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Published Quarterly by the 
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ROOSEVELT ROAD and LAKE SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO 5, ILL. 
Number 72 December, 1949 
Deathwouess bake 
By RicHARD T. ORR 
ONCE UPON A TIME—a little more than 25 years ago, in fact—the citizens 
of Decatur, Ill., built a beautiful lake. They needed water. The population 
was growing. More industries were coming to the city. In addition to a 
water supply for the city, the people wanted an attractive scenic area where 
they could build nice homes, where they and their neighbors from the sur- 
rounding countryside could swim and boat and fish and enjoy other forms 
of recreation. 
They called it Lake Decatur. They thought it would last indefinitely. It 
won't. 
The lake is dying. 
At first you might consider this merely a problem for the citizens of 
Decatur. It isn’t. It’s a problem for every conservationist, every bird 
watcher, every student of wildlife—every citizen. For every citizen should 
be a conservationist. 
This is the story: When the citizens of Decatur started to plan their 
lake they of course thought of the historic Sangamon river, which flows 
past the edge of the city. Why not build a dam across the Sangamon? It 
would form a perfect reservoir. 
The dam was finished in 1922 at a cost of 2 million dollars. The lake 
thus formed covered an area of about 2,800 acres, extending eight miles up- 
stream from the city. Decatur had a right to be proud of its lake. 
Water survey specialists estimate that, despite a prospective growth in 
population and industry, Lake Decatur should have provided the city with 
an adequate supply of water for 78 years, or until the year 2000. But 
something has happened to upset these calculations. Now they estimate De- 
catur will need a larger reservoir by 1956—-when Lake Decatur will be only 
34 years old! 
Before it reaches Decatur the Sangamon drains an area of about 600,000 
acres of fine, rich farm lands of east central Illinois. It flows through six 
counties—Macon, Piatt, DeWitt, Champaign, Ford, and McLean. 
The tragedy of the lake is that from this vast area flow millions of tons 
of silt each year. The silt—rich, black topsoil—-washes into the lake, strang- 
ling it, killing it, so that not only is the lake being filled but hundreds of 
thousands of acres of first class, food-producing farm land is being robbed 
of its fertility at an inestimable cost to the people of Illinois and the nation. 
The tell-tale silt began to appear in the small bays and inlets of the lake 
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