Pewaukee Lake

About this Map

For my next mapping adventure, I turned again to southern Wisconsin and the beautiful Kettle Moraine hills and lakes of Waukesha County. This time, the subject was Pewaukee Lake.

Pewaukee Lake stretches for several miles across the county, with a broad eastern basin that narrows considerably toward the deeper western portion of the lake. Detailed bathymetric contours reveal deep holes, steep underwater breaks, broad shallow areas, points, and offshore features. I also spent considerable time mapping beyond the shoreline, adding roads, individual buildings, neighborhoods, parks, wetlands, streams, trails, and other landmarks that help show how this large lake fits into the surrounding Lake Country landscape.

Pewaukee Lake is particularly well known for Musky. Some consider it one of the best Musky lakes in Wisconsin. And yes, I said hunting. You don’t just fish for this top predator.

Wisconsin DNR fisheries information has documented an unusually high density of adult Muskellunge in Pewaukee Lake compared with many other Wisconsin waters. It’s certainly an “action lake” and receives plenty of fishing pressure, but Pewaukee also has a reputation for producing some very large fish. In addition to Wisconsin’s state fish, the lake supports Largemouth Bass and a variety of other game fish.

But this map isn’t just for the fishing, or hunting, enthusiast. There’s a lot going on around the lake, and I wanted the surrounding landscape to be an important part of the finished map. The Village of Pewaukee anchors the eastern end, with Hartland to the northwest and the City of Pewaukee extending around portions of the lake. Among the many landmarks shown are Rocky Point, Western Lakes Golf Club, Pewaukee Lakefront Park, Naga-Waukee Park, Naga-Waukee Golf Course, the Lake Country Trail, public access points, and other familiar places around the shoreline.

There is a lot of information packed into this area, but I think the map’s soft watercolor palette, simple symbols, and understated fonts keep everything from feeling too busy. My goal was to make something detailed enough to explore but still relaxing to look at, no matter what your particular connection to Pewaukee Lake might be.

This map also led to one of the more interesting customization projects I’ve worked on. Jodi Olson of Jodi Olson Realty reached out to me about creating a customized version for guests staying at her Pewaukee Lake vacation rental. She wanted a map that would highlight the guest house along with restaurants, lake features, and other landmarks her guests might encounter while exploring the lake by boat.

With Jodi’s guidance, I added places such as Doc’s Dry Dock, the restaurants of downtown Pewaukee, the public pier and beach, Mugshotz, Curly’s Waterfront Pub & Grill, the Sports Dock, and Sunset Grill. She also helped me identify some of the local names that aren’t necessarily obvious from the usual map sources, including Walk’s Island and Wilson’s Island, also known as “Party Island.” I still feel like there’s probably a story behind that name that I need to know.

She even pointed out parts of the lake that her rental-boat skippers might want to avoid during their perhaps three-hour tour…a three-hour tour. Yes, that’s a Gilligan’s Island reference inserted here for no particularly good reason.

That customization was a good example of something I enjoy about making these maps. Official geographic data can tell me a great deal about a lake, but people who actually live there, fish there, boat there, and spend time there know another layer of geography entirely. Adding some of that local knowledge made the Pewaukee Lake map more interesting and gave me a better understanding of the lake while I was working on it.

Between the bathymetry, Musky fishery, Kettle Moraine setting, parks and trails, increasingly developed shoreline, and all those locally known places around the water, Pewaukee Lake gave me plenty to work with. I think the finished map manages to