Dam Lake

Dam Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. 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 sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake bottoms out at 48 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 598 acres and 4.1 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Dam Lake ranks 23 of 53 in Aitkin County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Dam Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Dam Lake, one of 17 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 9 times at Dam Lake, with a median around Apr 16. 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.