Peter Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Peter Lake pulls an A: clarity at 22.5 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Peter Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake's 120 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. Peter Lake covers 282 acres alongside 6.7 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within Cook County's 128 graded waters, Peter Lake sits at rank 18, near the top of the local distribution.

Peter Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2020, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. 4 fish species are documented at Peter Lake, a mixed warm-water community typical for Minnesota lakes of this size. No formal public access is documented at Peter 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.