October 27, 2014

Water, Water Everywhere…

Being a true county in the state of Minnesota, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, Murray is the home to a number of waterways scattered throughout its borders. Granted, one might consider some of these mere watering holes, but nevertheless, they are legitimate lakes in the eyes of cartographers everywhere.  And best of all, at least we haven’t got the distinction of being the one and only county in the state without a lake (right, southeastern Minnesota?)  We’ve even got rivers crisscrossing our county lines as well.

Now I’m probably pushing the county line limits on a couple of these (and I’ll take corrections graciously) but I count at least a dozen lakes in our fair county today.  I also know there are countless other little water spots and I’d love to know about those as well.  But the most known lakes around here include the following:  Big Slough, Lake Shetek, Lake Mariah, Blood Lake, Summit Lake, Lake Sarah, Lake Wilson, Current Lake, Iron Lake, Corabelle Lake and Badger Lake.

Once, there was an erstwhile lake in Slayton named Elsie, and she graced the southeast section of town.  Well Elsie was drained in favor of farming land, which never really paid off as for some reason, the land always tended to revert to wet lands. So, rather than fight the force of nature, Elsie was encouraged a few years ago to arise from the dead and become yet another county lake (or wetland, as the case might be on drier, rainless years). 

So let’s see, that would make 13 official lakes in the county.  And that’s not even taking into consideration the countless other water ways that go unnamed on the official maps.

But what of plans back in 1974 to develop an artificial lake in the Chanarambie valley, three miles west of Chandler.  Perhaps this phantom lake does exist and if so I need to go on a hunt for it one of these days.

The lake was to be created on land donated by the Post brothers, Sankey brothers and Arlo Gilbertson and developed jointly by these folks in cooperation with the ASCS, the Soil Conservation Service, and Moulton Township.

When completed, the lake was to be about nine acres in size and average between 20 and 30 feet deep at the dam.  It was also to be stocked and have a parking area for fisherman.  Eventually, planners schemed, a park could be developed there as well.  Cost estimates for the project was set at $35,000.  Now that’s no little watering hole in my estimates.

So, was the lake ever developed?   How about the park and the adjacent parking lot?  I’d love to know more. Because this unnamed lake would have become number 14 in Murray County.   

And that’s not too bad for this southwest Minnesota prairie land county.