History of Lake Wawasee
Around 1 million years ago just prior to the Pleistocene epoch, northern Indiana was covered by the Teays River system which flowed northwest out of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio entering Indiana at Adams County and flowed about 45 miles (72 km) south of what is now Lake Wawassee.
Animal life consisted of saber-toothed cat, American mastodon, short-faced bear, dire wolf, ground sloth, giant beaver, peccary, stag-moose and ancient bison.
Lakes would have sturgeon, whitefish, pike, pickerel, muskellunge as well as smaller fish such as bluegill, redear sunfish, black bass, yellow perch, and catfish.
Prior to Europeans coming to Turkey Lake, it was the tribal lands of Miami Indian chiefs Wawasee and Papakeecha.
Wawasee was a signatory to the Treaty of Mississinewas and in 1828 was allotted a small village approximately two and one-half miles southeast of Milford and northeast of Waubee Lake where the town of Syracuse is located.
Human bones were found protruding from holes in the rock face in the 1880s and often later development unearthed artifacts and skeltel material.
From the 1940s through 1950s ancient fireplaces made of groupings of burned and cracked stones were found on the top of Cedar Point.
It was named after William T. Morrison, a Civil War soldier who served with an Ohio regiment of the Union army.
In the 20th century Morrison sold his island property for a good sum and moved to Oregon and in a short time was back in Indiana living very well in Ligonier on his increasing pension and proceeds from his sale.
Kale later married a woman named "Mam" who lived with her son Bill in a lowly cabin on Syracuse Lake.
Dog Creek Dam and the "fish trap" were located just off the north side of E. Pickwick Drive on Kale Island.
It was destroyed somewhat quickly by either being washed away in spring flooding or by sinking into a soft bog which were numerous in Kosciusko County.
Judge John V. Pettit of Wabash, Indiana became president of the association with individuals from northern Indiana towns of Alexandria, Goshen, Peru, Wabash, and Huntington joining and all of which were followers of Izaac Walton which would later produce the Izaak Walton League[4] an early environmental group.
A simple oblong, two-story, gabled roof club house was constructed with 50 bedrooms and a 125-seat dining room.
It was located on the northeast shore of the lake, bordering the north side of Spink's Wawasee Hotel and south of the Lilly homes in a grove of trees.
At the source of a spring, a log milkhouse was built early on which serviced the passengers in passing steamboats with buttermilk, sweet cream, and butter.
This property sat unused for years and was sold by Crow for a profit which he used to purchase a farm in Section 24 of Turkey Creek Township.
The Wawasee Inn was built in 1892 by Colonel Eli Lilly and some associates on the site of the Cedar Beach Club.
In 1899 Lilly died and the building was sold to Clinton C. Wiggins and his wife Emma followed by the Ballou brothers of Chicago in 1914.
Following the deaths in the Spinks family, the hotel was sold to the Crosier Order of the Roman Catholic Church and after extensive remodeling it opened its doors on August 15, 1948 as Our Lady of the Lake Seminary with Father Leo Kapphahn, OSC, as prior and 118 students.
Waco (Wawasee Amusement Company) was an entertainment hall constructed about 1910 and originally planned as a floating pavilion but this idea was abandoned and it was built on land and located in the Lakeview-South Park area just west of Black Stump Point.
Managed by Ross Franklin, Waco was nationally known and pulled in talent such as Hoagy Carmichael, Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo, Tony Bennett, Ted Weems, Duke Ellington, Spike Jones, Wayne King and Jan Garber Archived 2007-01-05 at the Wayback Machine.
After Ross Franklin no longer associated with Waco, it deteriorated and became a roller skating rink and in the 1960s became a lakeside restaurant with dock and had occasional entertainment.
Currently the club sails 28-foot (8.5 m) E-Scows, 19-foot (5.8 m) Lightnings, and 13-foot (4.0 m) Sunfish class boats in three regattas held from June through early October.
In the late 1880s a group of farmers owning swampland around Wawasee tried to gain control of the dam at Syracuse with the aim of destroying it to increase their area.
Officers of the power company were Mr. Settler, president of the B&O; Col. Eli Lilly as vice-president; a Mr. Blair, secretary; Mr. Ovid Butler, treasurer; and Mr. J.P. Dolan, a Syracuse lawyer as legal council.
In the early 20th century Laura Sargent was abducted on the north side of Wawasee by an Ogden's Island resident by the name of Patterson.
The first account was around 1855 when Jake Renfro and three others by the last names of Kitson, Etter, and Snyder speared a sturgeon in the main channel between Syracuse Lake and Wawasee.
The latest account was in 1991 when a sturgeon estimated at over 90 pounds was caught and released by a local fisherman, David Riddle.
On Wednesday, July 21, 1943 a large thunderstorm mushroomed over the southwest tip of Michigan and moved southeast rapidly.
