial damming! ==
== Valley not formed by glacial damming! ==

Revision as of 19:23, 13 September 2013

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Needs citations/sources

Everything after the introduction reads like either self research or plagiarized from a source that is not cited. Cartras (talk) 21:45, 3 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The second paragraph of the History section is taken directly from the following PNAS article. http://www.pnas.org/content/108/3/1070.full I suggest that, at the very least, it must be edited to credit the source. Personally, I think it should be rewritten. Cite Your Source (talk) 03:53, 23 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Flathead name

I read somewhere that the name of the Flathead lake came from the fact that it has a flat head, as in the head of the lake, being a filled in marsh, is amazingly flat. I don't remember what book this was in however (but it is in the Kalispell or Columbia Falls library). Jrincayc 03:42, 25 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd always assumed it came from the Flathead Indians.

misinformation

Flathead Lake is not the largest natural freshwater lake in the western united states. That would be Lake Iliamna in Alaska, a natural lake that covers 1000 square miles and is 900 feet deep. I'm not sure that Flathead Lake is even in the top four. I know that Becharof and Lake Clark are also larger.

Lake Tahoe is not larger than Flathead Lake; Flathead is almost 200 square miles and is almost 30 miles long. Flathead/Salish is the largest lake in the contiguous United States west of the Mississippi River.

Remove cleanup tag?

I feel that we could probably remove the cleanup tag from this article. It reads fairly well, and I didn't see any glaring errors in spelling, syntax or grammar. But, this is the first I've seen it, so I didn't want to be presumptious. CharacterZero | Speak 17:42, 19 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the cleanup tag (after adding an infobox). I don't know what the rationale was for a cleanup in the first place. Unless the reasons for cleanup are obvious (poor grammar, missing information, and so on), someone putting a cleanup tag on an article should explain why on the talk page. Otherwise, it makes it difficult for future editors to figure out what needs to be added or changed. --Elkman - (talk) 16:20, 1 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Flathead Lake Monster

I reverted an edit that claimed there was rumors of a lake monster in Flathead Lake...well, it's probably good for tourism, but not much facuality to this aside from mentioning it's rumoured. I suppose we could put that back in, but we need to cite it and all I could find was this that was of much use.--MONGO 07:24, 27 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Redundancy

The awkward wording "Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake" is tautological. A reservoir is not a lake because it is not natural. The Great Salt Lake is an inland sea, not a lake. And so, bodies of water like Fort Peck Reservoir and the 'lakes' on other dammed sections of the Missouri, Snake, Colorado, etc. rivers in the Western US are not true lakes, nor is the Great Salt 'Lake.' Flathead/Salish Lake is the largest lake in the western US, plain and simple. No need to qualify it as natural or freshwater, because the definition of a lake already includes these characteristics.

Even if you are correct, the word lake is commonly used for salty lakes and reservoirs, so this wording is needed to avoid confusion. And I'm not convinced you are correct. Sometimes the word "lake" is defined as you say, sometimes not. Wikipedia's lake page's first sentence says they can be fresh or salty. Since this page links to lake right in the sentence claiming it is the largest in the west it would be confusing to not specifically exclude salty lakes from the claim. And anyway, the distinction between natural vs. reservoir, and fresh vs. salty is not always clear cut. Kerr Dam raised Flathead Lake ten feet. How large was it before the dam? Was it smaller than Pyramid Lake (Nevada) (188 sq mi). And does Pyramid Lake, which is brackish, count as a freshwater "lake" or a salty "sea"? In short there is no single, strictly defined, universally accepted definition of "lake". Also, I changed the claim to say "west of the Mississippi" instead of "in the western United States", since the latter is vague and may or may not include larger lakes like Mille Lacs Lake. I don't know what to make of Red Lake (Minnesota), which is much larger than Flathead Lake (427 sq mi according to nationalatlas.gov [1]) and neither east nor west of the Mississippi (it is due north of the Mississippi's headwaters). Then there is the Lake of the Woods. Even if you only count the part of it that is in the United States it is still larger than Flathead Lake (the US portion is about 535 sq mi by my calculation). Pfly (talk) 06:40, 10 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A reservoir is not a lake. It's a reservoir. A salt lake is an inland sea, such as the Caspian SEA and Aral SEA, hence their names. The ancient Bonneville Sea (aka Bonneville 'lake' is the origin of the so-called Great Salt Lake, which is really an inland sea. We need to be using terminology routinely applied in geography and geology, not wishy washy. "largest natural freshwater lake" is grossly tautological. Flathead Lake is the largest lake west of the Mississippi River, both before and after the existence of Kerr Dam. Your (Pfly) arguments are invalid.

Valley not formed by glacial damming!

The Flathead Valley was not formed by glacial damming nor by the glacial lake that once filled the Mission Valley. It existed before the lake formed (which is why the lake filled it). It does have geologic features that are the result of the lake such as lake sediments, moraines, and glacial erratics.

-- J. Wong (talk) 05:50, 3 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]