| Summary: | clay of the lake shore. It had 44 rooms, a dining room, dance hall, and two stairways. One was a winding stairway. Wamduska Hotel There were two large boats that operated on the lake during the 1920's. There was a large passenger boat that operated out of Stump Lake Park; and Ervin Peterson of Tolna had a large inboard pleasure boat. Many trips were made out to Bird Island to see the nest of the many birds. The boat was later sold to Andy Schindele of Tolna. Engel Point or more commonly called Stony Point at the extreme end of Dutch Point was one of the best hunting spots on the lake. There were many stone blinds made at the water's edge as the water receded. Many can be seen at a much higher elevation than the water is now. They are filled up with the drifting sand of the lake bottom. During the dirty thirties shootings were so great that the gun barrels got too hot to handle from the continual firing. Hunting was so good that several men from the Tolna area built a hunting shack on the Engel farm in the 1920's so they would have a place to stay. I believe Otto Flohr was the last survivor of that hunting group. According to Indian legend, the narrow range of hills leading up to this point was a place where the Indians drove the buffalo over the high bank on the west side for slaughter. It must have been true because my dad and I picked up many tons of bones during the thirties when they sold for $9.00 a ton. When the farmers of Dutch Point wanted to go to Lakota in the summer, they had to go either on the west side by the Blue Mountain or around the south end and east around Harrisburg Bay, making a very long trip. In the fall of 1929 the Lakota merchants, led by Mr. Arnold of the Theater, sponsored a work crew of the Dutch Point farmers to put a road across the lake at a narrow passage by the Wishart farm. The farmers were to be paid one day and work without pay the next. The work was accomplished with horses hitched to Fresno scrapers to pull the dirt up to the water. Lawerence Johnson had a four-horse team on the other side of the lake hitched to a scraper on this side with a long rope and one horse pulled the empty scraper back. The fill was made in a few days so we could cross the old lake. A huge bon fire was built to celebrate the occasion with drinks and lunches. The new road was christened Dutch Point Highway. Mrs. Wishart and daughter Minnie were the first women to cross the new road. Raleigh Gutting took them across with his car. The Nelson County road crew built the road leading to Highway 1 the next summer. Someone from Lakota wrote a poem about it: Our Dutch Point neighbors, used to live far away, When we went to see the, we'd be gone all day. It was the worst situation ever seen. To wear out the tires and burn up the gasoline. So we got together and decided what to do. If we dug up some money, they would furnish the crew. So we carried out the project without a mistake And now we have a good road across Stump Lake. The Engel and J.D. Farnham land, comprising 261 acres, has been sold to the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District. They plan in the future to make it a recreation area with swimming beaches, camping grounds, picnic areas, and scenic roads. The Indians called it Lake Wamduska which means, "When on the waters, — oh look." You have to see it during a beautiful sunset to understand it. Submitted by Orville Engel Stump Lake — Wamduska By Frank Seebart By which of its several names this body of water was first known to the Indians is uncertain. If first named during a period of low water when its shores were strewn with dead timber, it might well have been called Chicot, meaning the place of stumps in the Sioux tongue. The more colorful name, Wamduska, might have been bestowed during the high water cycle when the dead trees were submerged. At such a time the beauty of this lake with its uncluttered, bold timbered shoreline could have inspired the Dacotah name, Wamduska, meaning "When on the waters, — oh look." A once popular Indian legend was that Stump Lake was formed when a forest sank below the surrounding terrain. The depression filled with water drowning the trees. State Engineer R.G. Kennedy reported in September 1931, that Stump Lake is the east end of a pre-glacial valley of which Devils Lake is the major portion. The valley has gone through low and high water cycles. During low water periods, oak trees grew as large as 16 inches in diameter, and had as many as 116 annular rings. The next wet cycle, partially or completely covered the trees, killing them. These trees lost their footing in the lake bottom and washed ashore, or were left high and dry as the lake receded. When the first settlers arrived the lake was receding. There was no longer an outlet into the Sheyenne River, nor a permanent stream supplying it from Devils Lake. In 1911, pioneer Alf Eastgate sent a picture of dead timber on the shore to Arnold Mickelson, head of the State Historical Society. His accompanying letter read, in part, "The water was full of wood, and for thirty-one years, to my personal knowledge, the settlers have been taking wood each year, and the end is far from sight. As the water level lowers, more wood shows up. 424 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Multi-page TIFF Editor.
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