Bean Lake State Natural Area
USA /
Wisconsin /
Lake Mills /
World
/ USA
/ Wisconsin
/ Lake Mills
park
Add category

Bean Lake is a 33-acre alkaline seepage lake surrounded by tamarack and shrub swamp. Maximum depth is 6 feet, and the bottom substrate is poorly decomposed brown and black peat. The water is usually turbid and supports algal blooms; yellow pond-lily is the most common macrophyte. Surrounding the lake is a narrow zone of swamp loosestrife with cat-tails, sedges, and soft stem bulrush on the northeast edge. Tamarack and shrub-carr of dogwood, bog birch, poison sumac, and willows surround the lake and encompass the entire area to the edge of Rock Lake. Along the northeast edge of the lake are two small upland islands forested with deciduous hardwoods. Within the swamp surrounding the lake there are few characteristic bog species. Bird species nesting within the natural area include green-backed herons, wood duck, mallard, blue-winged teal, sandhill crane, great horned owl, and long-eared owl. Bean Lake is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1973.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 43°3'34"N 88°56'33"W
- University of Wisconsin Arboretum 41 km
- Sugar River Forest Preserve 70 km
- Blue Mound State Park 75 km
- Rock Cut State Park 77 km
- Rush Creek Conservation Area 78 km
- Pecatonica Wetlands Forest Preserve 89 km
- Marengo Ridge Conservation Area 89 km
- Yellowstone Lake State Park 92 km
- Deer Run Forest Preserve 93 km
- Oak Ridge Forest Preserve 96 km
- Rock Lake 2.6 km
- Lake Mills Golf Club 3.1 km
- Lake Mills Blacktop, Inc. 6.2 km
- Aztalan State Park 6.8 km
- St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children (former location) 15 km
- Lake Koshkonong 21 km
- Koshkonong Mounds Country Club 21 km
- Concord, Wisconsin 28 km
- University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 29 km
- Cravath Lake 31 km