The following are the locations and sizes of Maine’s twenty largest lakes. Historical ice out dates for Maine Lakes are one measure of the impact climate change in the state.

See more details for Maine’s sixty largest lakes.

Name	Town	County	Acres	Sq.mi.
Moosehead	Greenville	Piscataquis	74,890	117.02
Sebago	Sebago	Cumberland	28,771	44.95
Chesuncook	T5 R12 WELS	Piscataquis	23,070	36.05
Flagstaff	Flagstaff Twp	Somerset	20,300	31.72
Pemadumcook	T1 R10 WELS	Penobscot	18,300	28.59
Spednic	Vanceboro	Washington	17,219	26.90
Mooselookmeguntik	Richardson Twp	Franklin	14,101	25.47
Grand Lake (east)	Forest City TWP	Aroostook	16,070	25.11
Grand Lake (west)	T5 ND BPP	Washington	14,340	22.41
Chamberlain	T7 R12 WELS	Piscataquis	11,084	17.32
Big Lake*	Grand Lake Stream	Washington	10,305	16.10
Brassua	Rockwood Strip E.	Somerset	8,979	14.03
Millinocket	T1 R8 WELS	Penobscot	8,960	14.00
Eagle Lake (big)	Eagle Lake	Piscataquis	8,288	12.95
Great Pond	Belgrade	Kennebec	8,239	12.87
Square Lake	T16 R5 WELS	Aroostook	8,150	12.73
Graham	Mariaville	Hancock	7,865	12.29
Umbagog	Magalloway Plt.	Oxford	7,850	12.27
Schoodic	Lake View Plt.	Piscataquis	7,168	11.20
Richardson Lakes	Richardsontown	Oxford	7,100	11.09

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*see Indian Township, which shares the lake with Grand Lake Stream

Lakes or Ponds?

According to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection,

About half of the 6,000 lakes and ponds that have been assigned a state identification number have been named, many having two or three names. At least thirty have one name with the word lake in it and the other with the word pond. For example, Bryant Pond is also known as Lake Christopher and Dexter Pond sports the name Wassookeag Lake! It is often these dual names that make folks wonder exactly where do we draw the line in Maine?

One classic distinction is that sunlight penetrates to the bottom of all areas of a pond in contrast to lakes, which have deep waters that receive no sunlight at all. Another is that ponds generally have small surface areas and lakes have large surfaces. So a combination of surface area and depth are considered from a technical perspective.

No clear line exists between lakes and ponds. However, Maine law defines lakes and ponds greater than ten acres in size as Great Ponds.

Additional resources

Maine Department of Environmental Protection. “Lake or Pond???” http://www.maine.gov/dep/water/lakes/lkepond.html (accessed June 29, 2915)