For much of 2008, it was a mostly empty lake basin after a portion of a county highway that forms part of the dike wall eroded on June 9, 2008, under the pressure of floods in the area.

The resulting wash out caused the lake to empty into the Wisconsin River, leaving behind only rainwater pools and the flow from Dell Creek.

Minor repairs were expected to continue after that time, but the lake is now completely refilled and has been usable since Memorial Day weekend of 2009.

After taking title to the tracts, Newman brought engineers and construction crews to the area, who built a 30 feet (9.1 m) high dam near the confluence of Dell Creek and the Wisconsin River.

[2] Newman was particularly knowledgeable about dam and dike construction as his companies had done a majority of the caisson work that downtown Chicago skyscrapers are built upon.

They built a lock between the lake and the Wisconsin River to allow small boats and canoes to travel between the bodies of water.

[2][8] To decorate his own summer home on Lake Delton, Newman transported several sculptures and concrete blocks he saved from the rubble of Midway Gardens (1913, Chicago, Illinois; demolished 1929), the last of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style buildings, which had stood near the Lake Michigan shoreline in downtown Chicago.

As recently as 1999, a block was found buried on the property of Newman's old summer home on Lake Delton and was donated to the Chicago Historical Society.

[10] By the 1980s, the Lake Delton strip had become home to waterparks, resorts and other recreational facilities that made it a mecca for travelers from across the United States.

In fact, the local village website boasts that "4.5 million visitors come to the Wisconsin Dells-Lake Delton area each year.

[15] On the morning of June 9, 2008, a 400-foot (120 m) portion of County Trunk Highway A that traverses the north side of Lake Delton failed, creating a new drainage channel to the Wisconsin River.

[13] "We have nothing but mud in front of us now," said Tom Diehl, operator of the Tommy Bartlett Show and a Lake Delton village trustee.

[18] Russ Rasmussen, director of watershed management for the DNR, said restoring Lake Delton will be more involved than simply filling in the new channel.

[24] Illusionists Rick and Suzan Wilcox staged a show on June 22, 2008, to benefit families who lost their homes in the Lake Delton flood.

In addition, visitors to Noah's Ark Waterpark on June 21, 2008, helped the victims of Lake Delton with the price of admission.

[25] A bipartisan congressional effort worked to provide emergency federal funds to midwest areas affected by the June 2008 floods.