Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were quantified in a sediment core from Songhua Lake, a large artificial lake in Northeast China, to investigate their historical deposition behaviors and reconstruct their use history. The total OCPs concentrations ranged from 17.74 to 411.86 ng/g. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDTs) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) were recorded as the dominant components. Historically, OCPs contaminations input were significant during the 1950s with also certainly deposition input in the mid-1960s and 1990s corresponding with historically intense anthropogenic activities with the development of industry and agriculture in the watershed. DDTs records showed that the deposition environment in Songhua Lake was inclined to the aerobic environment before the 1960s and after the mid-1980s. Principal component analysis (PCA) combined with the diagnostic ratios of OCPs and their metabolites indicated DDTs contamination was due to the input of industrial DDT, and HCHs pollution was from the mixture input of industrial HCHs and lindane source. The data analysis from sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) indicated that the ecological risk can be induced by the presence of DDTs, Lindane, and Dieldrin, which posed an adverse toxic ecological threat to benthic and aquatic organisms of relative regions and need to be taken seriously and managed.