Mille Lacs Lake (also called Lake Mille Lacs or Mille Lacs) is a lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is located in the counties of Mille Lacs, Aitkin, and Crow Wing, roughly 100 miles north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.Mille Lacs means "thousand lakes" in French. In the Ojibwe language, the lake is called Misi-zaaga'igan ("grand lake").