History

Lake Restoration Program

Between 1983 and 1985 ENTRANCO, an engineering firm studied and restored Pattison Lake and Hicks Lake. The final report was published January 1987. During that timeframe, aluminum sulfate (alum) was applied to the lake to make the water more clear. The extensive report resides in a state office.

Between 1987 and 1992, North Pattison Lake had a Lake Management District. The South basin opted not to be involved.

Pattison Lake and Area Lake Treatment Plans

Pattison Lake Management District is in place and work will begin in 2024. See the county website for details.

Two lakes in our lake water quality system have formed Lake Management Districts (LMD). Other lakes in our region have LMDs or a Special use District (SUD). The LMD and SUD are the two options to manage a lake. 

From 1987 to 1992, North Pattison Lake (the South basin declined to participate) operated a Lake Management District to remove submerged aquatic plans from the lake by a mechanical harvester. The LMD also called for regular water quality testing, and it published a newsletter.

Long Lake has had a Lake Management District for about 35 years. Initially it was to treat the noxious and invasive weed, Eurasian watermilfoil. The LMD continues to operate today.

Hicks Lake has a Lake Management District with the City of Lacey to treat and remove noxious float-leaved plants (overgrown nonnative waterlilies), native nuisance submersed plants (common water-nymph, and noxious emergent plants (Japanese knotweed, reed canarygrass and yellow flag iris).

Also in our region, for about 35 years the Lawrence Lake LMD has operated to improve native nuisance-weed control practices including mechanical harvesting and herbicide treatments. They also monitor and control noxious weeds.

Black Lake has a Special Use District (SUD) to non-native fragrant waterlily and yellow iris, plus the submersed water nymph. (Hand-pulling by residents was not sufficient to reduce nuisance plant growth throughout the summer recreational season. Eurasian watermilfoil has been aggressively managed since 2006 and satellite populations around the lake are regularly removed.

Offut Lake is in the process of forming a Lake Management District in 2022; it should be finalized in 2023 to begin in 2024.

Remembering the History of Pattison Lake

Pattison or Patterson?

While the lake was always called Pattison Lake, in the 1850s the lake was misspelled to Patterson on a map, so people continued to call it Patterson Lake. The inconsistency was addressed by a descendant of one of the original settlers, Deloris Downing, who came forward in 1978 to officially ask the United States Board on Geographic Names to recognize the name as Pattison Lake. 

The Pattison brothers and their families at one time owned about 2,000 acres on the shores of Pattison Lake. “Two of the brothers, William and James, helped in the building of the stockade . . . in the spring of 1855. Eight families occupied the stockade that summer of 1855, and the oak tree that marked the Pattison Lake section was still standing when we visited there some years ago,” according to a letter by Melville Pattison, written in December 1978.

Resorts on Pattison Lake

In the 1920s – 1930s, there were several resorts on Pattison Lake. There was Mullens Resort, a dance hall and skating rink on the lake. Some historical photos of the lake can be found at the Lacey Museum.