Army Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Army Lake pulls an A: clarity at 26.9 ft and 11 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. Army Lake reaches 17 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Army Lake is small — 80 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Army Lake ranks 11 of 34 in Walworth County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Army Lake is on the Wisconsin infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 3, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. 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.