Lake Everett is the only natural Allen County lake in Lake Township. Or is it Everett Lake?
This Everette Lake sign, photo by CBS WANE-TV NewsChannel 15, is a 100 feet or so from the Lake Everett Community Beach sign shown below on North Shore Road!
Google Street View shows the Everett Lake sign location and Street View showing both this sign barely visible on the left and the Lake Everett Beach sign on the right of the Google image.
Everett Lake is the only natural lake in Allen County, according to the DNR, and features a species of fish only seen in a handful of Indiana waters: muskie.
Everett Lake is the only natural lake in Allen County, according to the DNR, and features a species of fish only seen in a handful of Indiana waters: muskie.
Lake Everett Thousand Acre Park was proposed as early as 1895 by C. E. Everett and Henry M. Williams who owned the land discussed in dozens of early 1900s newspaper articles shown on the bottom of this page.
Spring Lake Woods and Bog is an ACRES Landtrust preserve that includes a sphagnum bog with native flora including five foot tall cinnamon ferns giving a lush tropical feel in a northern muckland woods.
Preserve Description
Spring Lake Woods and Bog has long been recognized as significant to preservationists due to its sphagnum bog, orchids, pitcher plants and plant life distinctive to northern muckland woods.
The preserve protects the shoreline of Lake Everett, Allen County’s only natural lake. It is also home to the rare four-toed salamander and features distinctive plant life including cypress-knee sedge, skunk cabbage and large cinnamon ferns.
Deep in the bog, plant life is sensitive, and the ground is not solid enough for trails. The bog smells like rotten eggs and is surrounded by poison sumac. To protect the bog, this preserve’s trail does not go near the bog.
What's in a name? Hulls Lake, Everett Lake, Lake Everett?
Lake township is situated directly west of Washington, between Aboite on the south and Eel River on the north. Its name is derived from the presence, within its borders, of the largest lake in the county. This lake, a really beautiful little sheet of water, has passed among many by the title "Mud," a misnomer so far as the lake itself goes, and probably bestowed on account of the marshy approach. It also went into several maps as "Hull's" lake, possibly from the fact that the inlet to it rises near the place where the Hulls settled in Eel River township, or from some incident of early days. The lake is peculiarly situated, and a wild seclusion is characteristic of the locality, notwithstanding an effort made in recent years to
briug it into prominence as a resort. The land containing the feature was purchased some twenty years ago by Charles Everett, who came from Hicksville, and who contemplated the building of an electric railroad out to the lake and the conversion of the tract into a pleasure park. Prom Everett's hands the property passed to Mr. Henry M. Williams, who has parked the woods and improved the locality in many ways, hoping to realize the same dream. There is a strange charm about this half hidden body of water, clear, still, and said to be deadly cold. The inlet, forever pouring water into it, while no outlet exists above ground, adds the erie fascination of mystery. The woods of the vicinity of the lake are remarkable for the variety of the trees, many kinds being found here which have become extremely rare. The lake has long been known as Lake Everett.
Lake Chapel near unnamed lake in Map of Allen County, Indiana 1875 detailed map of Allen County, Indiana, was drawn by Samuel Morrison and include railroads, churches, schools, and canals. The Lake Chapel Methodist Church was at 8205 Butt Road near Arcola..
Ready for an adventure? Spring Lake Woods and Bog - ACRES Land Trust offers a serene 0.7-mile trail suitable for all ages. Open daily from dawn to dusk, this preserve invites you to immerse yourself in nature. Find it at 12905 Lake Everett Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46818.
Bogs are nature’s time capsules! Did you know that sphagnum moss can preserve plant material for centuries? Spring...
Bogs are delicate and vital ecosystems, filtering water and storing carbon. This is why our trails are carefully designed to protect them and our visitors by not going near the bog. Thank you for staying on the path and respecting nature’s balance!
Lake Everett has long eluded the plans of lake developers and, curiously, could have been home to much more. In 1914, Fort Wayne businessman Henry M. Williams tried to develop it into an amusement and Chautauqua park, with rail lines feeding it and five fountains. An article in The Fort Wayne Daily News described the plans for an amusement park near a wooded hill on its southeast shore that Williams named Chautauqua Ridge. Six rail lines were planned to Fort Wayne and other northern Indiana towns. Williams, owner of the Fort Wayne Traction Company, died in 1923. His grandiose plan died with him, and a new development company soon was looking for buyers for a housing development of lake homes. ARCH is proud to present this edition of Throwback Thursday, part of its service as the historic preservation organization serving the greater Fort Wayne area made possible by ARCH members and donors. Thank you. Photo courtesy of the Allen County Public Library, 1960.
NATURAL COMMUNITIES OF INDIANA: For the last two days of our natural communities week, we are covering a couple wetland communities present in Indiana. Some of the most unique wetlands occur in northeastern Indiana like bogs – floating peat mats with no inflow or outflow of water aside from rain. Water in bogs is typically acidic and very low in nutrient availability so many of the plants have adapted to get their nutrients by trapping and digesting insects! Pitcher plants and sundews usually grow in sphagnum moss in bogs, sometimes at the base of poison sumac or winterberry. Pitcher plants have bowls of digestive enzymes to dissolve unlucky bugs that fall in and can’t climb out. Sundews have sticky hairs that trap and dissolve ants. Lydick Bog Nature Preserve is the best place to see a bog from the safety of an elevated boardwalk. [ South Bend, Indiana ]
Page 14 states: The first suggestion of an electric railway in Allen County, outside the city of Ft. Wayne, was announced August 21, 1895. The Ft. Wayne, Lake Everett and Columbia City Street Railway Company was organized with a capitalization of $300, 000. C. E. Everett lead the project as President. Twenty-five men were engaged to do preliminary work for the road which was to connect Ft. Wayne with Lake Everett. There a summer resort was to be developed. Eventually, the line was to be extended to Columbia City.
Mr. Everett petitioned the Board of Public Works of Ft. Wayne on September 20, 1895 for a franchise for a new street railway for that city. It must be borne in mind that the Ft. Wayne Electric Railway Company was in operation in Ft. Wayne. It was about ready to go into receivership, which actually occurred November 20, 1895. Mr. Everett’s petition, among other things, proposed a special fare of eight rides for 25 cents. These tickets would be good only between the hours of 6:00 and 7:00 A.M. and 6:00 and 7:00 P.M. This rate was planned for the benefit of the working population of Ft. Wayne. Very little was ever accomplished and the entire project finally was dropped.
Approximately thirteen years later the Lake Everett project was again brought to life. Mr. Henry M. Williams, the father of Creighton Williams, proposed building this westward line, apparently with the thought of extending it on to Columbia City and possibly to Warsaw. Not too much is known of Mr. Williams’s
Page 15
plans. However, he was instrumental in planting the many catalpa trees that border the Bass Road in the western outskirts of Fort Wayne. This was to have been the line’s entrance way to the city. The projection of this line never materialized.
The Everett Railroad Secures an Entrance Into This City.
Board of Public Works Grants a Franchise for a Double Track on Harrison Street.
C. E. Everett will get an inlet into the city for his electric railroad if he is satisfied with what the board of public works is willing to offer. The board met this morning and instructed the city attorney to draw up a contract giving the Fort Wayne, Lake Everett And Columbia City Electric railway an entrance into the city and a franchise for a double track line down Harrison street from Pearl street to the Pittsburg railroad tracks. All the other lines on other streets are held in abeyance for the present to be acted upon later. Mr. Everett is out of the city and The Sentinel could not learn whether this franchise will be accepted by him or not.
On a red boulder averaging three feet in diameter will be placed a bronze tablet reciting that here on this, the Alexander Moore farm, was located the Chief Little Turtle's village. Here his tribe lived in their tepees, hunting wild game in the neighboring woods, and catching fish in Eel river, and in the lake two and a half miles east, now called Lake Everett, and the squaws cultivated corn on the prairies.
[ Local Miami Indians did not live in tepees. They lived in villages of dome-shaped lodges made with poles covered in bark and plant material. ]
[ Owned and controlled by Henry M. Williams, president of the Fort Wayne Union Traction Company who wanted to build seven interurban railroads. The was little interest in his idea to develop a thousand acre park. ]
