Lake Mary & Elizabeth

About this Map

This carefully drawn, artful map brings together Lake Elizabeth and Lake Mary, the two waters at the heart of the Twin Lakes community in western Kenosha County. Larger Lake Elizabeth, at approximately 725 acres, stretches southward in a long, irregular basin with broad open water, bays, points, and extensive shallow areas near its southern end. Lake Mary, at approximately 327 acres, has a more compact elongated form and an especially intricate underwater landscape. Detailed bathymetric contours reveal distinct deep basins, steep breaks, submerged points, and shelves in both lakes, with depths reaching approximately 32 feet in Lake Elizabeth and 44 feet in Lake Mary.

The Village of Twin Lakes is woven directly around the lakes, with a dense network of streets, homes, businesses, parks, and shoreline neighborhoods occupying much of the surrounding landscape. Lance Park and its beach lie along the northern shore of Lake Mary, while Legion Park, Mueller Park, West Side Park, and other community spaces appear elsewhere around the lakes. Multiple boat launches and shoreline access points illustrate the importance of both lakes to local recreation, while the detailed rendering of individual buildings gives the map a particularly strong sense of the community surrounding the water.

The southern end of Lake Elizabeth provides a striking contrast to the more developed northern shoreline. Here the lake breaks into islands, narrow channels, wetlands, and marshy waters near the Lake Elizabeth Nature Preserve, with the Wisconsin-Illinois state line crossing the landscape immediately to the south. Farther north, wetlands and smaller ponds occupy the landscape west of the lakes, while open countryside appears beyond the village to the east. Together, the two lakes, intricate bathymetry, parks, neighborhoods, wetlands, and village landscape make this map a detailed portrait not simply of Lake Elizabeth and Lake Mary, but of the Twin Lakes community that has grown around them.

Lake Mary also has a wonderful connection to music and Wisconsin place-name history. Over the years the smaller of the Twin Lakes has been known as Mary Lake, North Twin Lake, Marie Lake, and Lake Marie, although the Wisconsin Geographic Names Council formally affirmed Lake Mary as its official name in August 1980. Singer-songwriter John Prine famously called it Lake Marie in his song of the same name. As a longtime Prine fan, I couldn't resist paying a small homage to him in this map. Look closely near the southern end of Lake Elizabeth and you'll find the words “Standing by peaceful waters,” a quiet cartographic nod to the late, great John Prine.