The Lake
829 acres of lake country.
Pickerel sits in Maine Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota — the headwaters region that holds more than a thousand named lakes inside a single county. Its deepest basin reaches 78 feet. Its shoreline wraps a cluster of bays and peninsulas that have shaped cabin life here since the first resorts opened in the 1940s. This is the short story of the place and the people keeping it.
Facts
- Surface area
- 829 acres
- Maximum depth
- 78 feet
- Shallows
- ≈33% of lake at 15 ft or less
- Classification
- Mesotrophic (moderately fertile)
- Stocked species
- Walleye · Northern pike
- Township
- Maine Township
- County
- Otter Tail, Minnesota
- Watershed
- Otter Tail River · Upper Mississippi headwaters
- Outlet
- Intermittent, un-navigable · northeast shoreline
- AIS status
- Designated infested (zebra mussels, July 2024)
- Public access
- MN DNR concrete ramp · south shore
Sources: Minnesota DNR LakeFinder, Otter Tail County lake classifications, MPCA surface water records, and the PLIA 2026 newsletter.
History
The first substantial landowner on the lake was John G. Haggstrom, a Swedish immigrant who settled in Maine Township in 1882. His sons later ran the lake's first two resorts — Conrad and Tillie Haggstrom opened a four-cabin resort on the east shore in the mid-1940s; brother Adolph and his wife Ethel opened the nine-cabin Shady Nook on the west shore in the early 1950s. In the early 1960s, a group of cabin owners organized the Pickerel Lake Club with 64 paid memberships; the club was later renamed the Pickerel Lake Improvement Association. By the 1970s, membership had grown to 161, a weir had been installed to steady lake levels, and the association was publishing an annual Pickerel Lake Directory.
The association meets May 2 and the second Saturday of each month June through September at Zion Lutheran Church of Amor, and holds its annual membership meeting on the third weekend of June. A twelve-member board, elected to three-year terms at the annual meeting, handles water-quality testing, AIS prevention, shoreline stewardship, the Spray Donation Escrow, and Adopt-A-Highway cleanups on Highway 74 between Amor and St. James Catholic Church.
Three community events anchor the summer: the July 4th Boat Parade (decorated boats, counter-clockwise from the public access, 1:00 PM), the Lake-Area Garage Sale in late June, and the Pickerel Lake Gathering in mid-July — a potluck and live-music evening at a rotating member home.
Welcome to the Lake
A map drawn by neighbors.
For decades the association has handed new members a hand-drawn bathymetric map of Pickerel — bays, islands, and depth contours sketched by people who know the lake. We're digitizing it without erasing the hand.
A photographed version of the original map is being prepared for this page. It will appear here alongside an annotated overlay for printing.
Who we are
A volunteer lake association organized in the early 1960s as the Pickerel Lake Club. Renamed the Pickerel Lake Improvement Association, governed by a twelve-member board elected to three-year terms at the annual June meeting.
Our mission
To preserve and protect Pickerel Lake for all who live on it, visit it, and will inherit it — through water-quality monitoring, aquatic invasive species prevention, community stewardship, and neighbor-to-neighbor cooperation.
What we do
- • Water-quality testing with RMB Labs
- • AIS prevention & monitoring
- • Forest tent caterpillar spraying (Spray Escrow)
- • Adopt-A-Highway cleanups on Hwy 74
- • Lakeshore Directory (published every other year)
- • Community events & the annual Gathering
Member resource
The Lakeshore Directory
Since the 1970s, the association has published and distributed a comprehensive directory of lakeshore owners on Pickerel Lake. Updated every other year, the directory is one of the original reasons the association was formed — a practical way for neighbors to find each other.
Current members receive the latest edition at the annual meeting or by mail. If you need a replacement copy, contact board@pickerellakemn.org.
Get in touch
Contact the association.
Questions about membership, the lake, events, or anything else — send a message and a board member will be in touch.
Email: board@pickerellakemn.org
Available with your new site
Mail: PLIA c/o Vicki Quist
33852 N. Pickerel Dr.
Richville, MN 56576