Devils Lake rising: both a blessing and a curse
By Louise Oleson,
The flooding of Devils Lake that continues today has become a blessing and a curse for the community that surrounds it.
Devils Lake has become a billion-dollar fishery and recreation destination. Year-round anglers and vacationers flock to the area because of the lake and all it has to offer.
Resorts, campgrounds, bait shops, marinas and restaurants have sprung up around the shores of the once nearly dry and barren lake.
With the lake’s flooding has come the walleye, northern pike, perch, white bass and other fish that anglers seek.
Tourism has become a top industry in the Lake Region second only to agriculture in its economic impact.
That’s the blessing.
No one knows how long th flooding of Devils Lake will continue, but experts are divided – see say it could continue another 10, 20, 30 years while others are convinced the worst part is over and the lake will begin to go down. Still others are just as convinced it will stabilize and remain pretty much as it has become.
Time will tell.
Whatever is to come for the lake, millions of dollars have been spent by federal, state, local government and residents to address the rising waters of Devils Lake.
That’s the curse.Roads have been raised, bridges built, homes and businesses moved or destroyed and more may be on the way.
The Devils Lake Basin covers 3,810 square miles. 3,320 square mies are tributary to Devils Lake and the remainder drains into Stump Lake. The two are now equalized and few know what will happen if the flooding continues from this point on.
There are eight drainage sub-basins draining into Devils Lake – the Edmore Coulee, Starkweather Coulee, the Calio or St. Joe Coulee and the North Slope and South Slope sub-basins. The Stump Lake sub-basin is part of the Devils Lake basin, but does not drain into Devils Lake.
The highest estimated elevation for the lake in historic times – prior to 1997 – was 1,441 feet above sea level (Mal) in 1830. The highest accurate measurement prior to 1996 was 1,438 feet mil in 1867. The lake level in June of 1997 was 1,442.2. Today it remains steady at 1,447.
Devils Lake declined fairly steadily for 50 years after the city of Devils Lake was founded and reached its lowest elevation of 1,400.9 feet msl in 1940. At that time the lake’s area was just 10.2 square miles. When the lake reached 1,428 feet msl in 1987 it covered 94 square miles. At an elevation of 1,444 the lake covered 164 square miles.
According to a report from the June 1997 Flood Edition of the Devils Lake Journal, “the lake contained 675,000 acre-feet of water at an elevation of 1,425 feet msl. The lake will hold an estimated 1.6 million acre-feet at an elevation of 1,443 msl. That is enough to cover the entire basin with 7.8 inches of water.”