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The greatest show on H20 doesn't have any H20.
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Tourists look out over the empty Lake Delton Tuesday, July 15, 2008, in Lake Delton, Wis. In a bizarre disaster-in-reverse, torrential rains in June blew a giant hole in Lake Delton's shoreline. The lake drained away, taking vacation homes with it and leaving behind a muddy moonscape of stumps and puddles. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) |
In a bizarre disaster-in-reverse, torrential rains in June blew a giant hole in Lake Delton's shoreline. The lake drained away, taking vacation homes with it and leaving behind a muddy moonscape of stumps and puddles.
Now the resorts, restaurants and boat rental shops that hitched their survival to the water are barely hanging on.
``We just have never seen anything like this,'' said Dawn Baker, co-owner of Sunset Bay Resort. ``Unless someone can come up with a fantastic idea, I don't know.''
Chicago building contractor William J. Newman built Lake Delton in the 1920s as a tourist draw just outside a settlement that later would be known as Wisconsin Dells, about 50 miles northwest of Madison.
Today the condos, cottages and resorts that ring the lake and the mega-water parks, restaurants and hotels in Wisconsin Dells are a destination for tourists from around the country. Travelers spent more than a billion dollars in the area last year.
Wisconsin Dells is thriving again this year. But it all came crashing down for Lake Delton on June 9.
Rounds of thunderstorms that flooded southern Wisconsin washed out a 700-foot section of earth that separated the lake from the Wisconsin River. The 270-acre lake rushed through the breach, washing away a section of highway and five shoreline homes in the process. Video of the houses breaking in half and floating away was broadcast around the world.
Now the three dozen or so business on the lake-turned-mud hole are trying to survive.
Sunset Bay Resort's Web site implores people not to cancel reservations: ``The view of the lake is not bad, it's just different.'' The first part is a matter of opinion, the second indisputable — instead of a pool of cool, blue-black water, its guests are treated to a muddy desert dotted by stumps, buoys and junk.
Baker, the resort's owner, said her revenue is down 60 percent from last year. She said media accounts that suggest the Dells area is underwater are keeping people away.
``We've lost a tremendous amount of business,'' she said. ``Watching those houses go in the lake over and over again, I wish it would just stop.''
Terry Jacobson owned two of those houses. He estimates they were worth $1.5 million together.
He rented them out as vacation condos. He runs two other resorts in Wisconsin, but thinks the breach has cost him $30,000 in revenue so far this summer.
``Our finances are a disaster,'' he said.
Steve Zowin and his wife, Kathy, own Lake Delton Water Sports, a watercraft rental shop. He has tried to relocate some of his fleet to another lake, but estimates 90 percent of his business was on Lake Delton and it's been tough to get word out that he's moved.
He said business on July 4, one of the busiest times of the year, was down 88 percent from last year.
``I can't wait for this summer to be over, to be honest,'' Zowin said.
Things haven't been much easier for the Tommy Bartlett show.
The show with its signature water-ski demonstrations has been a Wisconsin fixture for decades, billing itself as the greatest show on H2O.
A banner proclaims Bartlett is now the greatest show off H2O. Owner Tom Diehl has filled the ski segment with a juggler and a man who can produce the sound of galloping horses and gunshots with his mouth. Aqua T. Clown is still around, but instead of skiing he runs onto the lake bottom and pulls a giant drain plug from behind the beached ski jumps.
Several of Diehl's friends own unaffected resorts. They bought up blocks of Bartlett tickets and gave them to their guests.
But Diehl estimates his revenue is down 90 percent from a year ago, and his 26 skiers had to find new summer jobs.
``A lot of people think we're closed up,'' Diehl said. ``The hard part is getting people to cross the threshold and buy a ticket.''
The Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau has offered Lake Delton resorts discount tickets to other area attractions.
Gov. Jim Doyle has freed up $250,000 in grants to help tourist businesses statewide cope with flooding. The state Tourism Department has mounted a public relations campaign in Chicago and the Twin Cities to dispel the perception Wisconsin is underwater. The agency also offers discount deals on its Web site.
Workers are drawing up plans to repair the breach and refill the lake, too. Tourism Secretary Kelli A. Trumble said the water should be back by next summer.
That won't help Bill Stecky, who runs a bait shop and boat rental on Lake Delton.
He said the breach has cost him 50 percent of his revenue, forcing him to refinance. Even if the lake comes back, it will take years for the fish to return, he said.
And Bartlett fans still will be left with jugglers and clowns this summer.
James Beckom, 37, of Beach Park, Ill., attended a Bartlett show courtesy of a free ticket from the Kalahari Resort. He said he went to one as a kid, and this one didn't measure up.
``A little bit of sadness,'' he said as he watched juggler T.J. Howell fling his ``Machetes of Death'' over his head. ``I remember the place being filled up.''
