Emily Lake vs Ruth Lake
Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.
Ruth Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Emily Lake. Both are in Crow Wing County, Minnesota.
Both Emily Lake and Ruth Lake sit in Minnesota. A same-state comparison strips out the state-level water-quality regime as a variable: any differences in the readings here are about the lakes themselves, not the agencies sampling them. Ruth Lake reads materially cleaner than Emily Lake on nutrients and algae. A gap that wide is unlikely to close in a single year of remediation work; it reflects multi-decade differences in the lakes themselves.
For a recreational visitor, the wider gap in the readings is decisive: Ruth Lake has the lower nutrient and algae numbers. For a researcher, the gap is the interesting part: what is different about the two watersheds, and which of those differences is mutable?
Emily Lake
Very murky, less than 3 ft of visibility.
Ruth Lake
Crystal clear, you can see 16 ft down.
Side-by-Side Metrics
| Metric | Emily Lake | Ruth Lake |
|---|---|---|
| Water Clarity | 3 ft | 16 ft Better |
| Phosphorus | 53 µg/L | 11 µg/L Better |
| Chlorophyll-a (Algae) | 30 µg/L | 2.7 µg/L Better |
| Maximum Depth | 13 ft | 39 ft Better |
| Surface Area | 721 acres | 599 acres |
| Public Access | Yes | Yes |
| Fish Species | 13 Better | 12 |
| Trophic State | eutrophic | oligotrophic |
A green ✓ marks the better value for that metric (lower phosphorus / chlorophyll = cleaner; higher Secchi / depth / species count = better). Surface area and trophic state carry no tick — a bigger lake is not a better lake.
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Compare Emily Lake or Ruth Lake against a different lake.
Verdict
Ruth Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Emily Lake. Water clarity: 16 ft vs 3 ft. For more fish-species variety, Emily Lake edges ahead with 13 documented species.
Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.