Ox Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Ox Lake pulls an A: clarity at 17.7 ft and 8 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Ox Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake's 74 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. The lake's 241 acres and 4.6 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within Crow Wing County's 120 graded waters, Ox Lake sits at rank 19, near the top of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Ox Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Ox 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. The lake has a long ice-out record — 28 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 23. 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.