Industry sign banking nevada presentation later
hello I'm cannonball the president of the 101 Lakes trust the 101 Lakes trust has been around since 2004 we've been holding the reflections event since 2006 is our fourth event first year we were on hamilton lake second year on lake james third year at cricket lake and this year we're doing Jimerson lake 101 lakes trust is a offshoot from the Steuben County Lake Council and our mission is to protect and enhance Steuben County natural and built environments of lakes rolling hills streams neighborhoods to stimulate and support a sense of community through conservation management education and research our motto is read practice environmental CPR to conserve protect and restore our environment today I'm giving this presentation and I'm the one giving it because it appears i am the only fourth-generation property owner on german sand lake at the moment there's more please come forward and let's begin what we have here is an 1876 map of Steuben County the earliest map we could find and on Jim earth and this is Jimerson lake as they made it appear in 1876 on this hand drawn map I think it might have looked a little bit different prior to the dam the lake probably more look like several glacier ponds with a lot of Martian a stream going through the center of it the glacier ponds would be the deepest part of jimmerson today if you notice the name of the lake is jimeson on the map in Lake James's James lake that is because the man who surveyed lake james was named james his son was learning the trade and he gave him the small lake to the west to survey as practice and they named it james son well everything being Hoosier somehow it got convoluted to jemison and everything being Hoosier again it became jimmerson as we know it today the earliest inhabitants of the area would have been the Clovis Indians around eight to ten thousand years ago but they were over much of America at the time at the early of the 20th century a stone arrowhead was found and it was proven to be from the Clovis culture the next inhabitants were the Native Americans mostly Potawatomi but there were other several tribes in the area it is said that Jamerson lake was a common meeting place for the several tribes soon after Indiana was admitted to statehood harassed a farm Erastus farmhand was appointed that surveyor for Steuben County around 1835 is when he came upon the area that would later be known as Nevada he had realized that it was a place of value with a nice dream and enough of a waterfall to run a mill this information was more'n likely passed on to a relevant of his Avery barnham whose house is still standing in fremont today just south of the railroad tracks Avery was a land speculator in 1837 just two years after his relative had surveyed it he took up the land from 109 acres from the government soon after he started to build the damn it was built on speculation for future water power and the use of a mill here's a description of the lake when this map was drawn up from George S cottman the Department of Conservation from Indiana leaving J lake james you may enter jimmerson creek rich goes winding through fields and lagoons ending at last in a long mill pond that curves greatly between slopes of gentle valley after two or more miles of pleasant boating on these sheltered waters nosing this way in that one comes to the head of the navigation of the hamlet of Nevada Mills a handful of houses that seemed so remote from the hurly-burly of the world so quiet and undisturbed that the lever of such spots will wish to linger here for an hour or so now like I said this may not be a true depiction of how the lake truly looked at the time i'm guessing to look more like with this aerial map from 1939 and here's a description from the turn of the century of Jimmerson lake from the state geologist WCB batch lee jemison lake is less than a half mile downstream from lake james it's open water lies in the form of st. andrew cross which is just say an X to me it looks more like a butterfly and from its center a beautiful view is obtained into each of the four arms each of which is about a half mile long the depth varies from 30 to 40 feet actually closer to 50 feet from the northwest extremity a narrow neck or finger reaches out a mile or more of Adam Mills the outlet now let's get on to the construction of the dam here here's an early photo of the dam looking towards the north this was taken around the turn of the 20th century and here's a picture of the mill pond the building sitting there is not the original mill it was burned down before the Civil War but the construction of the dam the first construction of the dam around 1837 it was an earthen dam first a temporary dam was built upstream about a quarter mile a simple wall they held back the water while the construction of the main dam was completed Lynn monger who wrote the book history of Nevada Mills claims it as you know where to look you can still see the post sticking out of the bottom the main dam was constructed to 14 feet high and was about 250 feet long it was made of hardwood wall 16 foot apart tied together with stringers with a floodgate at each end leaving one open during construction so they could divert water why they were working on the other end all the lumber came from the trees along the bank of the stream which was called crooked creek at the time the lumber was oak wild cherry Hickory or whatever else seems suitable and was in the area today you can still see the stumps in the water if you know where to look once done both flood gates were closed and the water level raised the creek and lakes around 12 feet in the mill pond today it's about 12 feet deep if you look over the edge of the damn you can picture what the creek looked like before the dam was there when it flooded the millpond had also flooded the lakes upstream which also flooded farmland and many of timberland but it also provided one of the best water powers in northeast Indiana at the time and also provided a great fishing ground for Northern deanna here's a picture of the last stretch of the mill that's not the first one as mentioned before the first building burnt down just before the civil war the German immigrant Joseph vike Minh later be known as Whitman started the Whitman factory he had two businesses there he had a sawmill and a woolen mill the sawmill was supplied from surrounding area and upstream when they cut down the trees they would build large rafts and float him down to them Nevada Mills the woolen mill had 40 weaving looms with two spinning ginnis which is a multiple spindle machine with 144 spindles apiece so whatever textile he was making at a time he was making a lot of it he died in 1846 soon after both buildings were burned down the new owners of the mill were over dere and Dean's they were the ones who built the grist mill that you see in the photo on the north flume they also built a distillery just west of the mill we know in 1854 Avery fern ham deeded the mill property over to Jacob over there for thirteen hundred dollars it was the first documented land transaction in Nevada Mills over dere being a strong Democrat wanted to name the place you can in hville after the president buchanan who was president at the time he went so far as to painted on the millwall if you later a strong republican owner tried to remove it from the outside window but could not reach all of it that's why you see in the picture there it says buca they ought the other end j over dere now mr. deems don't know his first name he had been a 49er and suggested naming it nevada mills after the town in California where he had made his fortune with no objections the name stuck now this kind of blue a perception i always had because with inverness nearby and panama nearby and alvarado nearby i had always assumed that the Spanish explorers had made it this far and just left their marks in places now so why Inverness is there and Panama I don't know well let lake games explain that should they ever do our reflections event if you notice the willow tree on the corner of the picture at the time this photo was taking it was the largest willow tree in the state with over a surf conference of 17 feet there's a view to the north from the mill and here's the down the downstream side of the bill during the operation the mill there were seven different owners through the years each one refining the mill processing of the flower we are going to concern ourselves with the last two owners of the mill the second to last owner was a dr. Gill he conceived building the hydroelectric power plant that sat at the bottom of the grist mill it was put in chain with the dams at ontario indiana indiana on the Pigeon River Greenfield mills in orland Mills this applied power to Angola it operated in conjunction with the grist mill this is another perception that was changed on me I always thought the hydroelectric dam that had been at Nevada mills only powered Nevada Mills so far thinking man that dr. Gill dr. Gill sold the mill and the hydroelectric operation to Henry wrinkle he is the father George wrinkle of the same family that still run the mill at Greenfield mills and he was the last operator of the middle during that same area there was also a blacksmith shop that utilized the South flume it was run by raizle monger he was a real white by trade and he had made the will for the Flint mill in Flint Indiana he also had put in a turn a turning lathe and a wagon shop when he put in the lathe he also built a wood sluice that's the wood channel you see they're going on the side of the building into a wood sister later he just at the turn of the 20th century he changed it to a glazed tile sluice and the system was made out of cement he died in 1904 in a mill accident at the Flint mill soon after the blacksmith shop went out of operation is felt to ruin as you can see there the glazed tile is now exposed and the cistern is decaying the schoolhouse that still stands in as in the photo is the third building built at Nevada Mills the original one was about a quarter miles down bachelor road to the west it was just a small wood frame structure the second schoolhouse sat next to the present schoolhouse and was a proper schoolhouse but made out of wood then in 1879 the present brick building was built using bricks from the brick factory that sat on the north side of the mill pond the school was still in use up till 1945 the other building that still stands there is the united methodist church established in 1872 there early services were held in the school houses construction of the church began in 1891 and the building was dedicated in 1892 it was built on the site of one of the former blacksmith shops known as the cooper shot because barrel staves were made there of all the businesses and industries the church is the only remaining active organization in Nevada Mills this here is a photo of the Terry general store it is not the first store that was in Nevada Mills the first one was the red store it was part of the mill property the first store keeper was a mr. penny Thompson Terry and his son Jim bought the farm property just north of the mill and ran a store in the red store building for a while later they built the first section of the building that became known as terry store the first section as well is where the high pitched roof is Jim pass it on to a son Fred who added on to the store and ran until the dam was taken over by the state it was a center of activity for the village for many years behind this Terry store satin ice house they collected the ice from the mill pond in the winter and stored it in the building and sawdust and sold it through the summer this is a picture of the depo for the st. Joe Valley Line Railroad it was more commonly known as the arnica solid railroad 'he buckle 'he doc Buckland made tons of money selling little tins of cell containing a medical herb arnica that was popular in Germany in the 1800s he made a lot of money and he needed to invest it somehow so he had wanted to invest in a real line that ran from Toledo to Chicago how did it now ideally that line would have gone straight from Angola to Lagrange any little town that could provide a subsidy he was willing to make a line go to it so there was a depo in Inverness Panama on Lake gauge in Orlando the significance of this to Nevada Mills is that was in within walking distance so open the world up to him and also it gave the minimum of Adam Mills job when they were sorely needed in construction of the railroad and operations of it Fred Terry's brother Raymond open a general store next to this a-depo station and inverness here's a picture of the orland depo often a circus would travel on the train and when they would pass the Panama station on late gage they would stop the train let the animals out and go down to the lake for a drink of water there were other industries at Nevada mo through the years as well I'll just run through them briefly there was a cider mill that sat at the bottom of the grist mill this caused many apple trees to end up growing downstream I have canoed this dream several times and there are some nice old apple trees down there there was also charcoal pits they would go to Tamarack Lake which was nearby get the tamarack trees and bring them back that they were good for making charcoal there was a fish hatchery it was built by the WPA during the Roosevelt years there were five ponds and all three on the North Shore and two on the South today there is only one that remains the fish hatchery was closed when they moved it to orland there was also a furrier it was a storage house for collecting furs from the nearby trappers the munger nursery it was an operation from 1947 to 1970 a pickle station they collected and stored cucumbers from the surrounding farmers and provided him to the harbor pickle company in Brunson Michigan just north of Orlando and across the state line and there was also a mint oil distillery northeast Indiana is still a large producer of mint for the nation in 1934 wrinkles ceased operation of the grist mill but continued the hydroelectric dam he later solita nipsco and continued to work for them the mill building was sold for fifty dollars and torn down for the lumber in 1947 the hydroelectric mill continue to run through the second world war in 1947 the mill property was turned over to the states and they reworked the dam and made the lake look more like it does now in this photo of the 1951 aerial looks more like a butterfly than the 1939 burial to me and here's a description from that time after it was built the dam at the outlet at jimmerson lake at Nevada Mills controls the level of jimmerson James and Snow Lake the dam was redesigned and rebuilt in 1948 1949 to provide better regulation of the lake levels it has a combination of overflow spillways and a hand-operated regulating gate the main spillway that sits there a day is the same spillway that was built in 8 1948 the average normal level of jimmerson lake was set by the Steuben County Circuit Court on July first 1947 at an elevation of 960 4.66 feet and that wraps up our discussion on the mill and how it affected jimmerson lake all this information came from the book the history of Nevada Mills bile in munger the copies can be purchased at the dam store or the odd sale both in Nevada Mills go check em out now we move on to the lake and actually a particular cottage on the lake and that cottage is near and dear to me before it was built my great grandfather Edward Perry it was built between nineteen 14 and 19 17 Eduard Parri was a prominent photographer in Fort Wayne at the turn of the 20th century he had a good friend named George Eastman who at the time was a traveling salesman and they had been coming up to the area for years to go hunting and fishing whenever George was in town they had a plan that they were going to build a hunting lodge on the property where the Prairie on the property where the Perry and bolt cottages sit today it was about 2.5 acres they were going to build the main lodge which is the Perry cottage that we saw on the canoe that we saw on the pontoon ride today and they're going to be several other cabins built for rentals well George Eastman got busy with Kodak and stopped coming around a
d the plan for the hunting lodge kind of went to the wayside at that time Eduard Parri sold off half the property to his brother in law s mark bolt if you notice in the picture the trees are pretty skinny and you can see quite a few stumps in the yard there it can only be assumed that the sawmill had cut down these trees for lumber today they're much larger here's a view of the south shore as when before they bought the property as you can see there's nothing built on the other side yet if the hotel that was on the lake is there it would be just out of a shot to the left here's another photo a little bit more to the west and you also notice the shoreline goes out substantially farther than it does today here we see the start of the construction of the building and you can see more to the east on the south shore still can't make out any buildings out there and if you can make it out you can see how large the island was that we just have a small remnant left today as you also tell that they used a horse led to drag rocks down from the field that's up behind the house the construction was start in early spring it has continued can see the foliage on the trees coming out complete of the first section now if you notice the windows all the pains and the windows were negative plates that my great-grandfather used to develop film and it continued to build the porches the following year couldn't tell you who any of those people are or why they're sitting in a ditch then approximately 20 years later after my great grandfather passed away my grandfather Herman earlham ball took ownership of the cottage and he raised the roof and put dormers on the top that is pretty much how the structure sits today other than we screamed in the porch interesting fact the upstairs has never been completed inside and that one big dormitory style with seven double beds in there they claim the record a number of people sleeping up in that bedroom has been 44 but that's kids stacked sideways on the double beds view from the lake once again you can see the shore still coming out quite farther now here's the view of the south shore again you can see more houses i count about seven right there would be the hotel these two houses are gone I believe that one's gone and over here would be the little white cottages and there's the tip of the remnants of the island used to come out in front of Perry cottage some time later he painted it white the shot here you see the fence line that is where Buena Vista starts course at the time this was taken there was no Buena Vista so it wasn't all work and no play on the boat there we have in the chair my great-uncle is he who owned the bolt cottage with the back of the boat is my grandfather Herman Iran ba and then in the middle were the three sisters daughters of Eduard Parri the one closest to us would would be rosella earlham ball I recognize that by her swimming suit because it was still around when I was a small boy the one on the right would be her younger sister Alice the one the middle would be ADA Perry which was a sister-in-law there's or there are older sister Helen now someone had mentioned boy he's pretty daring to be sitting in that chair on a boat and but you would really have to think he's probably not too concerned about a Triton blowing by what four tubes into they were going to meet anybody else on the lake it was probably planned in the early days but they didn't have road access all the way to the cottage they had to stop up to field a bit and they were still cattle in the field so until they got a gate built they would step over it and that fashion and what's a picture of the area without the gratuitous catch of the day photo and gentlemen how do you catch a fish like that proper attire okay these are just photos of buildings that we saw today on our trip the schoolhouse on the church as they stand today ok this is the Rumpke cottage that you pass today but couldn't see because of the foliage it's on was sitting on the northeast shore of the flats Rumpke had rented out occasionally had run a store out of it and had visions of opening a restaurant there they had a sign out front at the time called popular point after his death the cottage was allowed to follow ruins and this is what we have left today here's the three white buildings that we saw that we're all owned by the same family but would be gospel got photos from the back here this is the more interesting that we could not see from the lake very well that is the old store that was owned by the same owners it was in operation and from 1925 until about the 40s it had a soda fountain and sold sundries and general goods with the store there it indicates there were probably quite a few other property owners on the lake at the time but either the cottages have been drastically altered or they have been removed there's a soda stand window this here is the Meyers cottage is the one that sat next to the motel for the hotel and the owners of that used to rent boats out for the hotel guests and there's the hotel as it sits today the Milliken hotel built around 1915 the neighborhood likes to believe Dillinger stayed there had six bedrooms a tavern and during Prohibition had a speakeasy and just a personal note on that one I had a great-uncle who came up and visit me when I first moved up here in the 80s I was taken him around and we got to the hotel he told the story of they had come up during Prohibition with a friend who had never been here and as their friends was all worried about were they able going to go to a place and be able to drink and they assured him they could they had rowed across the lake to the hotel and went right in and asked for the bartender and give them a soda pop well the guests got all upset because he didn't roll all the way across lake for a soda pop and he went back road across the lake by himself and I got there the women who stayed behind let him know that sodypop was the key word to say for alcohol because you didn't want to say soda pop so he had a row all the way back over to the hotel walked into the tavern to a room full of laughter it was a common joke they like to play on the people there's the Hanson cottage has it changed much and the only structural changers has been the roof and the sighting has never been winterized that goes the same for the bruns cottage built 1925 and other than upkeep has never been drastically changed they did take out the Franklin stove and replace it with a gas fireplace other than that no changes and again it is only a summer cottage this here is the Perry cottage as it stands today in the late 50s my father put aluminum siding on the top and changed out the windows and also screened in the porch in 1969 it was winterized and the process of doing so we did see in the mortar work from the inside 1917 etched on inside the mortar there you can see the stonework significance that is that it's not staggered as we do stonework today it was laid across in a straight line like you would do brick and if you notice in the background there I had a cousin who point tucked the main house part to make it more airtight the boat cottage has not drastically been changed on the outside though some windows have been changed in a deck added but the rest of the house was we left as it was the house was originally built on pylons with a root cellar in the northeast corner he later decided to put in a full basement he dead so by digging underneath the house and putting a stone wall up to the base floor then he was able to put a coal burning furnace inside you notice back in the corner there's a garage and the garage a used to have a generator room that he used to provide power to both cottages in the 30s up until remc brought power lines down to the cottages the close cottage probably the first cottage built on the North Shore it was built by Joseph close built it by himself except for the stonework at the time he owned the entire shoreline of that end of the lake he owned that much property when he died it would went to his five children only which two of built houses and they would be that one and that one the two on the far left Taylor farm as we know it today this here was not on our tour today but it was added to the presentation just to demonstrate what was adequate back in the 1950s and 40s when you built a summer cottage and what's adequate today I would guess on any given holiday weekend they both sleep the same amount of people changes through the years ok here's the 1939 map we saw this earlier the presentation you notice there's the island that we were on our pontoon ride today was very small and here you have more distinction between your Martin and web lake then we go to 1951 area which is after the dam was rebuilt the island considerably smaller already less distinction between the two lakes now there's something I wanted to point out here because it shows better than 39 map you know it's this section right here this was a land bridge that came around here this swamp which is actually a bog was never connected to the main lake it always said separate it is a bog and the purpose of a bog is it allowed water to seep into the aquifer replenishes it so to speak since the lakes are spring fed it was feeding the lakes in a roundabout way but with clean water rather than run off also if you know it's a 1951 it looks much more like a butterfly here we have a 1964 Island still a little bit smaller a little less distinction on the two lakes of course not of Nevada Mills is way up here the thing I want to point out is the bog at this time where this channel was cut in and then these channels were cutting this channel went in to what was a campground at the time and then it's right here was a road out to their Beach it effectively cut the bogs into to third into one third where two-thirds of it now flows with the lake rather than allow to seep into the aquifer and here we have today of 2009 aerial more channels Island up now almost not even there doesn't show up on the aerial anyway all one long channel no depiction of Martin or web lake at all now one thing I would like to point out from the hotel people have told me through the years that there was a road that went across Jimerson lake I I remember my dad pointing out where it was that it was a sunken Road I believe that in the early days when the middle operation was an operation they would let the lakes drain why they were operating this mills and then they would close both flood gates and let it build back up so I believe the road would come and go with the mill operation so it tightens or was a road at time there may not have been a road everything with the yellow stripe was land in 1939 of course we weren't able to get the picture of the Martin web Lake area one of the nice things about jimmerson is that we do have a wetland conservation area it was basically mitigated wetland so they could build this channel behind what is now an island for the houses of paradise view but the nice part about it is that most of the shoreline if you google this map you'll see it better because it's identified on it but most of the shoreline along the Taylor farm is part of that wetland conservation area so it means they're shoreline is protected if nothing else and that pretty much ends the presentation
