Tonia Moxley (the Roanoke Times' best daily contributor, in my opinion) wrote a story on Wednesday regarding the natural draining of 50-acre Mountain Lake in Giles County. 

If you haven't been to Mountain Lake, it's the site where Dirty Dancing was filmed.  Yawn … but it's a gorgeous drive up the mountain and there are some really cool trails and things surrounding the resort. 

Anyway, the lake is one of only two naturally occurring lakes in Virginia, and one of only a handful in the world that naturally drains and then fills back up.  It has been draining for the last several years, to a point where it now holds a small amount of water that continues to recede, and is at levels unseen before.  The draining effect is supposedly a natural phenomenon, due to a large crack that formed, and according to a retired Virginia Tech biologist, this isn't the first time.  Core samples he's taken at the lake show that it's happened at least a half dozen times before in the last 4500 years.

Tonia's article highlights some of the issues the resort is facing, and then Kevin Myatt followed that up with a look at the impact weather has had on the lake.  Just found it interesting – it's a strange phenomenon, happening right here in our backyard.  If you haven't been to Mountain Lake I'd encourage you to go, if for
not other reason than to see firsthand the incredible power and
resiliency of nature at work. 

Updated 9/22/08 – these things happen when you can finally see the bottom of a lake after 90 years

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