Payette Lake

Payette Lake fills a glacial basin at 5,000 feet in the west-central Idaho mountains, named for the fur-trade mapper François Payette; trappers, then miners and loggers worked the country, and the town of McCall grew from a 1900s railroad-and-lumber town into the region’s lake resort. The lake’s shoreline was consolidated in public hands through the state park at the north end, city beaches and the forest shoreline; the lake’s 5.5-mile length and its cold, clear water anchor McCall’s four-season economy, from summer sailing to the winter ice and snow festivals. The lake fills a glacial basin at about 5,000 feet named for fur-trade figure François Payette; trappers, then miners and loggers worked the country, and McCall grew from a 1900s railroad-and-lumber town into the region’s lake resort, with Ponderosa State Park holding much of the northern shoreline and the lake’s clear water anchoring the town’s four-season economy.