After nearly seven decades, the curtain has closed on one of Wisconsin’s top tourist attractions.
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Boats formerly used to pull water skiers in the Tommy Bartlett Show have been stored in a garage this summer.
Signatures of workers associated with the Tommy Bartlett Show are pictured on a ledger that marked the business' 60th anniversary.
Memorabilia from 68 years of entertaining vacationers fills the Tommy Bartlett Show's office. For many, the show evoked memories of endless summers from childhood.
The Tommy Bartlett stage area sat high and dry after floodwaters breached a bank of Lake Delton and drained the lake on June 9, 2008.
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Social media reaction to closing of the Tommy Bartlett show
Scary Alvarez tweet
— Scary Alvarez (@barryisthedon) September 16, 2020
Kyle T tweet
One of the first memories I have in my life is when I was 2 or 3 years old watching my dad fly the kite at the Tommy Bartlett show. That place is the reason I'm from the Dells. This makes me so so so sad. I hate COVID so goddamn much. https://t.co/QmwwpfW701
— Kyle T (@kyletheiler4) September 16, 2020
Peter Sagal tweet
I have never seen the Tommy Bartlett show and yet I still feel this as a terrible loss to the the region's culture. The Tommy Bartlett show is the Bamiyan Buddhas of Wisconsin. https://t.co/M45Pwo9DqW
— Peter Sagal (@petersagal) September 16, 2020
Staceu Grosnick tweet
So glad I saw this last year!
— Stacey Grosnick (@StaceyGPT) September 16, 2020
Kim Vanderwall tweet
I have never gone to see the Tommy Bartlett. And now I feel a strange nostalgia/sadness for the kitschiness that I will never get to see. Is this how the end of days really hits?
— Kim Vanderwall (@KimSVanderwall) September 16, 2020
Janet Scott tweet
Now I know we are doomed.
— Janet Scott (@jls0113) September 16, 2020
Sam Wunderle tweet
Never saw the Tommy Bartlett Show. Always seemed like a program that might show up as part of a scene in an old Bill Murray movie though based on the billboards.
— Sam Wunderle (@Sam_Wunderle) September 16, 2020
RIP billboards
RIP Wisconsin Billboardshttps://t.co/m6gu3haUAO
— Least Famous John Egan (@JohnEganComedy) September 16, 2020
I've never seen the Tommy Bartlett show...
I’ve never seen the Tommy Bartlett show, but feel like I have after passing the 10,000,000 billboards for it outside of the Dells https://t.co/DcUO117oSN
— Kate Malmon (@saintkate) September 16, 2020
Photos: Relive draining of Lake Delton in epic 2008 floods
Lake Delton broke through a 400- to 500-foot section of primarily sand underneath Highway A on June 9, 2008, and drained the 267-acre lake into the Wisconsin River. Five homes on the lake were destroyed and several businesses on the lake lost millions of dollars in revenue.
The stage area for the Water Ski shows put on by Tommy Bartlett on Lake Delton sits on the lake bottom after floodwaters breached the bank and drained the lake June 9, 2008.
A washed-out Highway A was damaged when the water ran out of Lake Delton on June 9, 2008.
Another view of the new channel created when floodwaters caused water to run out of Lake Delton on June 9, 2008. Several houses were destroyed.
Boats were left dry when the water ran out of Lake Delton near the Wisconsin Dells on June 9, 2008.
Sauk County officials stand on the edge of a collapsed portion of Highway A near the village of Lake Delton on June 9, 2008.
Boats were left dry when the water ran out of Lake Delton near the Wisconsin Dells on June 9, 2008.
The view of what was left of Lake Delton on Monday, June 9, 2008.
People wade in what remains of Lake Delton near the Tommy Bartlett Show, the location of well-known water ski shows, on June 9, 2008.
You can see the bottom of Lake Dalton on June 9, 2008.
Walking on the bottom of what used to be Lake Delton on June 9, 2008, Tyson Holtz uses a metal detector to search for formerly sunken treasure. The lake drained through a new channel it cut for itself into the Wisconsin River.
Lake Delton was still dry July 17, 2008, after a flood ruptured a road embankment and drained the lake in the Wisconsin Dells area.
Linda Allessi, owner of Sandrift Resort, sits near her resort's empty beach on Lake Delton and tosses bread to a duck on July 17, 2008. The flood that drained Lake Delton resulted in a secondary flood of cancellations at small resorts along the dry lake.
Linda, left, and Chris Allessi sit on the dock of their resort overlooking drained Lake Delton on July 17, 2008.
Businesses that could remove stranded boats from Lake Delton were in demand after a June flood washed out a road and drained the lake in the popular vacation resort area of Wisconsin Dells.
Boats had to be removed from the dry lake. Lake Delton is pictured here July 17, 2008.
An aerial photo taken June 21, 2008, of the drained Lake Delton.
A home near the 254-acre Lake Delton was damaged when floodwaters breached the bank and drained the lake June 9, 2008.
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