Brief History
In 1926 William J. Newman, a building contractor from Chicago began acquiring property and flowage rights of the Dell Creek, Dell Creek marsh, and the hills around it. About 2000 acres were purchased by the Dells Area Development Company including Eliza Bement’s Dawn Manor Holdings and the Sarrington’s mill and farmland. Ralph Hines was hired to supervise the actual work of the lake building which began the winter of 1926-1927. The gate of the dam closed in April 1927 and only took about a month to fill the lake. Lake Delton was dammed solely for recreation, one of Wisconsin’s first and best–publicized recreational lakes. June 9, 2008, due to the flooding in the area the lake washed out into the Wisconsin River. (The area on Lake Delton known as the Beach Gardens Swimming Area in 1927’s/Anchor Bay in 1970’s washed out to the Wisconsin River area known as the Kilbourn Country Club Beach at Dawn Manor in 1910/ PurpleGrackle Dance Hall 1932/ Cross Bow Dance Club 1960s) On November 26, 2008, the reconstruction on County Hwy A was complete and the road reopened. The gates closed on April 3, 2009, and the lake was completely filled by April 28th.
