May 12, 2000

     About Lakes

Millions of license plates advertise Minnesota as the land of 10,000 lakes.  Minnesota is actually the home of 15,291 lakes, each 10 acres or more in size and with its own unique characteristics.  Our thousands of lakes, plus innumerable wetlands, constitute a treasure beyond price.

A lake may be defined as a natural inland depression or reservoir containing an appreciable amount of water.  Any geological process that produces a depression or obstructs drainage channels may produce a lake.  Of course, there are so-called artificial lakes created by people.  Almost all lake basins in Minnesota are directly or indirectly a result of glacial action.

The lakes are not evenly distributed throughout the state.  Every one of our 87 counties has one or more lakes.  Surprisingly, Lake of the Woods County has only five lakes and Red Lake County only two.  Otter Tail County has the most lakes with 1,048, and parts of northwestern Minnesota show a remarkably sparse distribution of lakes.

The reason for their absence in the southeast is that the last ice sheet did not cover that area.  Thus no moraines, with their lake-forming hollows, were left.  The reason for the absence of lakes in the Red River Valley region is that the valley itself is the bottom of the former Glacial Lake Agassiz and has no big depression to hold surface water.