The muddy remains of Minnesota's Lake Alice
The DNR is working on a fix to the man-made lake
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On Saturday, most people at William O’Brien State Park were relaxing and enjoying the fall colors, but 11-year-old Levi Caucutt was on a mission: save the fish in the muddy remnant of Lake Alice.
In early August, park supervisor Wayne Boerner tried to lower the lake’s water level to prevent it from flooding after a rainy month. A culvert underneath an earthen dike and paved path connects Lake Alice and the St. Croix River.
A culvert cover can be raised or lowered with an aboveground key to control the water level of the lake. Park staff routinely manage the water level of the man-made lake this way; but this time, the 65-year-old metal mechanism failed.
“I stood here for about three hours in the rain trying to fix it,” Boerner said.
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However, the culvert cover was underwater, and it was difficult to see what had gone wrong. Boerner said decades of the metal mechanism being submerged had taken its toll.
Ultimately, park staff decided to let the lake drain, leaving behind a small amount of water Boerner now calls “Alice Creek.”
Boerner said this isn’t the first time the lake has drained. Staff have intentionally drained it in the past to kill off weeds, leaving a pool for the fish. However, this summer’s drainage was unintended, and the broken valve meant the usual pool couldn’t be left for the fish.
However, not all the fish died, as Levi discovered Saturday.
In just a few hours, he and his sister Vivi, 13, caught around 10 little fish and carried them in their hands up over the earthen dike and footpath down the other side to release them in the St. Croix River.
Levi said he and his family come to William O’Brien State Park every year and he loved to fish at Lake Alice.
This year, he arrived with his fishing rod and a plastic jar of fresh worms from the local gas station only to find a mostly dry lakebed and shoe-sucking mud.
“When I first saw it, I was questioning a lot, because it’s just kind of a man-made lake. And so I was questioning if they’re just trying to get rid of it, or if it drained,” Levi said.
“I was really annoyed because it was a really fun lake.”
Boerner said, in the past few months, the lake has drawn extra visitors to the park, with people traveling from out of state to walk in the dry lakebed.
It’s not clear when the valve will be fixed or the lake refilled. A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources spokesperson said after a full inspection, it became obvious repairing the valve would be complicated.
In the meantime, park visitors can enjoy the rest of the park, which totals more than 1,600 acres of natural lands and campgrounds just south of Taylors Falls.
Boerner added that Lake Alice is providing an educational opportunity for parkgoers to learn more about how staff manage natural lands. The unintentional fish kill also got rid of invasive carp, so Boerner said when Lake Alice comes back, its ecosystem will be healthier than ever.
