On the northeastern shore lies Lake Wissota State Park, popular with campers, hikers, swimmers, and anglers.

One of the film's main protagonists, Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), states that he and his father would go ice fishing on Lake Wissota.

[3] The lake was formed by the construction of the Wissota Hydroelectric Dam on the Chippewa River, completed in 1917.

An engineer on the project, Louis G. Arnold, named the lake by combining the beginning of "Wisconsin" and the ending of "Minnesota".

The dam is now owned and operated by Xcel Energy, and is capable of producing 36 megawatts.