Ox Yoke Lake

Ox Yoke Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota. 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 36 puts Ox Yoke Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. A maximum depth of 42 ft puts Ox Yoke Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. At 185 acres, Ox Yoke Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 2.9 miles of shoreline. Among the 133 graded lakes in Cass County, Ox Yoke Lake ranks 12 — in the top quartile locally.

Ox Yoke Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Ox Yoke Lake, one of 13 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 14 times at Ox Yoke Lake, with a median around Apr 17. 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.