Our lake is located in west central Minnesota on the Horseshoe Chain of Lakes, but isn’t conveniently connected to them. Just seven miles south of Richmond and four miles north of Eden Valley, MN.
In 1967 there were only nine homes/cabins on this quaint and secluded lake. Today, there are over one hundred, with many permanent year-round residents.
The charm of our lake is simple . . . relaxing and quiet.
Our little lake is 325 acres of fun and solitude. In the summer you will find residents swimming, fishing, water skiing, and just relaxing cruisin’ the waters. In the winter you might even find a few fish houses on the lake for those die-hard ice fishermen. The lake has a diverse fish population of sunnies, crappies, largemouth bass, channel catfish, northern pike, and yes even an occasional elusive walleye! If you talk to our residents, they’ll tell you . . . “There ain’t no fish in this lake, we just catch the same ones over again.”
So, if you are coming out our way. . . don’t call,
we’re out on the lake!
Our lake is located in west central Minnesota on the Horseshoe Chain of Lakes, but isn’t conveniently connected to them. Just seven miles south of Richmond and four miles north of Eden Valley, MN.
In 1967 there were only nine homes/cabins on this quaint and secluded lake. Today, there are over one hundred, with many permanent year-round residents.
The charm of our lake is simple . . . relaxing and quiet.
Our little lake is 325 acres of fun and solitude. In the summer you will find residents swimming, fishing, water skiing, and just relaxing cruisin’ the waters. In the winter you might even find a few fish houses on the lake for those die-hard ice fishermen. The lake has a diverse fish population of sunnies, crappies, largemouth bass, channel catfish, northern pike, and yes even an occasional elusive walleye! If you talk to our residents, they’ll tell you . . . “There ain’t no fish in this lake, we just catch the same ones over again.”
So, if you are coming out our way. . . don’t call,
we’re out on the lake!
North Browns Lake and it's History
As History has it...
Our lake is primarily the result of the invasion by four continental ice sheets which advanced and retreated across the state from at least four different directions over millions of years. As the glaciers receded northward forming the largest glacial lake known…Lake Agassiz, its’ waters began to flow outward flooding most of Minnesota. When the waters started to recede they begun to fill the depressions, left by the glaciers, with water and eventually became lakes, including North Browns Lake. Our lake is classified as an “ice block basin”. This means the lake is in an outwash area located along pre-glacial valleys. As the glaciers retreated, giant blocks of ice were deposited in the slit, sand and gravel as it washed away and melted forming what is now what we know as North Browns Lake.
In 2004 a lake resident was having a new septic system installed. When the crew was digging a soil test strip a “shark's tooth” was discovered in about 6 feet of soil, about 30’ from Raymond Avenue. A St. Cloud State University geology professor was accompanying the crew that day and advised that this was not uncommon in our area. He said that all of Stearns County, as well as adjacent counties, were under water (100+/- feet deep) some 65+ million years ago (Cretaceous Period). The resident had the U of M Bell Museum verify its authenticity and it was confirmed to be from a Cretoxyrhina Mantelli Agassiz shark and to be over 50 million years old. The shark’s length would have been about 20+ feet with over 400 teeth and nicknamed “Ginsui Shark”.
In 1928 the first DNR records referred to both North & South Browns Lakes as simply “Browns Lake”. It is felt that early settlers named both lakes for geographical and/or land division reasons. The first time the DNR referred to both lakes separately and by name was in 1968.
The lake is fed from the south by a small stream coming from Eden Lake and exits to the north into a marshy, low water area (not navigable by boat), which meanders it way into Long Lake which eventually connects to the Sauk River through the Horseshoe Chain of Lakes.
North Browns Lake is approximately 325 acres in sizes, with a maximum depth of 41 feet. Average water clarity is 5-6 feet in the summer months and we are about 1,087 feet above sea level. Our lake is considered a “mesotrophic” lake, which means in very simple terms “middle aged”, as are most lakes south of Brainerd.
