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Post by JessWunman on Sept 23, 2007 10:56:00 GMT -6
I thought we already had a "Spring Lake" topic, but I couldn't find it. Spent some time there recently. The volunteers are doing a wonderful job of improving / maintaining the area (i.e. flagstone stairs, flower planter, gravel for the parking area, etc.) I noticed this concrete structure near a trail. I suppose it's about 12 ft. long. Anyone know what it's function was?
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Post by John on Sept 23, 2007 11:38:38 GMT -6
I thought we already had a "Spring Lake" topic, but I couldn't find it. Hmm, so did I and I can't find it either. I noticed this concrete structure near a trail. I suppose it's about 12 ft. long. Anyone know what it's function was? The only thing that we could come up with is that it is probably the footing for one of the old buildings that was out there.
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Post by BlueStar7 on Sept 23, 2007 16:46:52 GMT -6
Butch, wasn't there a bridge out there too? I remember seeing footing for it.
BTW, The The Spring Lake Project will host an upcoming Trivia Night @ the K of C. It will be to raise funds to pay for the parking lot, etc...which is presently under construction....
"The date has been changed, because Friday is Homecoming night."
There will also be a clean-up day in Oct. 13th.
Details for both will be in the TIMES
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Post by JessWunman on Sept 24, 2007 9:19:06 GMT -6
What sort of buildings were out there? Anybody know?
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Post by BlueStar7 on Sept 24, 2007 9:39:39 GMT -6
The only one I know of for sure, was an Ice House.
I believe there was a shelter and some kind of gun club bldg. also...(Crow? 1930's)
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Post by John on Sept 29, 2007 11:29:40 GMT -6
Spring Lake, Most Popular Recreation Area Before 1903.Spring Lake was Streator’s most popular recreation area in the years before the great Cyclone of 1903. The area provided excellent opportunities for boating, fishing, ice skating and picnicking. Located less than three miles northwest of the intersection of Main and Bloomington streets, the ten-acre lake was within walking distance for most Streator residents. Walking was the most common mode of travel. It was customary and acceptable to walk long distances; there was really no other way to get from one place to another. To get to Spring Lake many young people walked along the railway tracks, crossing the covered bridge of the Chicago , Burlington and Quincy railroad on their way. Residents of Kangley, including high school students, followed a similar course on their trips to and from town. As its name implies, Spring Lake was fed by spring that filled the natural basin with clear water. The sharp rise to the north bordered on a timberland. A creek flowed from the lake and a small falls was created at the point where the lake water spilled over. When commercial possibilities of the lake were discovered, probably as early as Unionville days (1865-1868), a dam was constructed at the spillway to maintain the water level of the lake. The fall area below the dam was beautiful in early years. In fact, Spring Lake was the only area of such natural beauty available to Streator residents. Some of the beauty remains today, although the lake is gone, having been reduced to overgrowth and marsh after the dam was deliberately broken in the 1930’s. The introduction of modern electric refrigeration was an indirect cause of the destruction of the dam and loss of recreational facilities. In 1900, there were five large ice houses below the lake, served by a branch line of the CB&Q railroad. Thousands of tons of block ice were removed from the lake each year to be freighted to Streator and other cities. Much ice was used by the railroads for early refrigeration cars. The ice industry employed men and horses. Horses were used to pull the plow-like ice cutters and men broke the ice into large blocks with sharp pikes(spikes?). When removed to the ice houses, the blocks were packed between layers of sawdust. For many years, Richard Schurman managed the ice industry. Reportedly, he operated on a 99-year lease. Until the late 1920’s most Streator families had ice boxes and deliveries by wagon were made to the various residences. It was necessary only to place a large card, provided, in a front window to let the deliveryman know the size of the block desired, such as 25 or 50 pounds. The invention of the electric refrigerator ended the era of ice boxes and deliveries of ice stopped. Demand for Spring Lake ice decreased and the industry stalled, permanently. Mrs. Clyde (Crawford) Courtney of McNabb spent her early childhood at Spring Lake . She and her younger sister and baby brother were the only children residing near the lake. The Crawford home was located above the lake on the north side. It was the first building in the Streator area to be demolished by the cyclone in 1903. At that time Mrs. Courtney was a child of six years; but in 1976, she recalls vividly the occasion of the cyclone and with good reason. “Mother had the meal cooking and had gone to the barn to milk the cow when she observed the storm approaching.” She related. “There were three of us children, and at six I was the eldest. Father was away building a hay shed for a farmer. Father was a carpenter by trade. Well, my mother dashed back to the house and took us children into the kitchen were we squatted on the floor against the wall. Mother held the baby in her arms. “Our house was on the cliff just above the north part, the deep part, of the lake. Almost instantly after mother came in and gathered us up, the house rose from the ground and was carried into the lake. It landed on its side, where we were sitting. “Surprisingly, none of us were seriously hurt at the impact. Mother helped us to get up and crawl from the wreckage. A man came to investigate and helped us. I remember that it was Friday Angier. Only after we were safe did we notice that Mother had bad cuts on her upper arms. “We moved to Kangley after that. The house was destroyed and could not be repaired. There was one other dwelling near the lake. It was a brick house owned by Ralph Boucher. That house wasn’t damaged at all. Nor was or barn where Mother had gone to milk the cow.” Spring Lake was a popular place for picnicking and a trysting spot for young couples. The building that was used as Crawford’s home had earlier been a refreshment center where food and liquor were sold. A small building at lake’s edges was used for boat rentals and sale of fishing tackle and bait. During the coolest months of winter, hundreds of ice skaters could be seen on the lake. Winter outdoor sports were much more popular in early days of Streator. Streator’s bottle blowers frequented the Spring Lake area during the summer months when heat of machines in the bottle plant became too oppressive for work to continue. The bottle men built a dance platform near the time above the lake. They literally “camped out” for months at a time. When ice cutting ceased, the Spring Lake dam was destroyed. Although no reason was given, it is believed that owners of the land feared liability for accidents that could occur to person using the area for recreation. Many attempts to revive the Spring Lake area were considered in the years that followed. Efforts were made to establish a city park or a state park at the site. A youth group cleaned up the area and built some park structures, but without proper funding and local supervision, their efforts too were unavailing. In 1976, only the possibilities for restoration remain. (Thank you, Joanie)
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Post by JessWunman on Sept 29, 2007 11:59:25 GMT -6
Great article Butch! Where'd you find it? I've often wondered why the dam was destroyed. (Seems the actual reason has been lost.) A tiny Spring Lake resident...
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Post by John on Sept 29, 2007 12:13:06 GMT -6
My friend, Joanie, from the Streatorland Historical Society Museum sent it to me. I read it and found it very interesting and wanted to share it.
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Post by BlueStar7 on Sept 30, 2007 10:09:52 GMT -6
Butch, Joanie gave that information as an introduction for local teachers out at Spring Lake, Thurs. for the first "Tour" by the latest group to improve Spring Lake. This was to introduce them and get them interested in taking students out there for all kinds of projects and field trips. Watch the local paper for the article and picture on it. "Towering Tree" She's been very informative to all involved and is excited about it too. My kudos to her for her time and efforts, which also included a lot of pictures for all to see! It would be well worth the time, for anyone to stop in at the Museum and learn a little of Streator's history...
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Post by John on Sept 30, 2007 10:38:46 GMT -6
Here is another very interesting story that Joanie sent me. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did.[/i]
Spring Lake – Old Swimmin’ Hole
By Lex Trunko
Reminisce? Magazine
Published July 1973
Egg Bag Creek, between the village of Kangley and the city of Streator , Illinois , was dammed up in the good old days to create Spring Lake . Spring Lake was created to provide an ice field, from which ice was harvested before the days of “artificial” ice and electric refrigeration. The fringe benefits of Spring Lake were a fabulous ice skating rink, a grand place to fish and an equally grand place to picnic!
I do not know when Spring Lake was created. It was there, ready for me, when I started goin’ swimmin’ in 1903, when I was seven years old. It has been drained for many years – the victim of change and progress. The Spring Lake area was a natural year ‘round pleasure place for young and old. Today, it is just a memory. A summer recreation area, Spring Lake Park , is being “developed” in the “dust” of Spring Lake .
Spring Lake was shaped like a rambilin’ letter “S” – trim at the top, big at the bottom. It had a winding shoreline of about 3 miles – from the “falls” to Moon’s Creek and back around to the “falls.” The Kangley-side of this wonderful swimmin’ hole was about a thousand-foot stretch along the west shore at the foot of the hill in Crawford’s pasture; however, we boys splashed and swam all over the dam.
The easiest way to get down the hill to our swimmin’ hole was down a short gully about midway of this stretch of shoreline. We kids would skinny out of our clothes in the pasture at the top of the gully and run down the gully, drop our clothes on the run at the water’s edge, and belly flop into the lake – because, “like you know,” the last one in was a rotten egg or some other stinkin’ stuff!
The water along the shoreline dropped abruptly to a depth of 5 feet or more – except at the foot of the gully. At this point, eroded, gravelly soil, washing down the gully, had built up a beachhead about 40 feet wide and extending about 20 feet into the lake. This beach was the “learner’s” part of the swimmin’ hole. It took a boy one summer of splashing and “mud crawling” on the beach to graduate to the other swimmin’ facilites along this shoreline. Several diving boards at various points along the shore, the dive-off tree, the dive-off bluff, and for one summer, the floating-pole dock.
The floating-pole dock was built of two new “telephone” poles that were “picked up” – by the swimmin’ kids – along the “Q” railroad tracks, about ½ mile from the swimmin’ hole! The poles were lashed to a large stump at water’s edge about 200 feet upshore from the gully beach. They were planked with boards – also “picked up” to make about a 30 foot runway jutting out into the lake. The water at dock-end was about 20 feet deep.
This dock lasted only one summer; it was removed by the ice cutters the following winter. It created a “roadblock” in the ice - floating channel along the shoreline when they harvested the ice in that area.
Toward the end of my first swimmin’ summer, I leaned how to swim in one frightening, instant-swimmin’ lesson! I was sitting near the dock-stump, dangling my feet in the water, watching the fellow run and dive off the end of the dock, wishing that I could do it.
One of the young men, Jimmie D., swam back to shore where I was sitting and said to me, “Lex, you’ve’ been splashing around here all summer and haven’t yet learned how to swim. I’m gonna show you how” (Oh, boy! How he showed me!) He picked me up in his arms, walked out to the end of the dock, headed me toward the shore, tossed me into the lake and said, “Now swim!” – and I did!
After I scrambled up onto the shore, I was too winded to give my instructor the cussin’ that had built up within me. I just sat there, panting to get my breath and keep from crying. After I calmed down and realized that I had swum 30 feet in 20 feet of water, I began to feel good about it. My swimmin’ courage kept building up until, several minutes later; I walked onto the dock about 10 feet, and after a moment’s hesitation, skip-dived toward the shore. I put so much momentum into my dive that I hit shore without making a stroke! I kept practicing this, a little further out on the dock each time, until I was ski-diving and swimming toward the shore from the end of the dock!
I had forgotten about my swimming instructor until I saw him standing on the shore watching me. As I scrambled ashore, he asked me, “Well, Lex, howya doin’?”
I was still mad at him, so I just said, “Aw right!” He laughed and walked away. I was glad that he did. In a few days, I was swimming up and down along the shore, but always within “reach” of it.
The dive-off tree was about 50 feet down-lake from the beach. It was at water’s edge and leaned out over the water. The high-diving kids would shinny up this tree to the diving board nailed to its branches about 15 feet above the water, and do plain and fancy diving – some floppy diving too! During my second swimmin’ season, I shinnied up this tree, stepped onto the diving board, looked down at the water, and shinnied right back down the tree. Yep, I chickened out! One look – from 15 feet up, and I knew instantly that high-diving was not my “thing”!”
The dive-off bluff was about 200 feet down-lake from the dive-off tree. It was about 20 feet high with a 4(?)-foot shore ledge at the water line that had to be “cleared” in a dive. The pasture land at the top of the bluff sloped gently, for about 100 feet to the dive-off point on the bluff. This gave the divers running room to gain momentum to clear the shoreline edge. Only the daredevil kids made dives from this bluff on a “dare you” challenge.
We kids usually went swimmin’ in groups of from three to ten. At times there were as many as 30 boys and young men skinny-dipping in this swimmin’ hole. There were about 8 boys, as I can recall, who did dare-diving off the bluff. I was NOT one of them! There were two dare-divers who were arch rivals in the diving from the bluff. If these two boys – “Patchic” and Popgut” – were in the same group going swimming, the rest of us were treated to an exhibition of diving that we wished we had the nerve to try!
Those were happy kid days, but, two tragic incidents left their shadows on my memories of those long gone, good old swimmin’ hole days. At the time that I write about, the area between Kangley and Streator, along a northeast-southwest tangent, was commonly known as “Cyclone Alley”. At least one cyclone a year twisted through this alley. You could see ‘em comin’. Most of the cyclones did only minor damage on their sweeps through this alley – tearing down trees, bowling over backhouses and other small outbuildings.
The big one swept the alley clean one afternoon in July, 1903. I scooted for Grandma Smegner’s cellar that day; it was closer than ours! That big cyclone demolished the huge icehouse at Spring Lake and did great damage to a high, wooden railroad trestle over the Vermillion River, about 2 miles east of Kangley. A large farmhouse at the top of a 50-foot bluff along the Spring Lake shoreline was picked up by the cyclone and set down on the surface of the lake. The three persons in the house at the time were airlifted with the house. They suffered only minor physical injuries. The house was pulled to shore and the material in it was salvaged – but it was not rebuilt in its former location.
After the storm abated, my father took me through the devastated Spring Lake and Spring Hill areas. Many other people, kids, and adults, from Kangley and Streator, were out “sightseeing” in the storm-torn areas. It was my first sight of the effects of the awesome forces of nature! Later in life, I saw greater “natural disaster” – much greater – but none of them affected me as much as that cyclone of my kid days! About a quarter of a million dollars (1903 value) of property were destroyed and several people lost their lives in the Streator area of that storm.
The other tragic incident at Spring Lake “hurt” me personally. One of my first boyhood buddies, Ebbie, drowned in Spring Lake . I was not with him the day that this happened. One of the other boys told me that Ebbie “made a dive and hit an underwater tree stump”. I knew where every underwater stump along the lake shore was located, but I cold never bring myself to ask any kid to show me where Ebbie was drowned. I didn’t want to know which one of the stumps caused his death.
Although it is now drained and dried, Spring Lake remains a fountain of nostalgia to those who fished and swam in its waters, skated on its ice and cut and stored it for summer use, and picnicked along its shores or just went “walkin’” there. Spring Lake is of yesterday. Spring Park is becoming of today.
If, at time, the breezes winging through Spring Park sound – to today’s picnickers – like the muted sounds of far-off picnickers – they are! They are the happy spirits of yesterday’s pleasure seekers that passed by that way. If occasionally, the breezes sound like a soft, gentle sigh – that’s the sprit of Ebbie breezing by! Give him a smile; fate did not give him full measure of kid pleasure.
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Post by Job on Sept 30, 2007 14:01:14 GMT -6
Joan has sent me a number of articles over the years, including a newspaper article about my great great grandfather being fatally injured in a farm accident in 1900. Joan has helped fill the vacuum created by the passing of Lyle Kennedy, Lyle Yeck and Bob Norris.
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Post by JessWunman on Oct 1, 2007 16:24:51 GMT -6
Another great article, Butch. There's nothing like an "eyewitness account" to fill in the blanks. Thanks for sharing it!
When I was about 4 yrs. old, my grandfather took me to a Streator park. We walked onto a wooden footbridge, over a creek. The floor of the bridge was just above the water. I stooped down, leaned over to pull out some "seaweed", and tumbled in. (It was early Spring and very cold.) Gramma was not pleased with grampa, when he brought me back, soaked and shivering.
No one's been able to tell me where this took place. Was there such a footbridge at Spring Lake, or Marilla Park, in 1955?
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Post by John on Oct 2, 2007 0:12:58 GMT -6
I believe there were two wooden bridges out at Spring Lake.
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Post by John on Oct 9, 2007 21:30:38 GMT -6
July 13, 1970 KEY CLUBBERS CONSTRUCT BRIDGE. Bridge construction at Spring Lake is the project now being completed by members of the Streator high school Key Club, who have spent the summer months cleaning up and beautifying Spring Lake. A group of 16 members began work on the bridge Thursday using electric and telephone poles for construction of the bridge which will cross over the creek for entrance into the lake area. When completed it will span 28 feet in length and six feet across. Saturday morning 13 members began to finish the project. All that remains to complete work is placing of bridge planks and hand rails. During the two days, members also trimmed trees and planned for future work which will consist of construction a second bridge, making shelters, picnic tables and enclosing the area with a new fence Members will also place a sign in front of the Lake area. The next work day for the group will be July 18. Commonwealth Edison has assisted the group in construction.
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Post by galsal on Oct 10, 2007 6:44:28 GMT -6
Sometime in the early 80's, the scout troop my boys belonged to took on Spring Lake as a project. They cleaned up the lake, cut brush, fixed a broken bridge, and took trash barrels out there. Not too long after, someone set fire to the wooden bridge and a shelter. Needless to say the boys were heartbroken.
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