Minnesota has how many lakes

Even satellite photographs cannot help us because many lakes and ponds are just too small or too indistinct to distinguish from the surrounding land and lakes may not even look like lakes in aerial or satellite photos. Luckily, our friends at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are also really curious about this. They did this by creating a geographical information system GIS map from satellite photographs and calibrating it to actual measurements on the ground ground truthing.

Then, they painstakingly measured the total area and shore length of every lake, pond, reservoir, wetland, river and stream they could recognize. Where they could connect these waterbodies to names and other MNDNR information they put them into the database.

The classical example of this is Upper and Lower Red Lake which was listed as one big lake as well as two separate lakes. I removed those duplicates. Some may disagree with me on my choices on these, but I looked at this from a limnological standpoint and not from one of bragging rights.

For example, Lake Minnetonka consists of 16 relatively independent basin-lakes that taken together are considered by some people to be one lake. From a scientific or limnological standpoint, a lake is independent if water and material can flow to all parts of the lake. If I considered Lake Minnetonka one lake, then all its basin-lakes would sum to about 14, acres, and collectively it would be the 12 th -largest lake in Minnesota, between Cass Lake and Ottertail Lake.

The smallest is only 0. That little waterbody is called Nemo Pond and is found in Isanti County. Lake scientists — limnologists - define a lake as a waterbody large enough to have a wave-swept shore. In his speech, which largely focused on the economics of farming in the state, he stated:. Then we have thirty-eight rivers in the State, six of which are navigable within the State… Then come over 10, lakes, abounding in delicious fish. The phrase became frequently used by tourism-related publications around the s.

Clark, Jr. Submit your question here. You make MPR News possible. Individual donations are behind the clarity in coverage from our reporters across the state, stories that connect us, and conversations that provide perspectives. The Truth: Are there really 10, lakes in Minnesota?

What about Wisconsin? Lily Updated October 5, Facebook Twitter Pinterest. One that most visitors, and even some Minnesotans, have to ask: Is it true? The surprising answer: Yes! Contents Are there really 10, lakes in Minnesota? Minnesota has so many lakes, the state ran out of names. Minnesota has the largest Great Lake in North America. Our license plates, it turns out, are low-balling us. Wisconsin's DNR says their state has 15, lakes. Here's the catch; the Wisconsin DNR has no size requirement for its lakes.

Going by their looser standard, Minnesota has more than 20, lakes. William Bornhoft , Patch Staff. Find out what's happening in Across Minnesota with free, real-time updates from Patch.