Yellow Dog Lake, a family owned business, is a dream realized. My family and I grew up with water sports being the main activity of our summer life. I started skiing at the age of 5 on a 3 mile lake in North East Indiana and fell in love with the sport. I continued to experiment with all types of skiing such as knee board, two skis, slalom, and wakeboarding. All the time fighting the one constant problem that plagues all skiers, rough water and other boats. Colleagues and I attempted to beat the crowds by getting up at 5am before work and boarding or running the course. So when my family decided to relocate from Columbus Ohio to Athens Ohio I spoke to my wife about searching for a large enough property to construct a private ski lake. It started as sort of a joke but when I began to research the process things just started to fall into place.

Of course our first challenge was finding the right property with enough space to put the lake and still have room for all the other activities we would like to have in a new home location (ATVs,trails, hunting). We lucked into a beautiful 100+ acres with trails, hills, trees, and enough space to put the lake. I spent the next 7 years getting the land ready clearing trees and brush and stumps. In summer of 2010 things were finally in a position to start the project and my wife, for some crazy reason, gave me the go ahead to build the lake.

The construction process started by working with a wonderful excavation company in Athens called York Paving and excavation. They were brave enough to take on the project. From the first day we signed the contract it began to rain and continued to rain from November 2010 through March 2012 with the most rain in history of the area. Even though the project was 8 months late York continued to press through obstacles and finished with a near perfect final product. Thanks to them for all of their hard work.

The final task was to come up with a proper name for the location and we landed on Yellow Dog Lake in honor of our late family friend Nattie :-> She had been a loyal family member for 12 years and wasn't able to see the completion of the lake. Being a lab she had a passion for water, swimming, and boating and took every chance she got to take a quick dip in the half completed pond. She will be dearly missed.