Skip to main content
LakeQuality

Blue Lake vs Roosevelt Lake

Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.

Blue Lake has a higher water quality grade (A, Excellent) than Roosevelt Lake (A, Excellent). Both are in Minnesota.

Blue Lake and Roosevelt Lake are both in Minnesota — a same-state head-to-head where the comparison comes down to lake-specific differences in depth, watershed, and monitoring history rather than the broader state-level water-quality regime. The grades are close: Blue Lake (A) and Roosevelt Lake (A) are within one letter of each other on the LakeGrade rubric. The per-parameter sub-grades below will show where the small differences actually live.

With grades this close, the choice between the two lakes turns on non-water-quality factors: depth, fish species, public access, distance from home. The per-lake pages below cover all of those.

A

Blue Lake

Crow Wing County, Minnesota

Crystal clear, you can see 19 ft down.

A

Roosevelt Lake

Cass County, Minnesota

Good clarity, visible to about 11 ft.

Side-by-Side Metrics

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

MetricBlue LakeRoosevelt Lake
Overall GradeA (Excellent)A (Excellent)
Water Clarity19 ft11 ft
PhosphorusNo data12 µg/L
Chlorophyll-a (Algae)No dataNo data
Maximum Depth--
Surface Area1.5K acres1.5K acres
Public AccessUnknownUnknown
Fish Species01
Trophic Stateoligotrophicmesotrophic

Bold value = better for that metric (lower phosphorus / chlorophyll = cleaner; higher Secchi / depth / species count = better).

Verdict

Blue Lake wins on overall water quality with a Grade A versus Roosevelt Lake's Grade A. Water clarity: 19 ft vs 11 ft. For more fish-species variety, Roosevelt Lake edges ahead with 1 documented species.