Widow Lake

Widow Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. The lake bottoms out at 46 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 198 acres and 3.0 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Widow Lake ranks 27 of 132 in Cass County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

No invasive species are currently listed at Widow Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 12 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Widow Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.