Goose Lake lies in a landscape shaped by the last glacier about 15,000 years ago, when long streamlined hills called drumlins were formed, with a field of 40 drumlins pointing southwest visible from high points in the area. In the low areas between the drumlins, marshes, bogs, and lakes formed centuries ago. A bog is a wetland where cold, acidic water causes dead vegetation to decompose very slowly, building thick layers of peat over hundreds of years. Tamarack trees, like those found here, take root in the peat; they are unusual conifers because they are not evergreen, turning bright yellow in fall and losing all their needles in late autumn. Tamaracks and other bog plants came with the glaciers, possibly growing on top of the ice, and remained in the low pockets after the glaciers melted. Many wetlands in the area were later drained for crop cultivation, but farmers abandoned the fields after finding the low ground prone to flooding and summer frosts. Some tamarack bogs kept their native vegetation because they were never drained, though many years will pass before most wetlands resemble their earlier condition. A trail at the end of Krueger Road, one-half mile west, passes marshes and Mud Lake before reaching Goose Lake, a large open bog.