Horseshoe Lake is located on the border of Polk and Barron Counties, about three miles northwest of the town of Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. Approximately 60% of the lake is in Polk County. The lake has 389 surface water acres.

The Lake District brings lakeshore owners together to discuss matters that affect the quality of life on the lake, agree on appropriate actions and establish a yearly budget. The Lake District operates under the guidelines and requirements of Section 33 of the Wisconsin Statues. All Horseshoe lakeshore property owners of record are voting members of the Lake District and are encouraged to participate in Lake District member meetings.
Horseshoe Lake Sign
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Ice out history:
1982
4/23
1983
4/22
1984
4/14
1985
4/12
1986
4/8
1987
3/29
1988
4/7
1989
4/18
1990
4/8
1991
 ???
1992
 ???
1993
4/19
1994
4/13
1995
4/21
1996
4/26
1997
4/20
1998
3/31
1999
4/5
2000
3/24
2001
4/16
2002
4/16
2003
4/14
2004
4/13
2005
4/12
2006
4/09
2007
3/29
2008
4/26
2009
4/10
2010
3/30
2011
4/15
2012
3/19
2013
5/8
2014
4/28
2015
3/31
2016
3/28
2017
3/30
2018
5/2
2019
4/20
2020
4/8
2021
3/28
2022
4/23
2023
4/19
2024
 3/9
                                   
                           Chart: Ice out day of month frequency.
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Sept 16, 2023, Lake District Members Annual Meeting at Beaver Town Hall. Link to meeting minutes.
Lake District members: Be sure to revisit this web site and also our Facebook page for updates regarding Lake District events and meetings.

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Draft Horseshoe Lake 5-Year Lake Management Plan.  Dave Blumer from LEAPS has put this plan together for us over the past two years. Included are three Appendices that support the APM Plan. The first is the Goals, Objectives, and Actions. The second is the Five-year Management Implementation Matrix. The third is a pullout of the management discussion section in the APM Plan.
Link to the Horseshoe Lake 5-Year Lake Management Plan

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Healthy Lakes is the name of a program in Wisconsin. The Healthy Lakes Implementation Plan describes relatively simple and inexpensive best practices that lake shore property owners can implement, including shoreline restoration practices. See http://healthylakeswi.com/ Its goal is to protect and improve the health of Wisconsin lakes by increasing lake-shore property owner participation in habitat restoration and runoff and erosion control projects. Lake partners, including our lake district, may adopt this Plan as is or integrate the Plan into a planning process.
The Healthy Lakes Implementation Plan seems very well adapted to the needs of Horseshoe Lake. The best practices:
  • are relatively simple and inexpensive to implement.
  • are appropriate for typical lakeshore property.
  • are beneficial to lake habitat and water quality.
  • include typical costs and technical, regulatory and funding information.
  • include handouts for home owners.
  • support installation of native plantings at least 350 square feet in size, rain gardens, runoff diversion systems, French drains and fish-sticks.

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Link to new Polk County Shoreland Property Owners Handbook

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Zebra Mussel News: This invasive species has been discovered in over 300 lakes and rivers (list) throughout Wisconsin. (Our lake is not on the list.) The Polk County website has important information. As stated there, "With zebra mussels likely present in Polk County it is more important than ever that lake residents know how to identify zebra mussels and participate in prevention activities such as Clean Boats, Clean Waters and the Citizen Lake Monitoring Network for Aquatic Invasive Species."

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A lake district is the most inclusive form of government that exists in the US. The lake district board does not make any decisions. The members (the landowners, both residents and non-residents) who attend lake district meetings, discuss matters and then vote on those matters make the lake district decisions.

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Lake District Member Information Form.

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The Horseshoe Lake Public Inland Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District Facebook page:
  www.facebook.com/hlake.org

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