In the early 1900's this area was was essentially the same as it had been before the white man came. The swales were boggy, full of swamp vegetation along with pretty wild flowers including buttercups, common blue violets, trout lilies, trilliums and wild geraniums.

It was a wild area, undoubtedly beautiful, though there probably were few who thought so at the time. Back then swamps and sloughs were considered useless, good-for-nothing wastelands. But there was one man who had a vision that the swamp would make a good lake with houses built on the rolling wooded hills....

Open the album to read the story and look at some early photos of the first man-made lake in Lake County.

For an overview from 1940 on...read the chronology