At the foot of downtown, at 201 Manson Blvd., Manson Bay Park covers 6 acres. It has a 30-slip marina, three boat docks, a swimming area and a winter-only boat launch. Out past the slips sits a floating breakwater installed in the early 1980s. It has absorbed years of wind and swinging lake levels. Engineers told Chelan PUD commissioners last fall that maintaining it no longer makes financial sense.
This fall Manson runs on two calendars. The Manson Chamber's harvest program fills October downtown. Then, from November through January, Chelan PUD closes the Manson Bay marina so contractors can replace that breakwater. The two calendars only touch at the edges. One is a month of dated weekends. The other is a rebuild that will shape the bay long after the pumpkins are gone.
October, by the date
The Chamber's Fall for Manson program runs all month. It includes an interactive passport that started October 1, and scarecrows go on display October 12 with voting through October 31. Around that, the north shore's farms and wineries have set their own dates:
| Date | Event | Where | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily from Oct. 9 | Apple-shoot and spooky graveyard at Four Lakes Winery | 11 Wine Garden Lane | Free, family-oriented, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. through October |
| Wed–Sun from Oct. 9 | 8th Annual pumpkin patch at Chelan Valley Farms | 2389 Green Ave. | Flowers and u-pick apples; weekend tractor rides; noon to 5 p.m. Wed–Fri, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat–Sun |
| Oct. 10 | Wine Club Release and Harvest Party at Chelan Ridge Winery | 900 Swartout Road | 3 to 8 p.m.; vineyard tours, barrel tasting, pasta dinner; $55 for nonmembers |
| Oct. 12–31 | Fall for Manson scarecrows | Around town | Voting closes Oct. 31 |
| Oct. 17 | Manson Harvest Fest | Downtown Manson | Paws on Parade at 11 a.m., plus a full day of downtown activities |
Most of these are spread over weeks. Chelan Ridge's party is a single evening, so it's the one to put on the calendar now. The Four Lakes apple-shoot and the Chelan Valley Farms patch run through the month, which leaves room for an unplanned weekday afternoon.
Harvest Fest puts the whole town on Wapato Way
Harvest Fest on Saturday, October 17 is the one day the Chamber packs everything into the downtown blocks. Paws on Parade starts it off. Dog-and-owner teams meet at the corner of Totem Pole and Wapato Way by 10:45 a.m. and parade down Main Street from 11 to 11:30. Prizes go to the best owner-and-dog look-alike pair, the funniest costume and the scariest costume.
After the parade, the day spreads out:
- Taste of Harvest Restaurant Crawl and the Fall Flavors Expo
- Pumpkin Carving Contest, plus a community Pumpkin Wall anyone can add to
- Artisan Showcase with Unbroken's hat bar and permanent jewelry, Pogue's Creations metal art, Eva Barron Art watercolors and Ktsis handcrafted jewelry
- Lil' Sprouts Row Kids Zone, the Sock Walk and harvest games
- KOZI Radio broadcasting live, with music
The food vendor list reads like a directory of north shore producers. Manson Growers brings cider and apples. Blueberry Hills has caramel apples, and the Manson Fire Department serves brats with locally made sauerkraut. Sour Dad Bread brings sourdough, Family Bean has donuts, Knotty Delights has pretzels, and Deb's DeLights has pumpkin cookies to decorate.
The parade's starting corner is new ground in its own way. Chelan County's Totem Pole Road Phase I widened the road from Main Street to Furey Street, from 18 feet to 28 feet, and added wider shoulders and sidewalks. The county's project page reported on August 7, 2026 that construction was complete and the lighting would be turned on after inspections. As of this writing I haven't found a later update confirming the lights are on. Phase II, north of Furey Street, is still unfunded.
What comes out of Manson Bay in November
Two weeks after Harvest Fest, the PUD's calendar takes over. The marina closes in November, and the closure runs through January. The PUD's bid solicitation, published March 18, 2026, spells out the work.
- Remove the existing floating breakwater, its piles, the gangway and the attached equipment
- Drive 14 new galvanized steel pipe piles, 24 inches in diameter with 0.625-inch walls, topped with fiberglass caps
- Float 2,750 square feet of new breakwater
- Install a new aluminum gangway
- Add a new pump-out station, connected to the existing utility lines
The Lake Chelan Mirror reported that engineering staff described the replacement as stronger and better at absorbing wave energy. It is built to handle heavier storms and to protect the docks and shoreline amenities behind it. The same report says what those amenities are: the project protects "the community's only public swimming beach and marina from wind-driven waves."
So the structure being replaced this winter does more than calm the water for 30 slips. It keeps the swimming area at Manson Bay usable each summer, and summer at Manson Bay starts with that.
Paid for by the dams upriver
The Mirror put the replacement at about $3 million. The money comes through the PUD's Public Power Benefit program, which spends part of the surplus revenue from Chelan County's hydropower dams on projects that serve county residents directly. The work is coordinated with the Manson Parks and Recreation District. Public records show other figures as planning and bidding moved along. The PUD's preliminary 2026 budget, dated November 3, 2025, lists the breakwater at a $4.043 million budget and a $2.9 million forecast. That makes $3 million a reported estimate, not a final contract price.
The PUD's general manager put it this way at the November 2025 commission meeting:
"This is one of the most visible PPB projects in the valley. It's a good example of how those dollars go right back into the community."
Hydropower money has gone into fiber expansion, trails and park upgrades across the county. In Manson, the most visible thing it pays for this year is a structure built to sit low in the water.
The other north shore dock is out too
The closures overlap. Two miles east of town on Highway 150, Old Mill Park at 200 Mill Rd. closed its day-use dock and marine dump station in early October so crews can replace the dock. That work is expected to finish in January, depending on conditions. The park has 20 acres, a four-lane boat launch, trailer parking and short-term moorage, and the moorage depends on the dock being replaced. The PUD notice doesn't list the launch as closed, and it doesn't say whether it stays open either.
Manson Bay has the same gap. The park's amenity list includes a winter-only boat launch, which is the season the marina will be closed. The announcement covers the marina only. It doesn't say whether the lawn, restrooms, swimming area or winter launch stay open while crews work. If you boat in the off-season, check chelanpud.org/parks before you hitch up the trailer. That's where the PUD posts status updates.
The project still waiting next door
The new breakwater won't settle everything at the shoreline. Beside Manson Bay Park is a stretch the Mirror describes as the "Old Swim Hole," where longtime residents remember kids learning to swim and docks ringing the water. The Manson Park and Recreation District spent a decade on design and permits to rebuild public swim access there. Then bids opened on December 8, and the lowest one came in about $754,000 above the funding the district had secured. The Mirror's January 2026 report said construction would not start in spring 2026, and a fallback grant path could push it to 2027 or 2028. That's the most recent reporting I've found on it.
That means the bay heads into 2027 with an updated breakwater protecting the existing beach, while the rebuilt swim access next to it is still waiting on funding. The Chamber's Village of Lights carries downtown through the holidays in the meantime. When the marina reopens after January, the new breakwater will be in place for the first summer since the early 1980s.
I follow changes like this along the shoreline because they shape how a north shore property works year-round, beyond what a listing photo shows. If you own near Manson Bay or Old Mill and want to talk through what the new breakwater and dock work mean for your stretch of the lake, Nick Bowler is glad to sit down over cider at Harvest Fest or anytime after. Let's Connect.
