The Ghost Marina of Lake Cumberland
Down at Lake Cumberland, KY an abandoned marina/dock is quietly floating by.
A few weeks ago my good friend Sam was down with some folks at Lake Cumberland when they came across this abandoned marina just quietly floating along. They took their jet skis to it and Sam captured these photos with his iPhone. According to some people he spoke to down there, the dock apparently closed in 2009 and broke away in 2010. Since then it has floated roughly five miles down stream.
In an August 31, 2010 article from the Commonwealth Journal of Somerset, KY, it was reported that the current owners were requesting assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with removing large amounts of debris that were being washed up by heavy rains.
Currently the marina is just slowly drifting along with its rotting docks, an empty building, quiet gas pumps and parts of a pontoon boat in one of the Commonwealth's biggest destinations. According to Sam, the only tenants using the dock currently seem to be mosquitoes.
If you know more about the place, feel free to shoot me an email.
Thanks for the photos, Sam!
EDIT: Per an email from reader Michael W.:
"THE REAL STORY
The marina was originally located at buck creek boat ramp about 5 miles away from omega. When they was working on the dam they had to let the water down, doing so caused buck creek to be too shallow. So it was moved to omega, it was up for sale for $100,000 someone was in the process of buying it then it fell through. One night a big storm came through and broke all the cables to the anchors which caused the marina to float all lake Cumberland. The person who was trying to buy it at the time went through lake Cumberland finding pieces and bringing it back to omega. As the result of the storm the marina was badly damaged in some places. Last year they scrapped the whole thing
I've lived here my whole life I know what I'm taking about."
"My family rented a houseboat from a German guy named Willie who owned the dock back 20+ years ago. I have attached a picture of my souvenir hat from the place. Willie ran the dock and a bait shop our of that building you see in the pictures. His wife did real estate out of their home. He constantly complained that all she did was eat and talk on the phone. The houseboat was pretty shaky but we had a blast probably the best real vacation we ever had."
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| - William's hat from the dock. |