Murphy Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Murphy Lake pulls an A: clarity at 24.0 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

A TSI value of 31 puts Murphy Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. At 52 ft of maximum depth, Murphy Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. At 85 acres, Murphy Lake sits below the Wisconsin median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Within Vilas County's 202 graded waters, Murphy Lake sits at rank 18, near the top of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Murphy Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Murphy Lake, one of 5 fish species on record for the lake. 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.