Beaver Lake Deaths Not Affecting Tourism
by July 23, 2001 12:00 am 1,782 views
After going 22 months without a fatality, four people have died this summer on Beaver Lake, one of Northwest Arkansas’ largest tourist destinations.
But the accidents apparently don’t seem to be affecting tourism there, said Sean Harper, chief ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the lake.
“In a general sense, we have parks that are full,” Harper said. “Everything is tracking normally.”
A total of 449,221 people visited the 28,220-acre lake in June. That’s up 5.4 percent from 426,226 in June 2000. Official counts for July won’t be available until August, Harper said.
Two deaths resulted from a boating accident and two were caused by drowning, said Deputy Tom Brewster of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
Since the lake was formed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1960s, 93 people have drowned there, Brewster said.
And not all of those bodies have been recovered. On July 15, someone on a jet ski found part of a human leg floating in the lake. Brewster said it was the tibia and fibula bones (from the knee down) that still had a tennis shoe on the foot. Police suspect it may belong to a paraplegic who they believe fell from his boat and drowned in the lake in 1989.
“The record, I believe, is a body that came up five years after it was reported missing,” Brewster said. “You’re talking about a lake with 200 feet of water in it.”
The 22-month stint without a fatality was almost a record, Brewster said. The longest period without a fatality there was two years.
In addition to fatalities on the lake, the body of a woman was discovered in the lake in June. Two men are currently in custody and being charged with capital murder in Madison County in relation to that apparent homicide.
In spite of the tragedies at the lake this summer, Harper said, there have been some positives. Weather has been cooler, and there have been no burn bans, he said.
Beaver Lake has 449 miles of shoreline. Three-fourths of Beaver Lake is in Benton County. The remainder is in Carroll County.