For John Hackworth, visiting Lake Vesuvius brings back memories.

Tuesday, January 23, 2001

For John Hackworth, visiting Lake Vesuvius brings back memories.

Hackworth’s former homestead sits on the bottom of the lake. He was born there. His father farmed the banks of Storms Creek before it was dammed to create the lake.

Soon, Hackworth will be able to visit his childhood homestead again.

On Monday, as Hackworth looked on, employees with the Wayne National Forest opened a valve and began to slowly drain the lake.

"I’d like to see the old homestead and the old water holes," Hackworth said. "I used to live near two. One was Kaiser hole."

Hackworth was born in 1923. His father farmed the banks of Storms Creek until the family moved below the Storms Creek Narrows, the sight where the dam was built.

"Having the lake here is a great change," Hackworth said. "This used to be our livelihood. Then the farming speeded up and this wasn’t useful farmland."

Hackworth was also present the day the valve was last turned – to shut off the flow of water to Storms Creek, creating the lake.

"A man was talking about how long it would take to fill the lake," Hackworth said. "And John Wolfe said, ‘you don’t know much about this area, do you? Well, you’re in for a surprise.’"

Hackworth said that in those days a cloudburst would cause water to back up along the creek and create terrible flooding, so it didn’t take as long to fill the lake as people expected.

The lake will drain at a rate of one foot per day and within 30 days it should be completely drained.

Becky Ewing, fisheries biologist for the Wayne National Forest, said that they expect to award the contract for rehabilitation work on the dam by this summer.

The work is expected to take 10 months. The lake is expected to be dry for two years.

Hackworth isn’t the only one excited about seeing the lake drained.

"I’ve heard stories about what is at the bottom of the lake," Ewing said. "I’m eager to see."