Caribou Lake

Caribou Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Caribou Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. Caribou Lake reaches 26 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 246 acres, Caribou Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 7.6 miles of shoreline. Within Cook County's 128 graded lakes, Caribou Lake ranks 76 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Caribou Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2020, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Caribou Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. The lake lacks a documented public access point, so visitor use is limited. 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.