Visitors for years, Eric Dison and his wife Julie, purchased a home on West Battle Lake in 2021. Eric is the current Battle Lake Police Chief.

West Battle Lake is one of Otter Tail County’s 1,048 lakes formed more than 10,000 years ago as glaciers moved slowly over the terrain leaving behind rock and soil deposits, called moraine. This area of rolling hills and sand-bottom lakes— glacial moraine—is located roughly in the center of Otter Tail County, hence Battle Lake’s motto: “Heart of 1,000 Lakes.”

The 5,615-acre lake lies in two basins, the western half, nearly twice as wide as the eastern. Looking across the lake from here you can see North and South Points, the line of division. The lake is six-miles long, reaching a maximum depth of 108 feet with a large area shallower than 15 feet.

Swimming, boating, and fishing are favorite pastimes with panfish, bass, walleye, northern, and muskie game-fish populations a draw for recreational sports enthusiasts. Twice a year, people descend on West Battle Lake to try their hand at catching a prize-winning fish. The Lion’s Club sponsors a walleye fishing tournament in June, and the Battle Lake Area Sporting Club holds a fishing derby on the ice in February.

Even in the early 1880’s, West Battle Lake was a popular summer destination as people came from the Twin Cities, Fargo, and as far away as St. Louis, MO to beat the heat. People often bought adjoining properties, forming what came to be known as “summer colonies” on the shores of West Battle Lake. Two such colonies long remembered are “University Row” where U of MN professors summered, and “Little MO,” where friends and neighbors gathered from Missouri.

Our city is named BATTLE LAKE because battles were fought here during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Two Native American tribes –the Anishinaabe and the Dakota—summered here because of the area’s abundant resources. Sometimes the tribes coexisted peacefully and sometimes they warred. Lore has it that during the last big battle on the shores of West Battle Lake, the Dakota routed the Anishinaabe, killing most of their warriors, upon which the Anishinaabe named the land “Ishquonedewnining” (where but few survived). The French subsequently called it Lac Du Battaile, in English, Battle Lake.