Lake Windigo, Natural lake in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States.
Lake Windigo is a lake in Beltrami County, Minnesota, located entirely within Star Island, which itself sits in the middle of Cass Lake. The water is shallow across much of its area, with soft shoreline edges covered in aquatic plants and bordered by forest.
Star Island, which surrounds the lake, was home to an Ojibwe village called Ozaawindib, noted by early European explorers who passed through the region. Those travelers used the area as a reference point during their journeys into northern Minnesota.
The name Windigo comes from Ojibwe oral tradition and refers to a powerful spirit tied to winter and wilderness. Paddling across the water, visitors pass through a landscape that the Ojibwe people considered deeply meaningful, and that connection still shapes how the place is named and remembered today.
Reaching the lake requires crossing Cass Lake by water and then carrying a small boat across a short portage on Star Island, so paddlers should plan for this extra step. The shallow water and wooded surroundings make it a good fit for canoes and kayaks rather than motorized boats.
Lake Windigo is said to be the only lake in the northern hemisphere that sits entirely on an island inside another lake, with the outer lake fed by rivers and the inner one fed by springs. This makes it a rare example of a lake within a lake, each with a different water source.
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