Page 4 University Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 2, 1962
KU's Potter Lake Has Varied History
Bv Richard Bonett
It's not much of a lake as lakes go. It wouldn't win any arguments with Lake Erie, or even with Lone Star for that matter. But it's ours and it's got a history and tradition as deep as any on the KU campus.
The mysterious episode which resulted in the whale legend took place in 1911 shortly after the lake was completed. Construction on the lake had been authorized by the Board of Regents in 1910 to provide a water reservoir to fight campus fires.
Sitting a few hundred yards northwest of the Campanile like a tiny bluish-green emerald and surrounded by a grove of not too impressive trees, Potter Lake has probably been the setting of innumerable KU romances.
Sen. T. M. Potter, a former member of the Board of Regents, after whom the lake was named, was present on that warm afternoon of June 5 as the ceremonies got underway.
It also has been the victim of the ever-threatening campus prankster, doubled as a pledge bathtub, was the scene of a heroic rescue of a dog, contains something of a legend involving a whale, and once was the center for campus duffers.
AT LEAST seven persons have been drowned in the lake.
THEN SUDDENLY the program came to a dead stop amid shouts and gasps as there appeared on the surface of the lake a large, dark form spouting a column of water.
It is dutifully recorded in the 1911 Graduate magazine that a boat-load of hearty volunteers shoved off to investigate the shocking appearance of an inland Moby Dick.
But, alas, several yards from shore the boat capsized, spilling the brave laddies into the fresh-water drink. The whale seemingly ignored them and all hands were saved.
For three years, from 1924 to 1927, Potter Lake was a favorite campus swimming hole, fully equipped with diving tower, spring boards, piers, and dressing rooms for men and women. But when the city opened a public pool the campus lake fell into disuse and after a short time bathing in Potter Lake was officially banned.
THIS DOESN't mean, of course, that an occasional body doesn't find its way into the lake. As recently as the 1950s, the Daily Kansan reported that the lake was used as a "catch-all" for "stags" who were caught speaking to girls on the campus.
And it has been the field of honor on many occasions for the settling, by an aquatic tug-of-war, of some small difference between competing fraternities.
A 7-hole golf course once graced the sloping hillsides around the lake but Dr. F. C. Allen, the KU basketball coach, lamented in 1948 that "nature lovers have completely ruined the course by planting shrubs all over the fairway."
PREVIOUSLY, many students could spend an enjoyable afternoon trying to knock golf balls across the diminutive lake. And small boys, with equal enthusiasm, stood by to dive in to retrieve the dunked balls for a small consideration.
Twice in 1959 vandals threatened aquatic life in the lake, used as a natural laboratory by the life science department. In both cases a flammable substance, either gasoline or paraffin base oil, was poured on the lake and set afire.
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Another incident, this time a rescue occurred when two unidentified students spotted a frightened dog afloat on a raft in the lake and pulled the grateful pooch ashore. No one ever found out how the animal got stranded a la Swiss Family Robinson.
The approach of warm summer evenings will probably see an increase in hand-in-hand pedestrian traffic around the attractive lagoon, which not too long past was the arena for ice-skaters, both graceful and otherwise.
As the university has grown larger, the lake has been shrinking in significance in campus life. Gone are the commencement regattas, the whale, the swimming hole and the golf course.
Left in their place is only a small, seldom-used concrete dance pavilion and picnic area. It's not really much of a lake. But still, it's ours and it's kind of nice.
Explosion Sets Off Riots
ALGIERS, Algeria — (UPI) — Terrorists blew up a booby-trapped automobile in the midst of a crowd of Moslem dock workers today, killing and wounding dozens and setting off violent Moslem rioting.
The blast was believed to be the work of the outlawed Secret Army Organization (OAS).
Police said at least eight were killed and 100 injured in the explosion. But they said the figures probably would rise sharply. One Moslem bystander said he counted at least 30 dead and 70 wounded.
MANY OF the dock workers had taken their children with them to the hiring shed near where the explosion occurred, since they felt the youngsters were safer there than elsewhere in the city. Reliable reports say six children between the ages of 9 and 14 were among the injured.
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Enraged Moslems rioted after the explosion. They caught one European and slit his throat.
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French security forces cordoned off the area and sent in Moslem nationalist police in an attempt to quiet the howling Moslems.
The tension spread to Moslem quarters of the city as the injured were carried to their own hospitals. The Casbah was off limits to Europeans who valued their lives. Police sent home office workers near the blast scene along the waterfront.
EUROPEANS driving cars gave the edges of the Moslem quarters a wide berth as news of the explosion
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spread. The OAS attack was one of many designed to provoke the Moslems into extreme violence and thus break the cease-fire agreement signed in March.
French security forces put into operation immediate precautions to keep the Moslem and European communities separated after the bombing.
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