Despite a tough season for communities and businesses along Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River, Boldt Castle had one of their best seasons, however, officials did see a drop in attendance.

"The high water was an issue for many businesses along the river communities," said Boldt Castle Facilities Director Shane Sanford.  "We ended up with a pretty good season. Not our best, certainly not our worst -- actually our ninth best season on record since 1977."

Despite the exceptionally wet spring and high water levels, this year was the second-best season for attendance since 2001.

"Last year though we had 204,000 visitors," said Sanford. 

Attendance dropped by about 17,000 from 2016. 

"It certainly gets nationwide, actually worldwide attention, and because of that we will continue to see healthy visitation," said Sanford.

The drop can be attributed to the high waters that forced the castle to keep its yacht house closed until August. 

The water levels also forced staff to accommodate tour boats trying to dock at the site.

"We finally got ourselves into a position where we were able to early on build docks on top of our docks," said Sanford.

But it didn't stop people from showing up. 

"We just had to adapt and make changes and we were able to receive our visitors," said Sanford. 

The 1000 Islands International Tourism Council hopes to keep this trend going throughout the entire region in the future. 

"We're going to spend some extra time in the spring getting the message out that our waterfront villages are ready and open and happy to host visitors," said 1000 Islands International Tourism Council Director Gary DeYoung.

In a survey the tourism council conducted this year regarding the high water levels and its impact on local businesses, 82 percent of the buisnesses surveyed reported that high waters had a negative impact on business.