Cedar Lake: Industry vs. recreation

When spring arrived in 1912, the Milwaukee Railroad began its filling operation on the Cedar Rapids body of water commonly known as the slough, but also called Cedar Lake.

The construction of the Milwaukee yards took more than five years, but in the end, a roadway was constructed straight across the slough from D to F avenues with a side of 12 tracks.

A new engine house went up and the whole property was improved. The 275-foot-wide, half-mile-long fill project required 150,000 yards of dirt from a big hill near Indian Creek and the main line of the Milwaukee at Marion. Trains moved 3,000 yards of dirt in 10-hour shifts twice each day.

As the work continued, members of the public began to wonder if they could use the lake. City officials determined then that the lake was wholly private property and that the perception that it was publicly owned was wrong.

A swarm of urchins descended on Cedar Lake in September 1921 when they heard about the hot fish near the Rock Island shops. Hot water from Iowa Railway and Light Co. was blamed for the cooked fish.

Mayor J. F. Rall informed the light company and the reply was that the water was only 12 degrees warmer than usual.

'Maybe so,' said the mayor, 'but it seems to kill them.'

Employees of the light company said that the fish were killed by dynamite, rather than being boiled alive. In any case, men from the light company and the railroad worked to get rid of the smelly nuisance that threatened to clog the intake for water supplying the Rock Island shops.

Citing Minneapolis' transformation of 268 acres of swampland into a lake and playground, a dozen residents petitioned the City Council in August of 1930 to begin reclamation of Cedar Lake for recreation. The Gazette said, 'The petition says that Mcleod's Springs (sic) empty into the north end of Cedar Lake near the city water works and if part of the lake was dredged and blocked off to prevent contamination from the south end of it, there would be plenty of clean water for bathing in summer and skating in winter.'

Since Cedar Lake was private property, no action was taken.

By 1939, however, east side residents were assured by the council that a lake cleanup was in progress to eliminate a foul odor. Oat hulls from Quaker Oats were sent to the light company to burn for fuel. A state board of health representative found that 40 tons of surplus hulls had been dumped into the lake by the light company. The remedy was to force cinder and ashes into the lake under pressure at the rate of 20 to 30 tons a day to cover the decaying hulls.

The oat hulls were a persistent problem. Ten years later, light company chemists began to treat the lake's water with a nitrate compound to counteract the smell caused by dumping hull residue into the lake. The chemical makeup of the hulls caused the water to become low on oxygen and release a sulfur smell. The city's health officer said it was not a health hazard, just a smelly one.

Despite the lake's problems, sailboats nearly always found their way onto the water. Sutherland Dows related how he and his friends sailed the lake at the turn of the century. 'We had homemade flat-bottom boats in those days,' he said.

Body copy ragged right: By 1945, a dozen sailors formed the Cedar Rapids Sailing Association and held races nearly every Sunday, except in the winter. They competed for space with the occasional outboard pulling skiers because there were no restrictions on the size or type of boat that could be operated on the slough.

Prodded by the Cedar Rapids Audubon Society and the Garden Club, the Community Development Priorities Committee allocated funds for a feasibility study in 1979 for renovating the lake. In 1982 Iowa Electric Light & Power agreed to lease the lake and its shoreline to the city for 99 years to use for recreation. The lease cost $1.

In 1984, IE and Rock Island Railroad reached an agreement for IE to purchase 15.3 acres along the west shore of the lake to link foot trails.

By 1988, the area went from a dumping ground to a park full of wildlife and a walking/biking trail that skirted the lake.

Those years were not without problems. Fish taken from the lake in 1985 and 1986 showed high levels of chlordane, a toxic pesticide that was banned for agriculture in 1980, but was allowed for termite control. Studies found unacceptable levels of PCBs and mercury in fish fatty tissue. The lake also showed fecal matter contamination, discouraging swimming.

Then, in 1990, chromium from a nearby metal coatings company was believed to have leached into the lake from a leaking tank at the business.

'Just catch and release. Don't take 'em home and eat 'em,' Tom Hart, Linn County's Health Department environmental supervisor, said in 1992 of fish caught in Cedar Lake.

The lake is facing another rebirth. Water quality is improving and the fishing ban may be lifted as soon as next year.

'It has cleaned itself up and is open to kayakers and canoes,' Sven Leff, the city's parks and recreation director said of the lake earlier this year.

Alliant Energy has removed the Sixth Street generating station's steam lines at the lake, and the plant, damaged in the Flood of 2008, will be demolished.

Dale Todd, developer and former City Council member, wants to see a concerted revitalization effort.

'The window of opportunity for revitalizing the lake is now,' he said. 'We need to say it is time to make this a priority and get it done.'

Comments: (319) 398-8338; diane.langton@sourcemedia.net