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Great Sacandaga Lake ( formerly the Sacandaga Reservoir) is one of the large lakes within the Adirondack State Park in northern New York in the USA. The area of the water surface is about 35 square miles (91 km²), and the length is about 29 miles (47 km). The word Sacandaga means drowned land in the local native language and originally referred to a swamp now part of the southern end of the lake.
The lake is located in the northern parts of Fulton County and Saratoga County near the south border of the Adirondack State Park. The broader, south end of the lake is northeast of the City of Johnstown and the City of Gloverville.
Like many of the other lakes in the Adirondack region of northern New York, Great Sacandaga Lake is, in part, artificial. The lake was greatly increased in dimensions by a dams on the Sacandaga River at the northeast end of the lake completed around 1930 in order to control flooding on the Hudson River and the Sacandaga River.
Proposals to dam the Sacandaga River had been passed over for decades until several large floods around the beginning of the 20th Century instigated serious planning to resolve the problem. The major dam was constructed at Conklinville in the Town of Edinburg. Land speculation flourished as the plan to control the river and flood a large expanse of land leaked out. Many people chose to remove houses and buildings to new sites outside of the flood zone. Anything left behind as the dam neared completion was burned. The new body of water was called a reservoir for many years, but after the middle of the 20th Century, the term "lake" became preferred.
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