Detroit Lake is a lake, locally known as Big Detroit and Little Detroit, has two distinct basins that are separated by a shallow gravel bar. At 3,067 acres, Detroit Lake is the largest lake within the Pelican River Watershed District and lies entirely within the city of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota municipal boundaries.

Detroit Lake was created about 10,000 years ago as the receding glaciers left thick deposits of gravel, sand and clay.   Broken from the glacier and imbedded in these deposits were large chunks of ice which, when melted, left depressions to become lakes, including Detroit.

black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, brown bullhead, brown trout, bullheads, channel catfish, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, lake sturgeon, largemouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, smallmouth bass, sunfish, tullibee (cisco), walleye, yellow bullhead, yellow perch, bowfin (dogfish), white sucker, banded killifish, blackchin shiner, blacknose shiner, bluntnose minnow, brook stickleback, central mudminnow, common shiner, creek chub, golden shiner, Iowa darter, Johnny darter, logperch, minnows, pugnose shiner, shiners, spottail shiner, tadpole madtom.

• List of lakes in Minnesota