Lake Minnetonka is a 14,528-acre (59 km²) lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Throughout its recorded history, the lake has been a resort destination. It is located west-southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The lake is an irregular shape with numerous bays and islands which make up about 125 miles (200 km) of shoreline. The lake is located almost entirely within Hennepin County; however, its southernmost extension, at Smithtown Bay, reaches into the city of Victoria, in northeastern Carver County.

The first people of European descent known to have visited the lake were two teenaged boys from Fort St. Anthony (later to be renamed Fort Snelling), Joe Brown and Will Snelling. The two seventeen-year-olds found the lake in 1822 by paddling up Minnehaha Creek, though few people visited the lake in the following 30 years.

In 1852, the lake was given its name by Minnesota's territorial governor Alexander Ramsey. He had been told that American Indians in the area used a phrase sounding like minn-ni-tanka, meaning “big water,” to refer to the lake. The same year, the first settlements were constructed around it, and in 1853, the first hotel was built.