Lake Itasca

Lake Itasca ( eye-TASS-kə) is a small glacial lake, approximately 4.7 square kilometres (470 hectares; 1,200 acres) in area. It is located in Itasca State Park, in south-eastern Clearwater County, in the Headwaters area of north-central Minnesota, and is notable for being the headwater of the Mississippi River. It has a range depth of 20 to 35 feet (5 to 10 m) and is 1,475 feet (450 m) above sea level. The Ojibwe name for the lake is Omashkoozo-zaaga'igan (Elk Lake). The first European explorers in the area were French Canadian and they named the lake Lac Labiche (Doe Lake, often mistranslated as Elk Lake). The name was later changed by Henry Schoolcraft to "Itasca", coined from a combination of the dog Latin phrase veritas caput (intended to mean "true head [of the Mississippi]"). It is one of several examples of pseudo-Native American place names created by Schoolcraft.