Ice In officially called on Detroit Lake Monday night

Detroit Lakes, MN (KDLM) – Winter has finally covered Detroit Lake as “Ice In” was officially called on Monday, Nov. 27.

Dick Hecock, secretary for the Lake Detroiters Association, said this year’s “Ice In” date was only about two days later than the 30-year-average, but added it’s about nine days later than the 113-year overall average, but he thinks record keeping back then may have been a little bit more relaxed.

“If you think back 120 years, there weren’t even roads around the lake” said Hecock. “So, there were a lot of places on the lake that weren’t visible. And my guess is, they went down Washington Avenue, they took a look at Little Detroit and they decided whether it was frozen or not. And they got back in their carriage and trotted back uptown and wrote their stories.”

Hecock has been officially recording the Ice In/Out dates on Detroit Lake for the last 30 years and said he follows the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency guidelines for calling the “Ice In” date, which states 90% of the lake’s surface must be covered. He said there is about a five-acre patch on Big Detroit with open water, but lake has eclipsed the 90% threshold.

In the last 30 years, “Ice In” has fallen between November 11 to December 16.

He also said much of the official record keeping prior to 1993, when Hecock moved to Detroit Lakes, was preserved in large part by former Detroit Lakes Tribune sports editor Ralph Anderson.

“We he did was he gave me 90 years’ worth of data that had been done before,” he said. “And it was unclear where that came from. He didn’t know completely. He had done some of it himself and there were others apparently involved. But nobody seems to have a good handle on who collected the data early. And where it was collected and under what standard that were used.”

This year’s open water season on Detroit Lake lasted 207 days, which is about two weeks shorter than the 30-year average, but, Hecock said, that is partly due to “Ice Out” being later than normal, occurring on May 5 this year.