West Horsehead Lake

West Horsehead Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI value of 28 puts West Horsehead Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. West Horsehead Lake reaches 23 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 145 acres, West Horsehead Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. West Horsehead Lake ranks 54 of 140 in Oneida County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

West Horsehead Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2025, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at West Horsehead Lake, one of 5 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. 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.