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| LAKE IDENTIFICATION AND LOCATION Gray's Lake is located just north of Route 120 in Avon Township and is entirely within the limits of the Village of Grayslake (T45N, R10E, Sections 27 & 34). Gray's Lake is an oval shaped, 80 acre glacial lake with a current maximum depth of 20 feet and an average depth of 5.7 feet and lake volume is approximately 449.8 acre-feet (Lake County Health Department-Lakes Management Unit [LMU] morphometric data) (Figure 1). Gray's Lake is part of the Mill Creek drainage basin, which is part of the Des Plaines River watershed. There is a spillway on the west side of the lake, which controls the drainage from Gray's Lake into Mill Creek, Flow continues northward to Third Lake and eventually into the Des Plaines River. The lake's watershed is relatively small (approximately 230 acres) consisting of storm water drainage from houses surrounding the lake. Watershed land-use is entirely residential, which is a change from past LMU studies that report the watershed still contained some agricultural and forested land. |
| BRIEF HISTORY OF GRAY'S LAKE In C.F. Johnson's 1896 book titled, Angling in the Lakes of Northern Illinois, he includes a brief chapter on Gray's Lake along with a hand drawn illustration of the lake (Figure 2). Johnson's details of the lake are almost nonexistent as he spends most of the chapter on anecdotal stories that have nothing to do with Gray's Lake. Although Johnson's writings are brief he does make note of large areas of rushes that encompassed the lake in addition to several areas of "bass weeds" which were probably large leaf pondweed Potamogeton amplifolius or Illinois pondweed Potamogeton illinoensis. Regretfully, these rush beds have been drastically reduced and now only occupy a small area in the northern part of the lake. However, the "bass weeds' are still present in the form of Illinois Pondweed, which can be found throughout the shallow areas of the lake. The Village of Grayslake and the Grayslake Park District (GLPD) along with the Gray's Lake Lake Management Committee oversee the management of the lake. The GLPD conducts such management activities as park maintenance, fish stocking, and aquatic plant management. The GLPD bought an aquatic weed harvester in 1992. Use was discontinued in 2000 due to the efficacy of herbicide treatments and was sold in 2002. The GLPD has been using aquatic herbicides to control nuisance plant growth since the mid 1970's but not on a regular basis until 1991 when the GLPD started using fluridone to successfully manage nuisance aquatic weeds. This has lead to a balanced native aquatic plant population. |
| SUMMARY OF CURRENT AND HISTORICAL LAKE USES Access to Gray's Lake is open year round to all residents of the Village of Grayslake through several access points around the lake as well as private residences (Figure 3). Bottom ownership is split between the Village, subdivisions and about five dozen private owners. Launching of watercraft by non-residents and non-approved personnel at the access points is prohibited. Recreational opportunities on Gray's Lake have gone unchanged for over 100 years and largely consist of boating (no motors of any kind allowed), swimming, and fishing. The no motor policy is enforced by the Village of Grayslake as it is a Village ordinance. There is an Illinois Department of Public Health licensed bathing beach at Jone's Park, which is monitored for E. coli bacteria levels by the Lake County Health Department on a bimonthly basis from early May through Labor Day. In the past five years, the beach at Jone's Island has only been closed once due to high bacteria levels. Four other access points on the lake offer fishing and boat launching areas but no beaches. There are two access points on the east side of the lake that are private (Grayslake Park and Moore's) and one that is public to Grayslake residents (George Street). On the west side of the lake, there is one access that is public to Grayslake residents (Bluff Street). Additionally, several residents on the lake have private beaches on their property. Wildlife viewing opportunities are limited due to a lack of quality habitat areas as is the case with most residential lakes in Lake County. However, some waterfowl do frequent the lake during certain times of the year (see Limnological Data - Wildlife Assessment). |
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