Until 1983, Tillson Lake had been a lovely weekend and vacation place for many families. Then everything changed. During the Fourth of July weekend, residents woke up one morning to find that the lake had disappeared.Some people didn.t believe what they were seeing. They looked again, but to their amazement they found they had been right the first time. The lake was simply no longer there. In its place was a muddy crater（坑）, 30 feet deep. It was as if the lake had been a giant bathtub（浴盆）and someone had pulled the plug. The lake.s owner, Joseph Unanue, did indeed pull the plug. That.s exactly what happened. The dam（水坝） that held back the water to form the lake was falling apart, so government officials ordered him to repair it. They issued him a permit to lower the dam level "five feet or more." He did much more. Mr. Unanue found repairs to the dam would cost $100,000. He didn.t want to spend that much, so he opened the dam and lowered the water level until the lake was completely drained. People living above the dam ended up with no lake. People living below the dam ended up with tons of mud and lots of dead fish. Everyone involved was angry with Mr. Unanue. Area residents believe Mr. Unanue acted out of spite（恶意）. They say he wanted to get back at them because the town wouldn.t let him develop an amusement park on the lakeshore. When he couldn.t build his park, he just went away and took his lake with him.

---