Over 100 islands, 20-foot clarity, and a shoreline hemmed in by the Boundary Waters and Superior National Forest. Private lakeshore here cannot expand. Get matched with an agent who knows it.
Burntside Lake near Ely in St. Louis County is one of Minnesota's clearest lakes — rocky, island-studded, and rimmed by pine on the edge of the Boundary Waters. It is the lake of Sigurd Olson's Listening Point, with a wilderness character that draws paddlers and purists.
The market is legacy cabins and a small number of premier properties; water clarity, rock-and-pine frontage, and BWCA proximity make it irreplaceable and tightly held.
Summer is paddling, lake trout, and swimming in cold, clear water. Fall is quiet and spectacular along the pine shore.
Winter is deep north-woods cold — skiing, ice fishing, and snowmobiling out of Ely — with a late ice-out.
Typical property types: Estate homes, island properties, cabins on wooded lots, and historic resort property. Listings observed have ranged from roughly $710K for a waterfront home to $1.5–2.45M for island estates.
What drives price here: Island versus mainland, road access, dock protection from the rocky shoals, and elevation. As on Kabetogama, the fixed supply of buildable private shoreline is itself a price factor.
The supply story is the real one. National Forest and BWCAW land permanently caps private shoreline on Burntside — the inventory cannot grow. Combined with 20-foot clarity and a lake trout fishery, that's a genuinely defensible scarcity argument, and it's the thing a good agent leads with here.
Roughly 7,139–7,314 acres depending on the source, with about 103 miles of shoreline and more than 100 islands.
Maximum depth is 126 feet, and a 2003 reading recorded clarity at 20.7 feet. Average depth isn't published.
Lake trout is the signature species — unusual in Minnesota — alongside walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass, burbot, whitefish, crappie and perch.
Only on existing private parcels. Superior National Forest, Burntside State Forest and the BWCAW surround the lake, so private shoreline is fixed and cannot expand.
Occasionally. More than 100 islands sit in the lake and some are privately held, though two (Snellman and Pine) are Scientific and Natural Areas and Long Island is conserved.
Five public boat landings, two of which charge a fee. Landing #1 is gravel with no dock and no trailer access — worth knowing before you plan around it.
Three miles. Ely is about two hours from Duluth and roughly four from the Twin Cities.
Use the form on this page, or get matched with a local agent who can send them the day they hit MLS.
Whether you're buying your place on the water or thinking about selling, start with a local Burntside Lake specialist who knows this shoreline. It's free to get matched.
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