Gum Lake

Gum Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Gum Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake bottoms out at 42 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 193 acres and 4.2 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Gum Lake sits at rank 72 of 141 in Itasca County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Gum Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Gum 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.