Blackwell Lake

Blackwell Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. Blackwell Lake reaches 42 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 307 acres, Blackwell Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 5.2 miles of shoreline. Blackwell Lake ranks 23 of 51 in Douglas County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Blackwell Lake is on the Minnesota infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. Walleye are documented at Blackwell Lake, one of 12 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Blackwell Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.