Becker County spent about $800,000 less on snowplowing, a Highway 34 tree-removal study was postponed, and there were two ice-out dates for Detroit Lake.
Detroit Lake’s 2023 open water season lasted only 207 days. Because of last spring's late ice-out (on May 5) the ice-free season was two weeks shorter than the recent 30-year average.
It's official. As of this past Friday, July 7, both floors of the new Becker County Museum are now open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday.
If that seems like a long stretch of winter ice, that’s because it is: The average ice cover on Detroit Lake is 151 days, stretching back over the 113 years for which there are comparable records.
Lake Detroit was completely frozen late on Saturday evening, Nov. 19. “It happens that Nov. 19 is the average date of all 112 years of available data since 1910,” lake observer Dick Hecock said in an email.