Dunbar Lake

Dunbar Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. 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.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. The lake bottoms out at 30 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Dunbar Lake covers 268 acres alongside 4.7 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Dunbar Lake ranks 122 of 141 in Itasca County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Dunbar Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2021, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 12 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA 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.