Lake Osakis is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in Todd and Douglas counties in west-central

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The town of Osakis is situated on the southwest shore of the lake.

Name

The lake received its English name by translation from the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

''Ozaagi-zaaga'igan'', meaning "the Sauk's Lake. The lake is supposed to have received its name due to a historical association with a small group of Sauks who, having been banished from their tribe for murder, made camp on the shores of Lake Osakis. According to Ojibwa oral tradition, these five Sauks were massacred by local Dakota Indians in the late 18th century.

Description

Osakis is a large prairie lake, with a surface area of and a maximum depth of . Osakis is the primary source of the Sauk River, having a naturally occurring but now human-controlled outflow on the east side of the lake. During times of low water in Lake Osakis, or high water in the

Long Prairie River The Long Prairie River is a tributary of the Crow Wing River, long, in central Minnesota in the United States. Via the Crow Wing River, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of in a generally rural region. Hi ...

, water can be diverted from the Long Prairie into Lake Osakis by a canal between the two watersheds. Gamefish present in the lake include

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish in the sunfish family ( Centrarchidae). It is endemic to North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie (''P. annularis'') in size, s ...

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or, in Texas, "copper nose", is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands ea ...

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

pumpkinseed The pumpkinseed (''Lepomis gibbosus''), also referred to as sun perch, pond perch, common sunfish, punkie, sunfish, sunny, and kivver, is a small to medium–sized freshwater fish of the genus ''Lepomis'' (true sunfishes), from the sunfish fami ...

smallmouth bass The smallmouth bass (''Micropterus dolomieu'') is a species of freshwater fish in the Centrarchidae, sunfish family (biology), family (Centrarchidae) of the order (biology), order Centrarchiformes. It is the type species of its genus ''Micropterus ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

, and

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...

. Osakis is an exceptional walleye lake; it has long been known as the "Mother Lake" because the

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or Minnesota DNR, is the agency of the U.S. state of Minnesota charged with conserving and managing the state's natural resources. The agency maintains areas such as state parks, state forests, rec ...

uses a fishtrap on Bull Creek to obtain milt and eggs from walleyes for use in breeding and stocking programs. In addition to the above-mentioned gamefish, Lake Osakis has large populations of black bullhead, dogfish, brown bullhead, and tullibee, also known as "cisco." Some common carp are also present in the lake, however carp are an exotic species and their presence in the lake is not desirable.

References

Lakes of Douglas County, Minnesota Lakes of Minnesota Lakes of Todd County, Minnesota {{ToddCountyMN-geo-stub