Cedar Lake
Cedar Lake, Indiana
The Monon Train
An early 1900's photo of the Monon Railway
Station in Cedar Lake. The water tower supplied water to the steam
engine and this stop eventually grew to include a stop for tourists, as
well.
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The Monon Train made its way from
Chicago and Hammond to bring visitors to this rural Cedar Lake getaway.
Monon ran four trains each day. This photo is of "the picnic train,"
bringing people from the city of Chicago (60 miles) to the country and
Cedar Lake, to enjoy the day. |
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This is a close up of "the picnic train"
out of Chicago and Hammond. |
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Cedar Lake had always been an attractive spot for Potawatomie Indians who had a summer camp. Hunting and fishing were good, providing an ample supply of food for the Native Americans prior to 1650. "Indian villages in Lake County were numerous. More or less temporary they were inconspicuously located, always away from the main trails. Their summer homes were on Cedar Lake, Fancher Lake (Crown Point), Wood's Mill near Hobart, and in the high groves along the Eagle, Cedar and West Creeks. Favorite sites for winter homes were the islands in the Kankakee and on the ridges along the Calumet."
Source: The Calumet Region Historical
Guide, 1939,
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With the attraction of Cedar Lake, early settlers began moving into the neighborhood, replacing the teepees and hogans of the Potawatomi with rudely designed log cabins. |
The land was relatively inexpensive with
building lots starting at $75 and promoted by S.C. Bartlett, a local
developer.
He had his own train stop along the Monon Railway to intercept visitors heading for the beach. |
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Keep in mind that in order for young women to get into a public display wearing bathing suits, it helped if you had a religious motif behind your activity. The Moody Bible Institute established a "summer camp" and conference center to this end. It was an immediate hit with many young people. (Note: No obesity problem here in this 1909 photo.)
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"At the other end of the lake is the Roller Rink. There's always a Roller Rink. You can hear that old electric organ going, playing "Heartaches," and you can hear the sound of the roller skates: "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... ssshhhhhhhhh,,, ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh,,,: "And the fistfights breaking out. The Roller Rink in heat. The Roller Rink Nut was an earlier incarnation of the Drive-In Movie Nut. He was the kind who was very big with stainless steel diners, motels, horror movies and frozen egg rolls. A close cousin of the Motorcycle Clod, he went ape for chicks with purple eyelids. You know the crowd. Crewcuts, low foreheads, rumbles hollering, belching, drinking beer, roller skating on one foot, wearing black satin jackets with SOUTH SIDE A.C. lettered in white on the back around a white-winged roller-skated foot. The kind that hangs the stuff in the back windows of their '53 Mercuries; a huge pair of foam-rubber dice, a skull and crossbones, hula-hula dolls, and football players - Pros, of course, with little heads that bob up and down." Jean Shepherd, "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash" |
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"Crappies are a special breed of Midwestern fish, created by God for the
express purpose of surviving in water that would kill a bubonic-plague
bacillus. They have never been known to fight, or even faintly
struggle. I guess when you're a crappie, you figure it's no use anyway.
One thing is as bad as another. They're just down there in the
soup. No one quite knows that they eat, if anything, but everybody's
fishing for them. At two o'clock in the morning..." Each boat contains a minimum of nine guys and fourteen cases of beer. And once in a while, in the darkness, is heard the sound of a guy falling over backwards into the slime: SSSGLUNCK! "Oh! Ah! Help, help!" A piteous cry in the darkness. Another voice: "Hey, for God's sake, Charlie's fallen in again! Grab the oar!" And then it slowly dies down. Charlie is hauled out of the goop and is lying on the bottom of the boat, urping up dead lizards and Atlas Prager. Peace reigns again." Jean Shepherd, "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash"
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