High water levels boost businesses in Elephant Butte area

“We’re very blessed to have people start to come back to town again,”

Derek Bean is the general manager of New Mexico Wake in Elephant Butte.

His store is right up the hill from Elephant Butte Lake, which was packed over the holiday weekend.

“We’re obviously super excited as you can tell the town is already packed which is amazing, we look forward to these big weekends everyone here in town is local business owners get super excited to have outside people come into town and spend money with us and boost our economy,” he said.

Bean said his business and all the others in town depend on high water levels in the lake to draw tourists in.

“Water levels go down people get a little scared nobody really wants to come down and see us, so we’re excited to see the traffic already so early in the season,” he said.

Bean said he hasn’t seen the lake this high in a few years.

“Last year I think at this point right now we’re only – a little over 12% higher than what we were, which if I’m not mistaken equates to about 22 vertical feet higher than what we were at this point last year.”

Currently the lake is sitting at almost 27% capacity right now.

So even though the long weekend is ending, Bean is preparing for a busy summer season.

“Looking for a boat? I know a guy!”