Nelson Lake

Nelson 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 52 ft of maximum depth, Nelson Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. Nelson Lake is small — 86 acres alongside 1.6 miles of shoreline — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Nelson Lake sits at rank 33 of 51 in Douglas County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Nelson Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Nelson Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. No formal public access is documented at Nelson Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.