Nude Beach Shut Down On Weekdays In Wisconsin

The Department of Natural Resources in Wisconsin announced today that the nude beach near Mazomanie would be shut down on weekdays.

The DNR said that the public nude beach would be shut down on weekdays in order to stop visitors from having sex and doing drugs in the woods.

According to the Clarion Ledger, the beach near Mazomanie, about 25 miles northwest of Madison, has become a hotspot for people in the area who want to engage in a little public nudity. The nudists, however, have also been having sex and doing drugs in the surrounding woods.

The DNR said that most of the nefarious behavior occurs during the week when there are less people around. Nate Kroeplin, the supervisor of the DNR in Dale County, said that 83 of the 92 citations handed out since 2008 occurred on weekdays.

Kroeplin said: “Obviously we’re disappointed when we have to shut any portion of our property down … But our ultimate goal is to have a safe place anybody can feel comfortable using. And with the current activity going on down there, that’s just not the case.”

The beach has become a bit of a battleground between nudists and the conservative population. A video from 2011 shows a group of Wisconsinites heckling the nudists as they walk down to the beach.

Yahoo News reports that the beach has never officially been a nude beach. It was purchased by the DNR in 1949 and thanks to a large population of nudists, as well as a liberal county, the beach became an unofficial hot spot for nudity.

But with all of the skin flooding the beach officers have also had to deal with sex and drugs. The DNR banned overnight camping during the 1990s in order to dissuade questionable activity and shut down the nude beach for week long stretches in 2012. Still, it didn’t do much to curb the nudists. Last Summer, the DNR handed out 19 citations to people having sex at the beach and another three to people using drugs.

Here’s a video report about the Mazomanie Beach.