Lake Delton back in business a year after going dry
LAKE DELTON, Wis. -- When Bill Stecky arrives for work at Schleef's Bait & Tackle every morning, he glances over at the lake to make sure it's still there.
For much of the past year, Lake Delton was empty, and Stecky avoided looking at the dry lake bed that dried up traffic at the store he has owned for 30 years.
One year ago today, heavy rainfall filled the 267-acre man-made lake until businesses and homes on its banks began to flood. Then the rising water broke through an embankment and the entire lake drained into the Wisconsin River.
The bizarre episode devastated this village, population 2,820, and neighboring Wisconsin Dells, which has 2,486 residents. The lake is the recreational centerpiece of a vacation hub that features resorts, water parks and scores of other attractions. Tourism creates 24,415 area jobs.
Stecky lost 75% of his usual revenue. Few customers needed fishing gear and his 12 rental boats "sat in the mud all summer," he says. He added t-shirts reading "Wetter is better: summer '09" to his inventory.
The lake has been restocked with minnows that won't be mature enough for fishing for a couple years, but now that a new tourist season has arrived, Stecky's daily view of blue water is a sign that business will improve. "We survived this, we can survive anything," he says.
Lake Delton has been repaired and refilled, and the community celebrates today with a boat parade, a speech by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and other festivities. The upbeat mood is tempered, though, by concern that the recession will force some families to skip vacations this summer.
Last summer, businesses here offered discounts to lure vacationers who might be deterred by the lake's disappearance and record high gas prices. It worked: Tourism spending in the area neared the $1.07 billion mark, up 3.9% from 2007.
Romy Snyder of the Wisconsin Dells Visitor & Convention Bureau expects the trend to continue. "The things that have always brought people here in good times are the same things people appreciate when budgets are tight," she says.
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