Winter 2002

Letters to the Editor

CALUMET HOPE

To the Editor:

As I read the articles in the Fall issue dealing with what is going on at Lake Calumet, it came to me as a most pleasant revelation that so much delight could be found there. As a kid growing up in the Roseland area of Chicago, this area was regarded as a stinking city dump where all manner of foul smelling and noxious waste was being dumped by the manufacturing, steel and paint manufacturing companies.

Roseland, originally High Prairie, was settled by immigrant farmers from The Netherlands who discovered the lake to be a far more pleasant place. In 1949, Marie Rowlands, daughter of an early immigrant Dutch family, wrote a history of Roseland which appeared in the centennial issues of the Calumet Index. She presented the settlers’ description of the lake saying, “In those days people hauled home barrels of it to use for themselves and their stock. Fishing was easy then, for the sandy bottom and clear water made it possible for the fisherman to drop his bait right in front of the fish he wanted.”

Dare we hope that one day this can be said again of Lake Calumet?

One can hope.

Rev. Robert M. Honig
Hobe Sound, Fla.