The Shower Building

It was, until later afternoon, a partly cloudy day at Mirror Lake State Park near Lake Delton. Near 2200 acres it preserves a great deal of land some of which was previously developed, and other land that was not. Until we hiked the Pulpit Rock trail, I was not aware that so many houses, boathouses, stairs and a resort or two were in what is now the park. This story is not about the old buildings, with a few foundation blocks yet in place, but a newer building that provided protection during a tornado warning. 

In the late afternoon on Tuesday when my camping partner and I went to town to pick up some ice, and a couple of small ice cream treats. Before hand we ate dinner in town, and while we ate we could watch the dark clouds start to move in from a westerly direction. Rain seemed imminent, so we hightailed it to Kwik Trip for ice and some ice cream. We then negotiated the WI Dells traffic, and headed back to the campsite. It started to rain, more a sprinkle, and as we headed back we could see varied employees on their electric scooters heading to and from work on Gasser Rd. They came and went north on Ishnala Road, while we turned south. Perhaps an efficient way to travel for such entertainment industry staff, except during inclement weather. 

As we were in the park and approached our campsite, I think we were near or beyond the shower building that serves the four loops in which we camped, our phones went off with a tornado warning and telling us to seek shelter. At that point I decided, with light sprinkles, to go back to the campsite and as we did we saw the fellow campers making their way out of the last loop on which we were camped. When we got out of the Jeep, we could hear the sirens from Lake Delton, although cell service at the park was one or perhaps two bars most of the time.  My purpose in going to the campsite was to make sure our screen tent was secured, where I pulled the side flaps down about half way, and we left the camper windows open a bit too. My wife secured the rain fly on a neighbor tent which was almost blown off. From Illinois, the young couple perhaps did not properly secure the rain fly. It covered part of their roof but not much down the sides and the strong wind perhaps could blow rain into the tent door.

After securing the items, we got in the car to drive to the shower building and that is when the heavy rain really started. With the strong wind and rain we really did not wish to get out of the Jeep, but we made a rush for the men's restroom on the other side of the building. No one was in the restroom, but we decided to head to the shower area. The shower has six individual showers, each accessed by its own door, with a six to eight foot wide portico running the length of the shower doors that provides benches at the edge. The benches were too wet to sit, and there were a good number of people. At that point two young women came out of the last shower, nearest us, and said we could have that one. We decided to stay under the portico and if conditions got worse, we would hit the shower. 

A few minutes later two women come into the portico and as they walk by some of the shower stalls and see people huddled in them, but the doors open. It seemed as if they were completely unaware of the situation unfolding. At that point, just a few feet from us, they ask something to the effect of: "Why are their people in the shower stalls and not taking a shower? We need to shower!" They repeated that "We need to shower!" At that point a man whose wife was in the shower stall near the middle, and close to the two women spoke up and said, "In case you don't know, there is a tornado warning and this is one of the safe spaces in this situation. The ladies seemed unimpressed and one entered in to the shower my camping partner and I planned to use. About ten minutes or fifteen minutes later she reappears and the other women is going in and asks people to knock on the door if a tornado comes so she can get dressed in case the door blows off. My wife commented that given the location of the door to the direction of the shower that would likely not happen, but she did not seem to believe that logic. It is not like the doors were hollow wood, they were solid metal. If the door were to potentially rip off, I doubt anyone nearby would be in a condition to knock on the door to let her know. We likely would have been swept aside. And, at that point who would care?

When the 5:30 pm expiration time for the tornado warning arrived we departed as the rain was now less intense. Fairly wet anyway, getting to the car in heavy rain would not have made much difference.  I cannot recall the second woman leaving the shower before the 5:30, but she may have. 

When camping and you think of a safe haven, it is the shower building, not staying at the campsite, even though the shower building was at a higher elevation than our campsite. If we were at say, Cunard Lake Campground, I am not sure what we would have done, perhaps go under the picnic table at the beach. Many years ago at Laura Lake a neighbor told us about a warning, we were tent camping, and we simply got in the van and headed the five or six miles to Armstrong Creek and parked at the open parking lot of the Catholic Church where we could see the storm just to our north. At Mirror Lake, I wonder what happened to the family walking to the beach as we made our way to the campsite right after the warning went off on our phones? 

I guess, to all but two women, the shower building was for shelter and not a shower. If a tornado had been in the park, the woman in the shower took up valuable space for those under the portico right in front of the showers. Unlike Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) who ran in the house and not to the storm cellar, we headed to the nearest safe place--the shower building.

Photos by author at Mirror Lake, August 2026