Garner Lake is a man-made lake, built
in 1959 as the centerpiece of Lakeland Amusement Park, which operated until
1976. All notable lakes in Tennessee are man-made except Reelfoot, which was
created by the major earthquakes of 1811-12. Garner Lake is the largest lake in
Shelby County, TN. The lake area is 240 acres.
Reports of the lake being 300+ acres are based on information which was
misinterpreted from USGS maps (which officially list the lake as "Lakeland
Lake") and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official survey. The number on the
maps, 373, actually designates the area the lake would cover if it were filled
to the top of the dam (a situation we never want to see). Some real estate
listings still show incorrect numbers.
The lake is approximately one mile long and 1/2 mile wide at the
dam. The shoreline is 8.44 miles. Depths range from 50 feet near
the dam, to about 40 feet at mid-lake, to less than one foot in Osprey Cove at
the south end of the lake. The average depth of the
lake is 15 feet.
Garner Lake is fed by Scott's Creek, one of three major creeks
in the City of Lakeland, and by runoff from the watershed. The total watershed
(drainage area) is 777 acres according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The
lake overflows into a continuation of Scott's Creek.
One inch of rain will raise the lake an average of 1.5 inches.
Total annual rainfall is not as important as the timeliness of rain events to
maintaining a "normal" lake level.
It costs about $100 per day, or about
$3000 per month to run the pump. Pumping for a day adds about one-eighth of an inch to the lake level. In
summer this is approximately the typical daily evaporation amount. Winter daily evaporation is less. Factors
like cloud cover and relative humidity contribute to the variability of
evaporation rates.
The lake occasionally freezes over for a brief period. This
seems to be about a once-a-decade event on average. The lake was last frozen
over in late December 2000 and early January 2001. A large portion of the lake froze over in January 2014.
Surface to two-foot depth water temperatures in summertime range in the 80s to around 90.
