Wisconsin Lakes Facts
Wisconsin has 15,081 documented inland lakes, ranging from small one and two-acre spring ponds to 137,708-acre Lake Winnebago. Wisconsin’s natural inland lakes vary from a few feet deep to a maximum depth of 236 feet in Green Lake in Green Lake County. Lake Wazee, a manmade Lake in Jackson County, is 350 feet deep.
Only about 40 percent of Wisconsin lakes have actually been named and the majority of the unnamed lakes are very small – less than 10 acres.
About one quarter or 3,620 of the state’s lakes are larger than 20 acres, and they constitute more than 93 percent of the surface area of Wisconsin’s inland lakes. All told, Wisconsin’s inland lakes cover about 1 million acres of the state’s 35 million acres.
The portions of Lakes Michigan and Superior that lie within Wisconsin’s boundaries add nearly 6.5 million acres of water to Wisconsin. Lake Superior is the biggest of the Great Lakes with a surface area of 31,700 square miles, and a volume of 2,900 cubic miles. It is also the deepest and coldest, and water in the lake remains there for 191 years, based on the rate of water flowing out of it. In comparison, it only takes six years for water in Lake Erie to be replaced by incoming water.
Lake Michigan is the second largest of the five Great Lakes, with a surface area of 22,300 square miles and a volume of 1,190 cubic miles.
Vilas County has the most lakes: 1,318.
Brown and Outagamie counties have the fewest named lakes: 4 each.
Lake Winnebago in Winnebago County has the largest surface area – 137,708 acres – followed by Petenwell Lake in Juneau County with 23,040 acres, and the Chippewa Flowage in Sawyer County with 15,300 acres.
Mud Lake is the most common lake name in Wisconsin; 116 lakes bear that moniker, followed by Bass Lake with 82, and Long Lake with 59.
The 2001 edition of Wisconsin Lakes has more information in general on lakes and about specific lakes.
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