Eugene Lake

Eugene Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. At 64 ft of maximum depth, Eugene Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. 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. Among the 187 graded lakes in St. Louis County, Eugene Lake sits at rank 68, above the county median.

Eugene Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota 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 8, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. 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.