Business and Tourism Impacts of Lakes Menomin and Tainter

Abstract

I remember how Lake Menomin complimented Menomonie as we first drove pass it on our way to the dorms. Being in the center of the town, I had originally thought the lake would be filled with swimmers, boaters, and more. But to my surprise, the lake was hardly being used. I understood the lake had algal blooms, but for the first five weeks the water was deep blue, clear, and seemed just as usable as any other lake. During our first week, our professors mentioned how popular the lake was in the winter and how it is filled with lots of activities, people, food, beer and fun. Where was this in the summer?

After hearing oral histories regarding how the lake used to be central to summer activities in Menomonie in the ’60s, ’70s and even ’80s, I became interested in understanding how the polluted lake impacted business and tourism in Menomonie. Residents often spoke about how they used to swim at Wakanda Beach when they were younger with their friends and families, and how much of a community center the lake used to be with more visitors and lake-centered businesses. I was curious to see how and why this declined and what the future potential a clean lake could hold for local business, tourism, and the Menomonie community. I interviewed several business owners and others who were associated with the tourism industry in the city and in Dunn County to better understand how pollution affects Menomonie in the summer.

One finding was that some in the business community expressed that algal blooms during the summer months negatively impact business. In addition, some in the business community also expressed frustration about the progress of lake clean-up efforts and perceived policy actors as being unsupportive. These two findings are not surprising, but they helped to support my third and most significant finding: that most of those I interviewed did not discuss the lake at all when discussing positive attributes of Menomonie. Many would talk about all the other wonderful things Menomonie has to offer, such as the red cedar bike trails, the historic Mabel-Tainter, and more, but the lake never made their list—not even as a potential selling point.

While many may agree that Lake Menomin is not a tourist attraction during the summer, the most surprising part about these interviews was that people expressed fatalism towards the progress of the lake’s water quality and its future integration into a vibrant community space. Other lake-centered communities were even brought up as examples of why Menomonie would never become a vibrant tourist destination: because there was too much competition with other lake-centered cities, Lake Menomin was perceived as being too small, and the land surrounding the lake was not developed to enhance the view of lake or its qualities. More specifically, those in the tourism industry expressed other focuses that Menomonie could work towards instead, such as agri-tourism and its growing biking community. As I took a step back and looked at my research data, it was clear that the business community is largely working around the lake rather than working with it.