Syracuse-Wawasee Museum found a brochure published in 1923 titled “Papakeechie taunting Wawasee ‘See what I got.”

The 10-page document was produced during the early development of the lake. Real estate agent Theodore Greiner sold the lots. Greiner and his wife Barb had a home on Promotory Point.

A 1931 Syracuse Chamber of Commerce booklet, listing names of residents on Syracuse, Wawasee and Papakeechie lakes, shows 69 homes on the lake.

Today, according to Ron Corson, past president of Papakeechie Protective Association, there are close to 400 homes around the lake, 300 of those homes on the lake front. There are still a few undeveloped lots owned by individuals adjacent to existing property and a wedge of wooded area.

According to Corson, the lots were sold at a size of 50-foot wide with the depth varying at a cost of $500. The 5 miles of shoreline was known as “good for fishing.”

The brochure, possibly used as a sales tool, provided the legend, topography, history, information about the hatcheries, the corporation and approaches, complete with photos of the various areas and a complete plat and survey of the property.

The Legend
The legend states three small tribes of the Great Potowattamie family often settled around the largest lake in the region.

The largest and most powerful tribe occupied Conklin Hill, overlooking the lake from the west and their chieftain’s name was “Wawasee.”

Chief Flatbelly took his people to the peninsula on the north which now bears his name, “while the finest and bravest young chieftain of them all, having the smallest tribe, was obliged to settle on the hills and fish in the little lakes, that lay adjacent to the big one, on the south.”

When a map of the region was made, it was seen two lakes formed a turkey with a monstrous head and the streams were whiskers. Thus the original name of Turkey Lake.

The legend is when summer homes rose thick and fast around its shores and fashion folk came swell, the spirit of “Wawasee came floating back, ate up the turkey and fastened his name upon the lake where it shall remain imperishable as that of Caesar.”

When Charles Sudlow built the dam, “the waters rose above the valley, making the six little lakes into one, by far more picturesque and beautiful than all the rest the name of the fine young monarch of that early day settled upon it law a dew from heaven. And Papakeechie owns it all.”

The corporation proposes at no distant day to erect a monument to its patron saint - in form, the heroic statue of an Indian standing on the dam, looking and waving with one hand at Wawasee, while with the other he is pointing behind him, as if to say, “See what I got.”

Six Lakes
High hills, deep holes, swamps and razorback ridges made up the landscape. The deep holes were full of water and full of fish, yet the terrain around made the water inaccessible.

“Immediately adjoining Lake Wawasee was a valley extending more than one mile to the inland; it was broken by several high mounds and two extensive promontories; and its border rises from 40 to 60 feet above its level.” The mounds, promontories and most of the border were covered with second growth timber 40 to 60 feet high.

“Six of these little lakes from five to 20 acres in extent and from 40 to 100 feet in depth were scattered about the valley.”

Sudlow had a dream of “A Sportsman’s Paradise.”

History
Sudlow organized The Northern Indiana Improvement Company and bought the land within and surrounding the valley with the little lakes.

The company constructed several dams aggregating 1,900 feet in length, across the several openings and within a few rods of the shores of Wawasee.

Wells were driven on all sides of the valley, tapping the artesian wells producing a lake with a level about 9 feet above the level of Wawasee across the highway.
More than 600 acres of land was acquired with 325 acres submerged “making one of the most beautiful lakes of pure, clear water to be found in all the world .

“The mounds are islands and the promontories add thousands of feet of beautiful building sites to its shore line.
“It has no inlet except from the surrounding hills and subterranean source, but a perpetual stream flows from it into the great lake. The snakes all disappeared.

“And Sudlow’s dream was realized.”

Hatcheries
The State Commissioner of Fisheries and Game discovered in 1914, a sufficient flow of water was constant from Papakeechie into Wawasee to conduct the hatching of fish on a large scale. A four-acre tract was leased from the Northern Indiana Improvement Company for the hatcheries. It also acquired title to several acres below the dam and constructed 12 ponds, one-half acre each, which the waters from Papakeechie step down a distance of about 4 feet and as drainage is needed, steps down into Wawasee, “making a most perfect system for the hatching of fresh water fish .”

Terms of the lease was the state was required to perpetually maintain the dams to Lake Papakeechie and to pay as rental, for the use of water, 5,000 number two fingerling bass, annually, was to be given in addition to an apportionment of the surplus bass and other fish hatched, same as furnished to public lakes of the same size.

The state religiously kept is word. “As the lake is privately owned and the public is not permitted to fish therein, the bass, crappies and blue-gills have become so plentiful that it has been said ‘you can hear them ‘hollar’ at one another to lay over.’”

Corporation
Upon the death of Sudlow, in 1915, his will established a Trust Company of Indianapolis, trustee of his estate. The company came into possession of nearly all the stock of the improvement company and for six years Papakeechie remained dormant.

In 1921, the Northern Indiana Improvement Company parted with the title to the entire property to Thomas J. Prickett, Nappanee, who in turn sold it to Papakeechie Corporation, which had been formed and organized for the purpose of taking over the property.

The corporation filed plats of the land surrounding the lake, sub-dividing them into suitable lots for summer homes.

“No person can reach the waters of this lake without acquiring a lot from the company or trespassing upon the company’s lands and the company has taken pains to police the lake under a competent and careful custodian.
“It pays taxes on the lands under the water, as well as those surrounding it and it is absolutely a private lake.”

More than 200 acres of the land belonging to the company remained unplatted and not for sale in 1923. Wild ducks were reported in great numbers.

Nearly 100 lots were disposed of during the first year of the corporation’s management.

Papakeechie Lake, in 1923, could only be reached by public conveyance over the Baltimore & Ohio Railway to Wawasee and then by boat to Papakeechie. The corporation began building roads around the lake and in the brochure stated it would have a boulevard surrounding it.

Papakeechie Lake has been a point of controversy over the years with at least seven court cases on record - all relating to its status as a private lake.

Remnants of a few hatchery ponds remain on the Papakeechie Protective Association property just below the dam on Hatchery Road.