Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-04-16
CUSTER LAKE.
A Master Piece by Nature, Embelish.
ed With the Works Of
Man.
Twill be the Mecca Of the Lover oi
the Beautiful, the Grand
and picturesuue.

On Monday OF this week CHRONICLE
reporter, in company with James Clark,
one of the members of the Lake Com
pany, visited Custer lake, that enchant.
ed spot of which so much has been said
and written. A few months ago Custer
lake did not exist. The site was there.
and the water was there, but the latter
was In the form of a creek which wound
its way through Sunday Gulch, and
escaping through a narrow -aneif : :
dashed down rocky gorge yeritable
mountain torrent. But the stone cutter,
the mason and the grader have been
hard at work during the past few
months and mighty change has been
wrought. A massive dam Of rock and
cement fills the aperture, the creek finds
its course obstructed, and the Sunday
Gulch which was, is now the bed Of
body of glistening, shimmering water.
which is being augmented each day by
generous springs and the melting snow
on the surrounding mountains. That
cuHuay puICh hibht uC mouS ~ laAV
was first suggested by two ranchers or
prospectors who held claims in that
vicinity ten or twelve years ago, but no
movement in that direction was made
until nearly year ago, when party of
gentlemen from Custer located the
ground and organized a lake improve
ment company. This was early in the
spring of of 1891, and though hundreds
ofpeople FROM Custer and outside points
visited the site, nothing was done until
last fall. when the rights to the ground
and the water were transferred to
Messrs. Chas. and Theodore Reder, who
agreed to put up substantial dam, 20
feet in height, and make numerous other
improvements. Reder Bros. soon had
large force Of men on the ground and
for weeks the work went steadily on.
But the undertaking was a greater one
than was anticipated at the outset, and
about three months ago JAS Clark and
Chas c. Crary, Of Custer, and j. c.
Spencer, of Newcastle, were taken into
the company by Messrs. Reder. From
that time construction Of the dam was
rapidly pushed until last Tuesday night
it was completed. As remarked before,
the dam is massive structure, measuring
thirty-three feet from the first layer Of
rock to the top, forty feet wide, in the
form of a quarter circle, and six feet in
thickness. II is provided with gate
which allows the escape Of surplns
water, and is in every way calculated to
Withstand any pressure that may be
brought to bear upon it. One rock used
in its construction weighs over three
tons, and on the water side a wall of
earth fifteen feet in width has been
raised. When the water rises to the
present heighth of the dam, over ten
acres of the lake bed will be submerged
Later on it is expected that another
twenty feet will be added to 1t, and
when that is done the head Of
Sunday Gulch will be entirely
under water. However. the com
company is very well satified with what
has already been accomplished. aud OH
the lake no more work will be done at
present. The next month will be de.
voted to building roads, cleaning the
grounds, etc. This week Bry den &
Cation, of Hill City, are surveying the
property, and the company will make
immediate application for a patent
One who has not visited the lake this
spring can hardly conceive of the dis.
advantages under which the gentlemen
who comprise the Lake Company have
labored. All through the winter months,
and the wintry months of spring the
work has been going on, sometimes lay
ing stone and working in cement when
mercury was towing with the numbers
on the under side Of zero, and not un-
frequently being compelled to suspend