Turtle Lake, WI (CDP)

Turtle Lake is a Walworth County census-designated place in the Town of Richmond, with 348 residents in the 2020 census. The community sits around a 141-acre spring-fed lake whose outlet becomes Turtle Creek. A public boat landing on the north shore, lake roads, and nearby farm parcels form the local map. Richmond is a rural town with several lakes, and Turtle Lake’s shoreline gives this small CDP a clear relationship to the surrounding Kettle Moraine country.

The lake’s recorded history reaches back to the 1800s, when family farms occupied the surrounding land. William A. Erwin owned a farm on the eastern shore around 1887; he had previously run a resort on Delavan Lake, and the property later became the site of Turtle Lake Tap and Grill. Today the lake is used for fishing, swimming, paddling, and boating under Town of Richmond rules. Turtle Lake is a Wisconsin place organized around a body of water: a small CDP, a public launch, an association of shoreline residents, and the creek that carries water south from the lake.