Detroit Lake is a reservoir

Reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 impounded by the Detroit Dam

Detroit Dam

Detroit Dam was completed in 1953 by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on the North Santiam River between Linn County and Marion County, Oregon, in the Cascades...

 on the North Santiam River

North Santiam River

The North Santiam River is a tributary of the Santiam River in western Oregon in the United States. It drains of the Cascade Range on the eastern side of the Willamette Valley east of Salem....

 46 miles (74 km) southeast of Salem

Salem, Oregon

Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

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The lake is adjacent to Oregon Route 22 near the city of Detroit

Detroit, Oregon

Detroit is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States. It was named for Detroit, Michigan in the 1890s because of the large number of people from Michigan in the community. The population was 262 at the 2000 census...

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This mesotrophic lake stores water for use by the city of Salem and other nearby communities.
Detroit Lake is situated over a historical road bed of the former Oregon Pacific Railroad

Oregon Pacific Railroad (1880-1894)

Oregon Pacific Railroad was a railroad in western Oregon, U.S. from 1880 to 1894, when it was sold to the Oregon Central and Eastern Railroad. A substantial part of the railroad is preserved as Oregon Pacific Railroad Linear Historic District....

. This route was built by Colonel T. Egenton Hogg as a proposed transcontinental railroad

Transcontinental railroad

A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...

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