The lake is down again. Lake McConaughy, Nebraska’s largest lake, the big reservoir on the North Platte River above Ogallala, fell below twenty-three percent of capacity by early September, and the boat ramps ended in dry gravel long before the water did. On the north shore, past the storage units and bait shops of the relocated town of Lemoyne, the lake bottom has come back into the air. Concrete foundations sit in rows along a vanished street. A raised slab marks where the vault of the Lemoyne State Bank stood. The concrete columns of an old filling station rise out of the mud. The state of Nebraska drowned this town on purpose in 1941, when Kingsley Dam closed and the reservoir began to fill. Eighty-five years later, in a dry year, the townsite is open to anyone who wants to walk it.

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