In a random poll of Pennsylvania Facebook users, a list of favored waters developed from response to the questions: Which lake in Pennsylvania do you think is the most beautiful? Why? Some lakes received a single mention, while others were echoed again and again.

Here’s the list of Pennsylvania’s most beautiful lakes. Have we missed your favorite? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Compiled by Marcus Schneck

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Black Moshannon Lake

The name of 250-acre Black Moshannon Lake in the state park by the same name near Philipsburg in Centre County derives its name from its tea-colored waters. The water takes on that color as it flows from springs and small streams through sphagnum moss and other wetland plants before entering the lake, becoming colored by plant tannins on the way.

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Bruce Lake

Bruce Lake is a small, untouched lake in the wilds of the Bruce Lake Natural Area near Promised Land State Park in Pike County. The boulder-strewn lake is accessible only on foot.

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Lake Carey

Lake Carey in Wyoming County is a sleepy shoreline village of cottages around a 262-acre lake. The village was born in 1874, when the narrow-gauge Montrose Railroad began service to a glacial lake that was then known as Marcy’s Pond. The community was struck by a tornado just after 10 p.m. June 2, 1998, killing two people, destroying homes, dropping trees and blocking all roads leading in or out.

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Conneaut Lake

Conneaut Lake in Crawford County is the most developed of the lakes on our list, with a resort community and amusement park on its shoreline. The 947-acre lake was formed as a kettle lake at the end of the last Ice Age, when a large block of ice broke from the receding glacier and was surrounded by accumulating sediment. When the ice melted it left a depression that filled with water. The lake discharges into Conneaut Outlet, which through the Conneaut Marsh into French Creek, making it part of the Mississippi River drainage.

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Cowans Gap Lake

Cowans Gap Lake is a 42-acre lake at the center of the state park by the same name in Allens Valley of Fulton County. The lake is surrounded by a nice mix of heavily used, developed shoreline and wild forest.

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Eagles Mere Lake

Eagles Mere Lake, which in winters with good freezing weather forms the landing strip for the famed Sullivan County toboggan slide, is a 114-acre, spring-fed lake at the remote, historic town of the same name. The lake was the reason for the founding of the town in 1794 by George Lewis, who bought 10,000 acres of the Pennsylvania wilderness to start a glasswork using sand from the lake.

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Lake Erie

At more than 9.900 square miles and an average depth of 62 feet, Lake Erie is the fourth largest and shallowest of the five Great Lakes. Pennsylvania has the least Erie shoreline of the three states and one Canadian province that share the lake, but the Keystone State’s frontage includes the unique Presque Isle, beautiful beaches and cliffs.

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Harveys Lake

Harveys Lake in the Luzerne County borough by the same name is by volume the largest natural lake entirely in Pennsylvania. Both are named for Benjamin Harvey, a member of the Sons of Liberty, who settled the site in 1781. The lake was once known for its introduced lake trout population, which folklore falsely held were introduced when a kid tipped a can of minnows into the lake.

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Lake Lacawac

Lake Lacawac is a 52-acre, glacial lake preserved in almost pristine condition as the heart of Lacawac Sanctuary, a 550-acre nature center, environmental education center and field station in Wayne County. The lake was declared a national natural landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1966. An “Adirondack Great Camp” built as a summer residence and hunting lodge in 1903 is listed on the National Historic Register.

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Michael P. Gadomski

Lehigh Pond

The least visited lake on our list is tiny, 5-acre Lehigh Pond, which rests away from any primary trails or roads in State Game Lands 312 in Wayne County. It’s a ladle-shaped depression just off the Lehigh River in the middle of wild space. The lake is nearly surrounded by a boreal bog forest.

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Long Pine Run Reservoir

Long Pine Run Reservoir is a 52-acre lake with three miles of hardwood and pine-lined shoreline in Michaux State Forest. There are no picnic or restroom facilities at the lake, and that tends to hold down the number of people on and at the lake most of the time.

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Mauch Chunk Lake

Located near Jim Thorpe in Carbon County, Mauch Chunk Lake is a 330-acre, pastoral impoundment within Mauch Chunk Lake Park. The lake was completed as a flood-control project in 1972, just a month before Hurricane Agnes devastated much of Pennsylvania. Jim Thorpe was sparred flooding by the impoundment.

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File Photo

Lake Nockamixon

Tohickon Creek, Three Mile Run and Haycock Run feed the 1,450-acre Lake Nockamixon in the 5,286-acre state park by the same name in the rolling hills of Bucks County. It’s an active recreation lake, with craft ranging from kayaks and inflatables to sailboats and catamarans to motorboats, but a majority of the lakeside is undeveloped beyond equestrian and hiking trails.

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Raystown Lake

Raystown Lake is an 8,300-acre, winding, manmade reservoir in Huntingdon County, formed by the damming of the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River in 1973 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is surrounded by scenic hills and forests. One commenter noted that the like is “beautiful on quiet days, when not overrun by crazy speedboats with no purposed other than burning gas.

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Michael P. Gadomski

Rock Hill Pond

Rock Hill Pond rests among many more famous and heavily used lakes and ponds in Pike County. However, the 15-acre body of water offers remote, wild shorelines unmatched by most others. The lake is nearly surrounded by a boreal bog forest.

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Your suggestions?

That’s our list of Pennsylvania’s most beautiful lakes, best on responses to our Facebook poll. Have we missed your favorite? Tell us about it in the comments below.