Headquarters Bay Lake

Headquarters Bay Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. The lake's weakest score is on Secchi depth — the water looks more turbid than its phosphorus number alone would predict.

A TSI near 46 places Headquarters Bay Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. The lake's maximum depth is not yet documented in state morphometric records — context for its physical structure remains limited. The lake's surface area is not consistently recorded across state datasets — physical context remains partial. Within the 132 graded lakes of Cass County, Headquarters Bay Lake sits at rank 102, near the bottom of the county list.

Zebra mussel presence at Headquarters Bay Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Headquarters Bay Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a long ice-out record — 71 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 28. 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.