McKinley Beach Is Expected to Reopen Later This Summer

McKinley Beach 3.0 is on track to launch in August.

That’s when Milwaukee County Parks officials hope to complete a $712,190 reconstruction project and reopen the beach, which has been closed since four drowning deaths in 2020. Two more people drowned at the closed beach in 2022; one was ruled a suicide.

This is the second time in McKinley’s 131-year history that dramatic events have led the county to rebuild Milwaukee’s oldest beach. In the 1980s, Lake Michigan swelled to record high levels, its waves crashing over the beach and onto Lincoln Memorial Drive. Then the county redesigned the beach to create a small bay, sheltered by twin rocky breakwaters.

But in 2020, the lake rose to its highest level since 1986. Consultants found rising waters had eroded the sand on the lake bottom between the breakwaters, contributing to the formation of rip currents that can pull swimmers suddenly out to sea.

This year’s restoration project will build the sand back up, reducing the depth of the lake between the breakwaters to its original 2.5 feet, down from the 6.2 feet measured by consultants, says Sarah Toomsen, parks planning manager. Parks officials plan to monitor the beach to see if they need to add more sand in future years.

While the fences around McKinley will come down, park rangers and “beach ambassadors” will keep up safety efforts there and at neighboring Bradford Beach, say Toomsen and Teresa Coronado, the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center outreach director.

With warning signs in place, rangers ordered less than 25 people off the closed beach or out of the water last summer, down from about 100 in 2021 and 809 in 2020, says Todd Pisarski, parks safety manager.

Four beach ambassadors also had “meaningful” conversations about safe swimming with about 250 new beachgoers last summer, and about 350 in the first year of the program sponsored by the sailing center and four other organizations, Coronado says. The county has allocated $128,250 in federal pandemic aid to continue the ambassadors through 2026.

As of March, parks officials were still recruiting lifeguards for beaches and pools countywide. McKinley hasn’t had lifeguards for years and Bradford didn’t have any for the past three summers. 

Rip Currents

• If you get caught in a rip current, don’t panic; it won’t pull you under.
• Yell to attract attention.
• Get out of the current by swimming across it, parallel to shore.
• If you can’t escape the current, save your energy, treading water or floating.
• Currents weaken farther from shore; when you can, swim across the current until you can swim back inland. 

General Swimming

• If you don’t know how to swim, don’t go in.
• Never swim alone.
• Stay within your swimming abilities.
• Closely supervise children.

Know Before You Go

• Weather and beach conditions: milwcountybeaches.org
• Warnings about rip currents and other dangerous waves: weather.gov/greatlakes/beachhazards
• Water quality alerts: theswimguide.org/beach/630