Roy Lake is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Clearwater and Mahnomen counties,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States. Its population was 30 as of the 2020 census, up from 12 in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Geography

The community is mainly in western Clearwater County, in La Prairie Township, but extends west into Mahnomen County, where a small portion is in the northeast corner of Twin Lakes Township. The community sits on the northeast side of Roy Lake, a natural lake with its outlet at the westernmost point of the community.

Minnesota State Highway 200 Minnesota State Highway 200 (MN 200) is a highway in northwest and northeast Minnesota, which runs from North Dakota Highway 200 at the North Dakota state line near Halstad, and continues east to its eastern terminus at its intersection w ...

forms the northern edge of the community; the highway leads west to Mahnomen and east to Zerkel. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the Roy Lake CDP has a total area of , of which are land and , or 38.2%, are water, comprising the northeast part of Roy Lake. Via the lake's outlet, the community is within the watershed of the Wild Rice River, flowing west toward the

Red River of the North The Red River (), also called the Red River of the North () to differentiate it from the Red River of the South, Red River in the south of the continent, is a river in the north-central United States and central Canada. Originating at the confl ...

Demographics

References

Census-designated places in Clearwater County, Minnesota Census-designated places in Mahnomen County, Minnesota Census-designated places in Minnesota {{MahnomenCountyMN-geo-stub