Lambert Lake

and the family it's named for

A ring-shaped lake with an island in the middle, in what is now Vadnais Heights, Minnesota. In 1849 Abraham Lambert bought the island from the United States. This is his family's story, from a farm across the river from Quebec in the 1640s to the creek that still runs where the lake used to be.

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The Story

Maps from 1856 to today, period paintings and the family's own records: Eustache crossing the ocean, Abraham's four-year journey west, the island, and the lake slowly drained. Ends with every map of the lake to explore yourself.

Read the story →
A bedtime series in six episodes

Listen

Six radio episodes, about thirteen minutes each, with voices, sound and music. The map, paintings and seasons move with the narrator, so you can watch along or just listen.

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For young explorers

For Kids

Big pictures, short words, a ship, a canoe, steamboats and squeaky ox carts, a folding chair, and the island in the ring-shaped lake. Can you find it when you walk by the creek?

Start the adventure →

Facts come from land patents, parish registers, county histories and old maps, listed in the story's sources. Where the record is silent, the story says so, and imagined scenes are told as imagined.