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.

Angie Tylka hopes so. She and her husband Wally have owned Cliffside Resort on the lakeshore for 26 years. Memorial Day weekend "was really bad — must be the economy," she says.

Bookings for her 42 rooms dropped about 50% last summer and Tylka laid off half of her 10 employees. So far, reservations for this season are about 70% of capacity. "It doesn't look too good," she says. "I'm hoping there won't be any cancellations."

Dawn Baker is more optimistic. Reservations for the 74 rooms and cabins at Baker's Sunset Bay Resort, which were down 40% last year, are running slightly above average now, she says. People still call her and ask, "Is there any water in that lake?"

Last summer "was a nightmare," Baker says. After the lake drained, she cut back to 10 housekeepers from her usual 15; she's back up to 15 this summer.

"We're a little worried about the economy, but we're a tank of gas away from Minneapolis and Chicago," she says. Some customers tell her they're scrapping visits to distant destinations and staying closer to home.

The Visitor & Convention Bureau says Memorial Day weekend suggested that travelers are looking for cheaper accommodations: The number of reservations for the area's 3,000 campsites was up as much as 30%.

Phil Smith of Milwaukee was looking for bargains when he planned a week's vacation here with his wife Susan and their three children. "I negotiated the rate I wanted with the motel and we're being careful about what we spend on meals," he says.

Would they have gone elsewhere if Lake Delton was still empty? "You betcha," he says.

The lake's return has many people here feeling relieved. "Last year was miserable" for business and fun, says Tim Green, kitchen manager at Ravina Bay, a restaurant/bar on the lake. "We play a lot on the lake, too."

Marcus Huffman, who works for Lake Delton Water Sports, doesn't mind getting splashed with water as he helps pull a pontoon out of the lake and onto a trailer. "It's great to have back the things that we always took for granted," he says.