IOWA LAKES AND LAKE AREAS. 



SPIRIT LAKE AND THE OKOBOJIS. 

 By Leslie E. Francis, State Senator. 



No person can appreciate the beauty of Spirit lake and the Okoiboji lakes 

 who has not seen them in summer; who has not stood upon their banks 

 and watched the endless and never-ceasing movement of the launches, 

 steamers and sailboats; who has not "picnicked" upon their banks 

 or bathed in their waters. 



No person, even though he has seen these Iowa lakes in the golden 

 summertime, can appreciate their beauty unless he has also gazed upon 

 them in the fall; has seen the golden hues of the leaves as autumn has 

 brought its changing and varied colors, and who has not in the early 

 morning seen the mist arising from the lakes and has watched it change 

 into its many varied and fantastic forms; who has not watched the 

 waves in the colder days of approaching winter, as they dash upon the 

 shore, coating stone and stump and projecting limb and dock with ice, 

 freezing in strange and grotesque shapes; who has not seen the trees 

 along the lakes white and glistening in the frost of approaching winter. 



No person, even though he has witnessed the lakes in summer and in 

 the fall, knows the real beauty of the lakes until he has seen them in 

 the wintertime and has watched the ice form as the cold November days 

 seize the waters of the lake in their icy grip; has watched the skaters as 

 they glide to and fro over the glistening ice; or the iceboats as they 

 move with a speed equal to the fastest automobile; or the snow as it 

 falls in the stillness of a quiet night upon every tree and shrub growing 

 upon the banks of stream and lake, to greet the visitor's gaze in the 

 dazzling sunlight of a bright and beautiful winter's morning. 



No one can thoroughly appreciate the beauty of the lakes until he has 

 witnessed the change wrought in the days of fall and by the icy hand of 

 winter. 



No person, even though he has seen the lakes in all their summer 

 glory, in the grandeur of fall and in the magnificence of winter, can fully 

 know them until he has seen them in the days of spring, has watched 

 the small! but innumerable streams carry their burden of water gurgling 

 and splashing between banks of green, among stones and along the roots 

 of beautiful trees to replenish the waters of the lake; who has not seen 

 the ice as the returning warmth of spring has robbed it of its sternness, 

 one day glistening in pure whiteness and the next, without apparent 

 reason, as blue as the waters of the ocean; and then has watched the ice 

 go out and seen it by some strong wind crushed upon the lake shore, 

 pushing sand and rocks and even trees before its irresistible movement. 

 Then, in the springtime, comes the return of wild fowl, of ducks and 

 geese with their calls; birds in the trees seeking their mates and a suit- 



