Campus lake has rich history of fact and fiction
By SUE WALKER
Summer Kansan Reporter
A legend lies in our midst and few realize it. "Seek and ye shall find," became my motto as I spent countless hours searching for the truth...about Potter Lake.
As the first decade of the twentieth century came to a close, a problem was discovered that needed attention right away, fire protection for the University of Kansas.
The Board of Regents selected a spot in a ravine north of Marvin Hall to be used as watersupply. A 60-foot dam was to cross the ravine, forming a two-acre lake 16 feet deep at one end. The spring thaws assisted by the city water-mains soon turned the ravine into a lake.
The lake claimed its first victim before it was completed in the spring of 1911. A group of civil engineers attended a party in Marvin Hall and were returning home late that night. They decided to swim across the lake and back. One stayed out in the center too long and drowned.
Commencement, in the early 1900's, included an annual regatta on the Kaw River at the boating docks above the dam. With a lake in their own backyard, students decided to hold the activities there. Swimming events, logrolling, canoeing, diving competition and water-baseball with an early evening band concert filled out the program.
The regatta served as something of a dedication for the lake, named in honor of State Senator T. M. Potter of Peabody.
During one of the land events, a student glanced out onto the lake and to his surprise and several hundred other spectators, a huge whale was seen rising out of the water spouting water.
A few brave young men jumped into their canoes and rowed out to capture the whale, obviously a misplaced Loch Ness monster.
The boat capsized and the great whale, fearing capture, plunged to the depths never to be seen again. No one ever attempted to explain how a whale appeared in a man-made fresh-water lake.
In 1924, a diving pier, springboards and dressing rooms were built and life guards provided. For three years this was the favorite "swimming hole."
In 1927 a public pool was constructed for the city and Potter Lake was banned from bathing or swimming. At one time, officials considered cementing the entire lake basin.
KU students back in the 30's and 40's used to pass afternoons trying to knock golf balls across the lake. A seven-hole golf course started on the slope above the dead-end street west of the stadium. The third hole was on the west side of the lake. It was here at the water trap that most
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1969 KANSAN 9
golfers ran into trouble. The course was hardly recognizable, after the war. The scattered oak trees had grown and the recreation ground had been built up west of the lake. Oread Hall had also been constructed near the former location of the last green. Nature lovers went even further in the attempt to destroy the course. They planted shrubs and flowers where the smooth course used to be. Weeds have conquered all and today the area is a complete jungle.
As the years went by, the lake has been used as a bathtub for throwing newly pledged members of frat-houses, melting-pots for the sororites, boys romancing their lady-fair and skinny-dipping, whether the surface is blanketed with slimy moss or ice.
In June of '58, Potter Lake was a mudhole. However, the condition was only temporary. It was drained because it had become filled with silt until the deepest point was less than six feet. The only fish in it were goldfish, carp, bullheads and some bass. During the summer it was dried, dredged, the dam was repaired and a small silt pond built at the south end. It was announced that the lake would be used as a laboratory for research purposes by the Zoology Department.
Skating on the pond has become almost a tradition in the winter months, providing the ice is at least 4" thick.
Ten years later, and even today, the week-end beer parties created some controversy about the possibility of changing the name of the lake to the "Campus Dump." By Sunday afternoon, beer-cans, newspapers, milk cartons, pop bottles and clothing cluttered the grounds. But thanks to Harry M. Bucholtz, superintendent of building and grounds, "the week-end messes" were cleaned up by the first of each week—although the litter was back by the following Sunday.
It is the summer of '69 and we can now peer out on the glossy surface of a real legend portrayed on an artist's canvas . . filled with whales( romance and silt. . But we sought and we found . . the truth about Potter Lake.
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BOSTON (UPI)—A Bostonian has been found who did not know of the successful Apollo 11 moon landing, and where else but on Moon Street.
Potter Lake simmers in the Summer sun as an artist paints the scene
Unaware of moon flight
-Photo by Sue Walker
"What do you mean, what do I think about living on Moon Street at a time like this? What kind of a time is it?" replied a woman Tuesday.
"Oh, you mean the people who rode the rockets," she said, when it was explained. "Have they reached the moon?"
She was told that "they" indeed had reached the moon, walked around on the surface and were now on their way back home through space. The woman, who declined to give her name, commented, "Good."
Again she was asked about living on Moon Street—didn't the idea strike her, perhaps, as being a little timely?
"It's a nice street, but I don't live here. I'm babysitting," she said.
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GO GREEK!
Although 20 percent of the nation's college students are fraternity men, three out of four chief executives of the country's 750 largest corporations are fraternity men.
Of the current congress, 69 per cent of the senators are fraternity men, and 35 per cent of the house is Greek.
PARTICIPATE IN MEN'S OPEN RUSH JULY 1,-AUG.31 FORMAL RUSH WEEK-SEPT.1-4
Register at Dean of Men's Office 228 Strong Interfraternity Council Office 112B Kansas Union