I grew up in the land of beer, brats and cheese. This, of course, explains my “athletic” physique, Green Bay Packers fever and “yah der hey” accent. It also means I have first-hand knowledge of the Wisconsin Dells-style water parks King County envisions for North Bend.

The Dells were noted for their scenic sandstone canyons lining the Wisconsin River in the middle of the state. As early as 1856, when just 11 buildings were in the town, it was already dubbed as a vacation destination. Military surplus amphibious vehicles, or “ducks,” were first brought to the area as tourist attractions in 1946, taking visitors on land and water tours of the scenic lake and river terrain.

In the 1950s, Tommy Bartlett’s aggressive marketing of his ski show changed the face of Dells’ tourism. My entire childhood is marked by memories of his obnoxious, flashing television commercials. Of course, I had to go. By then the area was full of outdoor water parks. Slides and wave pools dominated the landscape. Big yellow slide tubes twisted and cavorted in the summer sun as the shrieking peals of playing children filled the air.

Go-carts, wax museums, 3-D movie houses (a precursor to IMAX), candy shops, toy shops, restaurants, water shows and the historic duck tours rounded out the fun. Of course, it wasn’t fun for everybody. Even as a pre-teen, I could see that the traffic was horrible, parking nonexistant and the lines were no fun. Locals griped about the teeming hordes of out-of-state tourists jamming up their streets. But it was just three months out of the the year, so they put up with the crowds – who paid their yearly salaries shopping in local businesses – content they’d go away when it wasn’t warm enough to swim outdoors anymore.

From late September to June, Wisconsin is not a place to swim outdoors. It’s cold. Those frigid, icy winters you may have heard about? True. It meant the Dells shut down to tourism for most of the year. That is, until somebody thought of the idea of indoor waterparks.

They started springing up in the mid to late ’90s. Like Tommy Bartlett’s commercials, the advertisements for the year-round Wisconsin Dells fun filled regional airwaves. These are the type of resorts King County envisions for North Bend.

There are some 20 water-park resorts in the Dells now with a range of ammenities. I’ve never been to any of them. Water parks aren’t my cup of tea and I don’t really like traffic or crowds; wading through bumper-to-bumper hordes for something I’m not too keen on wasn’t a top priority. I preferred nearby Devil’s Lake, a state park where one could hike or swim and have a picnic afterward without too much of a crowd (but, one still has to know where to go in the park for isolation).

The financial success of the Dells can’t be argued with. They took an area within a day’s drive of two major metropolitan areas (Chicago and Minneapolis) with a natural attraction and made it into a “hotspot” tourism destination. Here in the Snoqualmie Valley, similar ingredients could make a similar success: natural attractions and proximity to a major city combining with private recreational development.

If the area follows the Wisconsin Dells pattern, the character of the area will dramatically change. The Wisconsin Dells of today is not the Wisconsin Dells of the 1950s; it’s not even the same Dells as in my childhood before all the additional resort development and it was packed then.

Should the county’s plan go forward, residents will want to make sure it happens in a way that not only brings economic growth to the area, but retains the qualities that attracted people here in the first place. Change isn’t bad, and neither is following the Wisconsin Dells model, but it might not be for everybody.

County officials have promised they’ll work with local residents and leaders to make their ideas fit with the area, including local plans for a regional aquatic center that could expand swimming and water-based recreation activities for area residents. There’s a lot of water in the works; let’s make sure it all fits.