Going, Going ... A Lake Disappears

Located in the heart of Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, Gouldsboro Lake was created from a smaller lake in the early 1900s to provide ice for refrigeration. During winter, lake ice was cut, stored in warehouses, and later shipped via the adjacent Erie-Lackawanna Railroad (once owned by railroad tycoon Jay Gould) to cities up and down the East Coast of the United States. When the ice industry died out in the 1940s, the 250-acre lake was developed for recreational purposes. Gouldsboro State Park, which opened in the late 1950s, includes a beach and swimming area, nearby picnic tables, as well as boating and fishing facilities. Challenging hiking trails were cut through the woods (State Game Lands) and along sections of the old Pennsylvania Route 611.

The lake's dam, originally built in 1900, showed signs of decay over the years, and was patched with minor repairs on rare occasions until the Commonwealth's Division Of Dam Safety recommended that the structure be replaced. Drawdown began in January 2005 when the dam's spillway gate was lifted. Since then, water has continued to drain or evaporate from the lake. With a line item in the current state budget for dam design and replacement, local residents hope that construction will begin in Spring 2006.

From March 2005, this is a long view of the lake, looking towards the beach at Gouldsboro State Park. The shoreline has barely begun to change.

When the lake is at maximum capacity, water depth reaches only 10 or 12 feet in some areas. At the far end, near the State Park area, tree stumps from decades ago quickly emerged into the open air as the water level dropped.



This is a nearly identical perspective from late May 2005. The shoreline has retreated significantly, revealing rocks, tree stumps, railroad ties, icehouse foundations, anchors, and even a few bottles and beer cans thrown into the water over the years.

In some areas of the lakebed, huge beds of gravel have been laid bare. In others, mud or even standing water prevails, fed by springs or streams draining into the lake.


This is the same view from early September 2005. Grass, wildflowers, and various weeds have begun to colonize the exposed lakebed. The water in the background is a little higher than might be expected after a hot summer; recent rains brought the lake level back up for a few weeks, to mid-June levels.

Locals feared that stagnant standing water would lead to mosquito infestation, but this did not appear to have happened during the summer of 2005.