In March of 1877, a flood of the Missouri River occurred and the meandering loop that curved around the city of Carter Lake, Iowa was cut off by the river thus leaving the town surrounded by Nebraska.  The remnants of the old river course became an oxbow-shaped lake, originally named Cut-Off Lake.  The three-mile long, 320 acre lake is now known as Carter Lake.  After extensive litigation between Iowa and Nebraska, in 1892 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the city of Carter Lake belonged to Iowa and in 1930, Carter Lake became an officially incorporated city in the State of Iowa.  Today, the state boundary line still follows the former Missouri River channel placing this Iowa enclave clearly within Nebraska and the lake juxtapositioned on the borders of two states. 

The lake is located directly west of Eppley Airfield and about two miles north of the Omaha downtown area.  The City of Carter Lake, Iowa lies completely within the concave portion of the lake and the City of Omaha Levi Carter Park surrounds the lake on its convex side.  The oxbow lake surface area is 315 acres and the storage volume is 2,520 acre-feet.  Carter Lake has a mean depth of 8 feet and a maximum depth of 28 feet.  Carter Lake receives stormwater runoff from both underground storm sewers and overland contributing areas.  The total drainage area around Carter Lake encompasses approximately 2,711 acres.

Carter Lake is used extensively for passive and active recreational activities including fishing, swimming, jet skiing, waterskiing, and power boating.  The Creighton University Rowing Team uses the lake for practices and regattas.  Access to the lake is available in Levi Carter Park, several public park access areas in the City of Carter Lake, and by residents living along the shoreline on the Iowa side.  The Iowa Lake Valuation Project estimated that 47,131 household trips were made to the lake in 2002.