The abandoned houses jutting up through the waters of Fish Lake in Northwest Dane County are haunting, reminders of lives left behind and the power of nature to take back what belongs to it. But in winter, when the lake is frozen, the scene becomes even more surreal.
Take a look at these recent photos snapped during a recent visit by Adam and Skye Rust, the owners of my favorite oddities shop, Woolly Mammoth in Chicago:
Adam is a Wisconsin native and knows all the best creepy places to visit.
About the Abandoned Houses of Fish Lake
Fish Lake isn’t your typical Wisconsin paddling destination. It’s a place where the water has steadily consumed the land, leaving a unique and eerie tableau on the water. The lake has experienced flooding since at least the 1980s, but conditions worsened dramatically in the early 2000s as groundwater levels rose and the lake (a seepage lake with no natural outlet) simply kept filling.
Without a way for excess water to escape, levels climbed higher and higher, inundating shorelines, roads, and eventually the very places people once called home.
Today, Fish Lake offers a haunting paddling experience as canoes and kayaks float quietly past abandoned houses and remnants of roads now permanently underwater. Many residents accepted buyouts from Dane County as early as the mid-2000s and into the 2010s when rising water repeatedly threatened structures. Others eventually had no choice but to leave as persistent flooding made their properties unlivable.
For those who paddle its quiet reaches, Fish Lake is a liminal place where abandoned houses rise above the water as markers of a landscape transformed, and where visitors can trace the contours of a flooded neighborhood reclaimed by nature.
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