Travel Journal
Going through Nebraska, we almost always stop at Lemoyne, on the north shore of Lake McConaughy, the largest lake in the state – almost 22 miles long and and more than 30,000 acres when full.
As a kid in Nebraska, I spent quite a few weekends – and sometimes longer – at my grandfather’s family’s cabin at Lemoyne. I knew the immediate area and the shoreline pretty well.
When we stopped in September 2007, it had been several years since the last time we had been there and the lake had been low that time. In 2007, it was even lower, lower than I had ever seen it.
Where’s the lake?
I had seen the lake quite low back in the 60s, low enough that I could walk most of the way out and wade across the stream at this point to get to the base of that hill on the other side.
This time, though, the lake had been low enough that trees had grown up along the stream.
The long drought, though seems to be over and the lake level is at a much higher level. When we stopped at the same point last week, this is what we saw:
There’s the lake!
The trees out in the lake will die, unless the western states go back into a drought and the lake level drops again.
While the level is higher than it has been in years, it is still several feet below 100% capacity. To the left of the boat dock, there is a large limestone rock, completely out of water when I took this picture, that I can remember being totally under water and 20 to 30 feet from shore and, even then, the lake level wasn’t at it all time highest.
Lake McConaughy, sometimes referred to as “Big Mac,” is the most popular recreation area in the state of Nebraska.
(Each travel journal post is published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About .)
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Hi Mike,
From the sound of it, revisiting the lake brought back a lot of memories. I know when I’ve visited my home town I’m surprised at how things have changed. In some ways I’d almost prefer not to see the changes but to live with the memories from the past. *sigh*
Very interesting!
I hear ya Barbara. I know change is inevitable, but I , like most people, hate change. So I just live with my many happy memories. I spent so many weekends and weeks during the summer growing up at Big Mac during it’s full capacity period, before they dropped the level for full capacity after the damage to the dam in 1972. I move to Tucson in 1988 and the summer of 88 was the last time I was at Big Mac. It was starting to go down some then, but all the original boat ramps were still in service. I like to remember those times. I am glad I have been so far from Nebraska during the drought years. It would have broken my heart to visit the lake with so little water. Heck my first wards as a baby were at Lake McConaughy, no no no not mama or papa, my first word was Walleye. No, really, it’s true. Oh the good memories from Big Mac.
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