Drained in '08, Delton lake is back
Drained during storm in '08, Delton's cleaner, deeper
LAKE DELTON, Wis. -- On a wall inside the office of Lake Delton Watersports is tacked a newspaper from June 2008. The headline hollers: "A CATASTROPHE.''
The Madison paper wasn't peddling hyperbole. Indeed, the fickle ways of Mother Nature and man's efforts to control her collided here in a bizarre event last summer.
(AP)
Heavy rains -- a deluge of up to 18 inches in two days -- first forced the man-made lake to overflow and then caused the water to burst through a dike wall, effectively emptying the 267-acre boating and fishing spot into the Wisconsin River.
Out went the water -- and some of the attraction of the Wisconsin Dells, particularly for the dozens of small resorts that rim the lake.
Today, the sign out in front of Lake Delton Watersports announces, "The Lake Is Back!"
Some say better than ever, given that the draining allowed for the removal of settled trash that had accumulated on the bottom since it was created in 1927. And while it might be some time before the fishing returns to normal -- thousands of minnows and 9,000 walleye fingerlings were added as part of the effort to restock the lake -- the carp were also eradicated.
"We basically had to restart the ecology," said Steve Zowin, whose family operates Lake Delton Watersports.
As the famous Tommy Bartlett's Thrill Show points out, "even the water is new" -- diverted from Dell Creek.
"It's cleaner,'' said Zowin, mentioning that in addition to the usual junk you might expect to find on the bottom of a lake -- decades of drink cans and other party debris -- crews uncovered handguns from the 1930s as well as a $20,000 ring.
One year without being able to rent watercraft on Lake Delton -- Zowin's company offers ski boats, pontoons, kayaks, canoes and WaveRunners -- was tough. But the Big Drain drew widespread publicity.
"I had a friend in Iraq and he was in the mess tent. CNN was on and a bunch of the soldiers, said, 'Hey, aren't you from Lake Delton?... Dude, your lake is emptying,' " Zowin said. "More people know we exist now.''
Some old stumps were removed during the cleanup and the lake is actually deeper in some parts, which could help improve the fishing within the next couple of years, Zowin estimated.
But there's plenty of fun to be had there this summer.
Zowin provided a WaveRunner -- a kind of snowmobile for water that usually rents for $60 a half hour -- for me and my daughter to buzz around the big pond. Exceeding speeds of 40 miles an hour, the Runner can be used to skim the tops of waves, similar to how stones can be skipped off water. Drivers and riders wear flotation vests, and a cord attached to the driver automatically kills the engine should the riders fall off -- a not uncommon, nor necessarily dangerous, occurrence if your driving tends to be on the aggressive side. A bonus: you can park in the lake near the Bartlett show and watch some waterskiing for free.
If you don't want to drive a vessel but do want to get a good look at the "new" Lake Delton, Zowin also offers parasailing. You're basically pulled behind a boat while floating through the sky on a parachute. The 10-minute flight costs 60 bucks.
"Yesterday, I had an 89-year-old great-grandmother go,'' Zowin said. "If she can do it, anybody can."
For more information, contact Lake Delton Watersports at (608) 254-8702.
Andrew Herrmann is managing editor at the Sun-Times.