Story originally printed in the Holmen Courier or online at www.holmencourier.com
Published - Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Empty Lake Delton attracts lots of gawkers
LAKE DELTON -- Visitors have long been coming to this tourist village to be near the water and watch daredevil waterskiers.
Now some are coming to gawk at a different spectacle -- a naked lake bed exposed after flooding breached part of the shoreline earlier this month and drained the 267-acre aquatic playland.
Surburban Chicago resident Randy Perryman made the 30-mile round-trip Saturday from another event in Reedsburg just to take in the strange transformation of a sight he has visited during better times.
"How could you not see something like this?" said Perryman, 48, who was looking out from a safe and public boat ramp rather than venturing into private or prohibited areas like scores of others that afternoon.
Gawkers are a mixed blessing for this community, bringing some extra money to businesses that need it but also adding a nuisance for residents trying to move on after trying days.
"You see the very best and worst in people," said Pat Schultz, 54, whose home is one of the nearest to the site of the shoreline breach that also destroyed a section of Highway A.
In the first days after the disaster, Schultz estimates that more than 1,000 strangers tramped over her then-debris-strewn property to get a glimpse of the lake before her yard was cordoned off with police tape. But Schultz also noted the kindness of acquaintances who showed up to help her family clean up.
Around the state, gawkers have also been reported in other communities such as Janesville, where the curious have gathered to see carp swimming in floodwaters covering Main Street. But Tony Hozeny, a spokesman for Wisconsin Emergency Management, said Lake Delton -- which drew extensive press coverage in the region -- is the spot that has drawn problem onlookers.
Authorities including the National Guard have been deployed to keep people away from flooded areas in various communities due to concerns about contaminated water and unstable ground.
Lake Delton Police Sgt. Gerald Grimsled said officers have been ticketing people who ignore barricades and signs warning them to not go too near the shoreline breach, where ground is still considered unstable.
"We understand people want to see it, but the problem is they're going into closed areas," he said. "We don't want anybody to get hurt. "
And some businesses along Lake Delton have put up signs telling visitors to stay away if they're only coming to gape.
But at one of those businesses, Ravina Bay Grill & Bar, Paul and Marcy Thornburgh of Sun Prairie were sitting on a deck overlooking the dry and surprisingly odorless lakebed and eating a meal at the restaurant for the first time.
The couple said they wanted to spend money to help businesses that depended on the lake as a draw and were enjoying themselves enough to consider coming back with relatives.
With the help of regulars and at least some curious out-of-towners, Ravina Bay's business has been fairly steady, kitchen manager Tim Green said.
Not so for other lakeside businesses such as the Tommy Bartlett Show and its signature waterskiing act, where a sea of mostly empty asphalt parking stalls on Saturday matched the drained lake.
Co-owner and general manager Tom Diehl has organized a new show with acrobats and jugglers until the lake can be refilled next year, but said business in the last eight days has been only about 25 percent of an average year.
"It's a challenge, no doubt about it," said Diehl, who hopes visitors drawn to the empty lake will take the time to visit destinations like his.
"Whatever they do -- if they have to buy gas here -- it helps the local economy. "
Restoration of the lake began Friday when construction got under way on a temporary dam to prevent further erosion of the lake.
The temporary dam is being built across Dell Creek to guide it back to its natural channel.
All stories copyright 2006 Holmen Courier and other attributed sources.