Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-03-13

USED TO LeaCn Jnat tneTc was a WalleQ
lake somewhere in the state. | had
forgotten where, and anyone whom l
asked about it had either never heard
of such a lake, Or if he had, had for
gotten where it was situated. No en-
%cyclopedia had a word about it. AL.
most any peculiar natural object Of
sufficient Importance may be found
mentioned, at least, in the e%ncyclope.
dia.
There is a Wall Lake in Sac county.
and according to all maps of the state
there is one in Wright county. / took
chances and visited the spot named
as Wall Lake in Wright county.
According to the map the nearest
station on the Burlington, Cedar Rap
ids and Northern from which to reach
Wall Lake, is Clarion, the county cap
ital. And a hustling little town of two
thousand it is too, but when l asked
them about Wall Lake, everybody was
equally dumb. All had heard of it but
nobody that 1 found the first evening
had ever been at the Lake. The land
lord who is a man of information ever
if it is wrong or defective did not ven.
ture even a guess about it. That
somewhat surprised me, as a 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. I
asked him about the lake and he said
it was not worth a visit as the farmers
are now p%asturing the lake; where
once there was water a good many
feet deep, and the wall was all a fake
anyway. This was discouraging. Two
hundred miles away from home to see
something that people did not travel
as far as five miles to see. l 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 one
nearest is called little wal. lake and to
that one l bent my footsteps, although
| hired a livery team and drove out.
1t is right alongside the Fl. 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 prop
erly. 1t was but a little ways to a
farm house which sat back a few rods
from the highway. Never having
seen a lake nor a town in the midst of
a corn field | thought it best to in
uufre. | asked of the housewife if
there was any way to get into the
town which | saw in the distance. For
be it understood that there is a. town
on the lake shore, called Cornclia
1t is a station on the above named
~asIrOa1 ~ -n~nrs,fc 80 - l.
shop, an elevator, a grocery store and
a bob tailed colt that was grazing
about the yards. | asked the village
blacksmith if he knew anything about
the lake. and he said he did not al
though he had lived there three or -four
wears. He directed me to the honse
IF 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 case less about the lake than any
body else. A prophet is not without
honor save in his w country, and a
natural object Of interest has no inter
est to those who see it every day. 1
suspect that people who live right
there where they hear the roaring of
the Niagara every day fail to see any
ing VI "oildS L az vi
and those who go to 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 had been growing shallower,
till it gradually became drier than the
surrounding land. The lake covers
Just about a section of land and l
learned from Mrs. Aaron, who is a
German woman that there is a great
deal of contention about the owner
ship of the land. The farmers whose
land joins the lake, are setting their
ines our to strai2hten their fences
and square their farms, but nobody
knows who is who or what is what.
The state has not made a ruling as to
the ownership Of the lake. Lakes and
rivers as a rule belong to the general
government. Every time l would try
to get more information about the lake
from Mrs. Aaron, she would launch
into a discussion of the defective tit
les, that | did not care anything about
Whatever. 1t was not my funeral, and
besides | was not an a%bstractor of tit
les n could not make them good, I
wanted to tell her SO, too. but after
thinking it over concluded such sar-
casm would be mostly wasted.
Every time | asked the good Mrs.
Aaron about when the lake went dry,
she would answer by saying that when
they came there twenty years ago,
there were forty feet of water in the
lake, hut now the people are quarrel
Ing all the time about the titles. 1t
did not seem to me likely that the
water was much over thirty feet deep,
else the whole surrounding country
must have been under water. The
wall around the lake is not over ff-
teen feet high and it would have hus-
tied the banks to hold all the water,
asked her if the inhabitants had n
theory as to the cause of the lake 60
ing dry. She named a certain Sew.
enth Day Adventist who claimed that
1t was going dry because the people
were so wicked. 1t was the heat
that forms beneath which was drying
up the lake and ID was a prophecy of
what they might expect if they did not
mend their ways.
She told me that there used to be a
pleasure steamer on the lake and it
hauled many excursionists, on pleas
1rrn liant TrhDr I,col. 4A Gzl.x.