Calkins Lake

Calkins Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. Calkins Lake reaches 29 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. The lake is compact at 46 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Within Chippewa County's 16 graded lakes, Calkins Lake ranks 12 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Calkins Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2022, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 3, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. 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.