About Burt Lake

Burt Lake, named after the surveyor, William Austin Burt, is the anchor of the Inland Waterway and the Cheboygan River Watershed.

The lake is a beneficiary of the last glacial age where receeding ice flows helped carve a series of large depressions that are now home to several reknowned lakes and rivers. The most notable of these took its name from one of the men assigned the responsibility of conducting the original government survey including portions of the upper peninsula. William Burt and Henry Mullett performed their initial survey between 1840-1843. The entire region was covered by huge swaths of deciduous conifers including virgin forests of red and white pine. This timber became the lumber that fueled the construction of cities like Chicago and Detroit while creating more wealth and millionaires than all the gold discovered during California's more famous 49er rush.

Burt Lake currently receives the waters of Douglas Lake through the Maple River at Maple Bay, in the lake's north west quadrant near Emmett County. The Sturgeon and Little Sturgeon Rivers provide additional flow after combining at Indian River in the southwest portion of the lake. All told, the lake covers 17.120 acres and runs 10 miles north-to-south and five miles wide. It's 73 feet deep and covers 30 miles of shoreline making it the fifth largest inland lake in Michigan.