Lake Delton

While Amanda, Jocelyn and I were in the Dells we visited Lake Delton - or what's left of Lake Delton. It was unbelievable. This story made national news about a month ago. The lake overflowed, the dam broke and the entire lake emptied out into the Wisconsin River. It's gone- Just absolutely gone!

The sign outside the world famous Tommy Bartlett water show. This show made skiers in a pyramid formation famous. We have seen the show many times and it is amazing and entertaining. Didn't stop this time around...the water show portion is my favorite. They have everything in dry dock now.
The shoreline caved in as the lake emptied out and houses broke in half and fell into the lake - like the one in the far background. Another house broke off and went floating down the river. This video made national news also. Many people lost everything and there is no flood insurance here.
Amanda and Jocelyn standing on a beach with the lake in the background. I was surprised at the amount of tree stumps in the bottom of the lake.
The beach and lake. It was a man-made very shallow lake - about 12 -20 feet deep.
It looks like the beach caved in here - the little bit of water was very stinky.
The mill in the background is featured on all of the boat tours of the lake. The Duck boat tours pass by here every few minutes on a normal day. The Ducks are those WWII land and water vehicles used to invade Normandy and in Europe. They now are very popular tour vehicles here in the Dells. They splash into the Wisconsin River and then go out across trails and into Lake Delton. It is a great ride and lots of fun!
There were sink holes toward the middle of the lake - you had to stay on the very hard sand. We met up with a guy that took one step on smooshy ground and sunk instantly up past his knees. Luckily he got out, but he was quite freaked out about it. That is someone's tackle box to the left. It had been on the bottom of the lake.

Jake visited the lake right after it emptied out and things were quite different than what we saw and smelled. People's belongings from the homes that were swept away were everywhere, dead fish were everywhere and the stench was making Jake and Hannah gag. They almost tossed their cookies. It was much more tragic when they were there.

It was quite cleaned up when we arrived - but still very sad.