Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-05-22

Gdllce may De IOunQ
least, in the encyclo-
all Lake in Sac County
to all maps of the State
Wright County. took
visited the spot named
in Wright County.
=, to the map, the nearest
the Burlington, Cedar
I'd Northern from which to
all Lake is Clarion, the co1in-
Il. And a hustling little town
thousand it is, too, but when I
them about Wall Lake, every
was equally dumb. All had heard
3 a. but nobody that found the first
evening" had ever been at the lake.
The landlord, who is a man of infor.
nration, even if it is wrong or defec.
tive, did not venture even a guess
about it. That somewhat surprised
me, as q landlord, Of all persons, is the
last on earth to acknowledge that, there
might be something that he did not
know all about. Next in omniscience
in a country town is the liveryman.
l asked him about the lake and he said
at was not worth a visit, as the far
mers are now pasturing the lake:
where once there was water a good
many feet deep,and the wall was all
fake, anyway. This was discoura ging.
Two hundred miles away from home
to see something that people did not
travel as far as five miles to see.
was told that there are two so-called
wall lakes near Clarion. One is
twelve miles from town and the other
IS about five miles northeast from
town. The nearest is called Little
Wall Lake, and to that zone 1 bent my
footsteps although hired a livery
team and drove out 1t is right along
side the Ft. Dodge and Mason City
railroad. 1t seems to be right in the
midst Of an immensely large corn
field. We drove till the road seems
to come to an end. There was a gate
that was sort of lop-sided and tumbled-
down as If the last man through had
forgotten to shut it properly. It was
but a little ways to farm house,
which sat back few rods from the
highway. Never having seen a lake
nor a town in the midst Of a corn
feld, thought it best to inquire. I
asked of the housewife if there was
any way to get into the town which
saw in the distance. Z. For be it under
stood that there is town on the lake
Shore called Cornelia. It is station
on the above named railroad, and con-
sists of a blacksmith shop, an ele-
vator, a grocery store and a bob-tailed
colt that was grazing about the yards.
I asked the village blacksmith if he
knew anything about the lake, and he
said he did not, although he had lived
there three or four years. He directed
me to the house Of Mrs. Aaron, who
has lived there for twenty years or
more, saying she would know all about
it. The people who lived about the
country for years seem to care less
about the lake than anybody else. A
prophet is not without honor save in
his own country, and natural object
Of interest has no interest to those
who see it every day. suspect that
people who live where they hear
the roaring of Niagara every day
fail to see anything very wonderful
about it at all, and those who go to
Congress soon get used to it, although
learn that all Congressman are not
great men. The lake is perfectly dry
now, and has been for about five
years. For years it has been growing
shallower, till it gradually became
drier than the surrounding land. The
lake covers just about a section Of
land and learned from Mrs. Aaron,
who is German woman, that there
is a great deal of contention about
the ownership of the land. The far
rners whose land adjoins the lake are
setting their lines out to straighten
their fences and square their farms,
but nobody knows who is who or what
Us what. The State has not made a
ruling as to the ownership of the lake
Lakes and rivers as general rule be-
" long to the general government Every
time / would try to get more infor-
nation about the lake from Mrs. Aaron
she would launch into discussion Of
the defective titles, that did not care
anything about whatever. 1t was not
my funeral, an@ besides was not all
abstractor Of titles and could not
make them good l wanted to tell
her SO, too, but after thinking it over
concluded such sarcasm would be
Tlostly wasted
Every time I asked the good Mrs.
Aaron about when the lake went dry
sheAwould answer by saying that when
they came there twenty years a: .
there were forty feet Of water in I'll
lake, but now the people are quarrel
ing all the time about the titles It
did not seem to me likely that the
water was much over thirty feet else
the whole Surrounding country must
have been under water. The wall
around the lake is not over fifteen feet
high, and it would have hustled the
banks to hold all the water. I asked