Eugene Lake

Eugene Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Eugene Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake's 64 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. The lake's 181 acres and 4.7 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Eugene Lake ranks 71 of 187 in St. Louis County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Eugene Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2022, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery is bass-led, with 8 documented species across the lake's records. The lake lacks a documented public access point, so visitor use is limited. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.