About 15,000 years ago, near the end of the Pleistocene, a glacial lake occupied central Vermont as the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated. Meltwater collected behind a terminal moraine, creating a temporary body of water known as Lake Stowe. It endured only until the remaining glacier ice completely melted, allowing the lake to drain away through the Lamoille River valley. The lake’s name comes from Stowe, near the place where evidence of this former lake was found.