Omaha daily bee., 1911-07-22
Council Bluffs
SMALL LAKES DRY UP
Some that Have Not Been So for Fifty
Years Have No Water.
BIG LAKE IS BICYCLE SPEEDWAY
Boys scurry About on Its smooth BED
Spoon Lake is Now n Mere
PuddIe-NInnawa Very
Low.

Big lake has lost it's prestige Its name
is a misnomer and II is no longer entitled
to the distinction OF being called Big"
Boys, mounted on bicycles were yesterday
riding over what was formerly nine-tenths
Of the area covered by water. The surface
they rode upon was as firm and smooth
as asphalt pavement, with here and there
great cracks yawning, disclosing unknown
depths OF dry earth. The dimensions Of
the lake have been restricted to small
area Immediately, around the boathouse
with sufficient depth to float nothing
welghtier than a fence plank.
II is the first time in the history Of the
lake that it's waters have vanished under
the stress OF long drouth duration and the
fierce heat Of the sun.
The boys and girls of today, with good
memories will be able to recount half a
century hence the extraordinary dry sea-
son OF 1911 when Big lake went dry" The
little spot OF water that remains is de-
rived from the never-falling MINISTER
springs, and 1t fills the little depression
where the deepest water OF the lake once
was. All of the remainder Of the surface
| is dry. Boys have found amusement pick
ing up the remnants of fish and other
aquatic creatures whose existence was
painfully terminated by the long drouth.
I Even the 'crawfsh have become dlscour-
| aged and have Abandoned the deep wells
/ they had sunk earlier in the period Of alb
normal dryness. They have populated the
| little speck OF water until It has become
overcrowded and yesterday they were MAX
| ing a long and dusty journey that inter-
vened between the lake bed and the body
of water known as Gllperts pond de-
signed for ice production and filled by
water from the springs.
Many Ponds in Dry state.
Ponds in other parts Of the river bottoms
surrounding Council Bluffs where the boys
have gone swimming for two generations
are dry for the first time
Spoon lake" whose bottom has been
concealed for fifty years by nearly twenty
| feet of water, has been reduced to little
| puddle. big Weedy" and Little Weedy,''
where only strong swimmers could venture,
have not a drop of moisture in their bottoms
Hunts pond" which never failed, and
which certain eminent local hydraulic en-
gineers were insisting year ago should
be used as the source of the citys water
supply, has gone into the invisible aqueous
vapor OF the atmosphere
| Pastures on the surrounding farms and
grass on the hills in the vicinity of the
IClty Is urleu 10 us IurtnereSt rOotS, ana tine
hillsides would be as brown as they are In
December were 1t not for the shrubbery
and trees. These have lost none of theil
freshness and green, and seem to be yin.
touched by the drouth.
Lake Manawa has reached its lowest ebb
Never in its history has its water leve
been as low as now. There are very few
J places where the water is deep enough
to prevent wading Operation of the boat,
outside of the dredged channel between
the pavilion and the kursaal is almost i'm
possible and the larger boats are finding
difficulty to secure enough deep watel
to swim in.
Despite the unfavorable conditions corr
and other field crops continue to look wei
. and promise a good yield.