Archibald Lake

Archibald Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Oconto County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Archibald Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. Archibald Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 50 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. The lake's 392 acres and partial shoreline records put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Archibald Lake sits at rank 34 of 66 in Oconto County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Zebra mussels have been documented at Archibald Lake, which alters the filter-feeding balance and can paradoxically increase water clarity while disrupting the food web. Walleye are documented at Archibald Lake, one of 4 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. Monitoring depth is thin here: the LakeGrade rubric is applied to a small number of sample years, and the grade will be revised as more data accumulates.