Minsi Lake

About this site

At 117 acres, Minsi Lake is the largest lake in Northampton County and one of only three public lakes in the entire Lehigh Valley. Built in 1970 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for public fishing and boating, the lake and surrounding woodlands have been leased to Northampton County as part of its County Parks system since 1975. Now almost 50 years old, the dam that impounds Minsi Lake is at the end of its structural life expectancy. Therefore, the lake was drained in 2017 for a dam rehabilitation and spillway reconstruction project, which began in March 2019 and should conclude by the end of the year. In addition to demolishing the existing concrete spillway and building a much larger one, the height of the earthen dam will be raised 2.3 feet in order for the lake to retain much more water in the event of major flooding. However, the normal water level in the lake will remain the same as it always was. In addition to the dam project, Northampton County Parks and Recreation, Friends of Minsi Lake and the PA Fish and Boat Commission will be constructing over 600 large-scale fish habitat structures on the empty lakebed in July 2019.