Mina Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Mina Lake pulls an A: clarity at 16.0 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Minnesota.

A TSI value of 37 puts Mina Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. At 123 ft of maximum depth, Mina Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. The lake's 411 acres and 6.9 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 51 graded lakes in Douglas County, Mina Lake ranks 6 — in the top quartile locally.

Zebra mussel presence at Mina Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Muskie are on the species list at Mina Lake, among the lake's 18 documented fish. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 5 times at Mina Lake, with a median around Apr 20. 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.