LAKE OAHE - It's clean enough at Bosch's Bayside restaurant to eat off the floors. But there's no food in the gleaming kitchen, no cold brewskis in the bar cooler to wash it down.

There are no cars in the parking lot; no signs of life anywhere.

Once the hub of life and leisure on Lake Oahe's east side, Bosch's Bayside closed two weeks ago.

After a good long run, it's over.

Randy and Nancy Bosch can tell you how many months and years they hung on after they should have - too many, with too little money coming in and too much going out.

They scrubbed the building with its restaurant, bar, banquet room and convenience store to within an inch of its life.

They stacked chairs on tables and turned out the lights. Now they wait, as long as they can, for the water to come up.

Back behind Bosch's Bayside, about 45 miles southeast of Bismarck, Lake Oahe used to shine near and far to the other side.

Fishermen fished the waters and campers camped at the ­;Beaver Creek Recreation Area just around the corner.

Since 2001, the lake has been shrinking and shrinking. Now, it's shrunk back to the old Missouri River channel and only guys with big trucks, guts and experience use the two workable boat ramps in the area.

There are miles of weeds and mud flats where the lake used to be. The water, once so wide and shining, is only a slender ribbon of light way out yonder.

It took years for the lake to shrink virtually to nothing. There's no telling how long it will take to fill again.

To help pay the bills, Bosch was already working a second job for Prairie Heating and Air, a heating and cooling company in Linton.

They'd talked about staying open through fall hunting season.

Then, Nancy Bosch got a good offer to work in management at Kohl's in Bismarck.

The end of Bosch's Bayside came sooner rather than later.

It's personal.

Randy, Nancy and partner James Bosch, with help, built the business from the ground up, beam by beam, board by board, in 1998.

Randy and Nancy Bosch had lived in Minneapolis for 15 years and the business was their homecoming stake.

They knew going in they needed outsiders, the folks who came in from out of the area to enjoy the recreation opportunities.

The locals were loyal, but too few to pay the bills on a $400,000 investment.

Randy Bosch blames the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

He said the corps has mismanaged the dam system and flushed water away downstream that it shouldn't have.

Bosch said the corps wants to blame the drought, but with 85 percent of normal moisture into the dam and Missouri River system, it shouldn't have drained Oahe virtually down to nothing.

The business is located at the lake's shallowest end, making it that much worse.

Lake Oahe is 30 feet below its optimal level, hovering around 1,572 ft. this week.

Corps power production team leader Jody Farhat said drought conditions are still considered severe, but the lake is still expected to rise six feet by February.

She said Lake Oahe hasn't lost elevation compared to a year ago, so it didn't lose ground, even if didn't gain any.

Good rainfall is needed, she said.

Tourism Director Sarah Otte-Coleman said her office doesn't keep statistics on lake-related business closings.

She said the Prairie Knights Casino management has had to abandon its Lake Oahe marina development for now. The casino is across the lake from Bosch's.

"They've scaled back their whole plan for development," Otte-Coleman said. It's been several summers since the casino could run its boat ferry to pick up guests on the east side of Lake Oahe.

She said a business typically closes because of lack of interest or demand for its service.

What's happened at Bosch's turns that on its head - in spite of strong demand and interest, it's closing only because the water isn't there to support it.

She said lake business owners are constantly challenged to rethink their services.

"It's very disheartening," Otte-Coleman said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)