As water receded, mystery grew

By Patric Hedlund with the TME team

It was back in August 2016 that the lovely little pond at the heart of Frazier Mountain Park became the center of mystery and dread. Fiesta Days was unable to hold the town’s annual fishing derby because the water level in the pond became too low to stock with trout. Suddenly the question “Why is this happening?” was being asked everywhere. Everyone became a detective…and…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Springtime has always been a time of celebration at Frazier Mountain Park pond—a delight to children and families. When migratory birds used to pass through, some stayed to breed and hatch babies. This little family is from a pond up the road, now that Frazier Mountain Park pond is heading into its third dry year.

From the Fiesta Days fishing derby in 2013…

Water receded dramatically in 2016.

Until it was totally gone, and didn’t return.

The ad hoc Frazier Mountain Park Pond Brain Trust (l-r) park caretaker Russ Siebers, co-founder of the Fiesta Days Fishing Derby Cliff Carlisle, Richard Sheffield of Lake of the Woods and Drew Lesso of Lebec, all brainstorming with The Mountain Enterprise about constructive steps to take to save the pond. They were also helping to reconstruct the history of the pond’s water supply.

In 2016 Cliff Carlisle (a pipeline contractor) and Richard Sheffield show The Mountain Enterprise the pipe that runs into the west side of the pond, which used to carry spring water from the meadow.

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This is part of the April 26, 2019 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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