However, according to Place Names of Ontario by Alan Rayburn, Scugog is a Mississauga word meaning 'waves leap over a canoe' in reference, perhaps, to the flooding of the river valley, or, more likely, the quickness that waves can be whipped up in winds, owing to its shallowness.

[citation needed] It is also the shallowest, alongside Mitchell Lake It is fed by the Blackstock and Cawkers Creeks and the Nonquon River, as well as by many small unnamed tributaries.

Originally, it was essentially two lakes connected via a broad channel flowing through a marshy area along the north end.

[6] No charges were laid due to the general anger towards the water height by residents, and because of a deal reached between Purdy and the Board of Works of the Province of Canada, on December 18, 1843.

Mr. Purdy was forced to lower the elevation to something approximating its natural maximum spring high-water level, a reduction in the height of the previous dam by about three feet.

The Board of Works constructed the dam and a lock for navigation into Lake Scugog, which was completed in 1844 and included a log flume.

[8] The marshes of the lake prior to flooding were filled with wild rice stands and cranberries harvested by the native Mississaugas.

[9] Like many of the lakes of southern Ontario, Scugog served for a time as a vessel for transporting logs downstream to Trenton in the early nineteenth century.