In what could hopefully lead to a happy ending in the case of the disappearing water, a team of crafty beavers is hard at work rebuilding a breached dam on the Lewes Lake chain.

Early last Friday, several residents whose homes border lakes on the chain awoke to find that the water in their portion of the chain had all but disappeared, leaving the view of flopping fish in what resembled a giant mud puddle.

The water had drained, according to Yukon Environment water inspection officer Brad Finnson, due to a four-metre-wide breach in a beaver dam which was keeping the water in check.

He said the dam was likely breached due to natural causes as opposed to human activity.

On Thursday, Finnson put residents' concerns at bay when he announced that the 'beavers (were) on the case' and are rebuilding the breached dam as well as an additional dam further up the chain from the breach.

'I've seen at least two out of the three beavers working on it. The beavers have the water levels up 18 inches,' Finnson said.

He said the reason local residents in the area, who've been closely watching the dam, may not have seen the beavers' activity was likely due to the fact that they were concentrating their efforts on the new dam first before turning their toothy attention to the breach.

'They're using materials from the old dam itself; beavers are master engineers,' he said.

Calling the beavers 'territorial animals,' Finnson said the beavers were likely hard at work because relocating to another area would be tough due to territorial claims of other beavers.

Their very survival depended on the water levels they were able to achieve with their dams before winter hits, he said.

'At this time of year, if they don't get that water level back up, they won't be able to get to their food stores in the winter and they'll starve.

'They've got to rebuild right in those areas,' Finnson said.

Lewes Lake resident Sharon Hickey shared Finnson's concerns. She said though she was happy the lake 'may return to previous levels' as Finnson has predicted, she worried about the safety of beavers.

'I'm so excited (about the work being done) that I can hardly talk ... (but) ... my main focus is on whether or not the beavers will be able to survive the winter,' Hickey said.

Fellow resident Carol Tuck said she too was watching the rising water levels with anticipation and has been inspired to start researching the creatures in light of the event.

'It's fascinating that we get to watch nature in action everyday and all the changes it can make,' she said.

According to Yukon historians, last Friday's event wasn't the first time the area has changed shape.

According to historians Roy Minter, a former vice-president of the White Pass and Yukon Corp., and Robert Coutts, the area was transformed after an engineering miscalculation during the building of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway led to the draining of Lewis Lake. That was the original name of the lake named after White Pass engineer A.B. Lewis which has since been called Lewes Lake due to early map printing errors near the turn of the 19th century.

According to Coutts' book, Yukon Places and Names, the lake received its name after Lewis and his team attempted to create a ditch to drain the lake by three metres (10 feet) when he discovered the railway grade he had mapped was below the water level of the lake.

Minter, who wrote about the event in his book White Pass Gateway to the Yukon, said it was Lewis's miscalculation which led to the draining of 21 metres (70 feet) of water, instead of the original three metres, and the creation of a whole other lake.

'Engineers decided to lower the water level of the lake by ten feet to facilitate construction of the grade along the lake to reduce costs.

'After all of Lewis's engineering calculations had been completed ... men began cutting a four-foot-wide trench through a 300-foot narrow ... opened a small stream about four inches deep and two feet wide, which allowed the lake water to flow across the retaining ridge towards the Watson River valley,' Minter wrote.

The speed of the water's flow, according to Minter, tore open the ditch creating a '100-foot waterfall' which tore out trees and drained the lake by '60 feet' more than was intended and created a second lake.

The event, according to Minter, caused the railway considerable cost overruns and numerous hours of extra manpower hours before the railway's completion.

As of this morning, the beavers on the Lewes Lake chain were still toiling.