UNDATED -- The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is encouraging some shoreland owners to consider removing their boats and pontoons earlier than normal due to ongoing drought conditions.
In some cases, the DNR says seasonally docked watercraft may be difficult to remove for the season as the water levels continue to drop.
Shoreland owners at especially shallow lakes are at the greatest risk for problems this fall if the conditions continue to worsen.
As water levels continue to drop, many boaters are also experiencing problems launching and landing their boats at public landings.
The DNR is out repairing the landings and extending them where possible, but little can be done in naturally shallow areas or landings with damage from power loading. This creates deep holes at the end of the ramp when boaters use their motor to "power-load" their boats onto the trailer.
LOOK: Here are the best lake towns to live in
Many of the included towns jump out at the casual observer as popular summer-rental spots--the Ozarks' Branson, Missouri, or Arizona's Lake Havasu--it might surprise you to dive deeper into some quality-of-life offerings beyond the beach and vacation homes. You'll likely pick up some knowledge from a wide range of Americana: one of the last remaining 1950s-style drive-ins in the Midwest; a Florida town that started as a Civil War veteran retirement area; an island boasting some of the country's top public schools and wealth-earners right in the middle of a lake between Seattle and Bellevue; and even a California town containing much more than Johnny Cash's prison blues.
LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America
Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out,
Stacker consulted
data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the
full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.
Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.
LOOK: Here is the richest town in each state
Just saying the names of these towns immediately conjures up images of grand mansions, luxury cars, and ritzy restaurants. Read on to see which town in your home state took the title of the richest location and which place had the highest median income in the country. Who knows—your hometown might even be on this list.
