SpringfieldNewsSun.com

NEW CARLISLE, Ohio — No matter which way I turn on the 41 roads included in Crystal Lakes, I end up in my mind at 18 Tulip Road.

That's where my Grandma and Grandpappy Stapleton lived when my brother and sister and I were growing up. They taught us to fish the lakes, from our first giddy, wild attempts when young to our serious, quiet outings as teenagers.

We knew the roads by heart. Lake Road took us to Grove Road at Notter's Market. Riding our bikes west on Grove to Lakeshore Drive around the lake to Club House Circle where the little bridge connected road to island, we fished off the bridge when it was just us kids.

When Grandma and Grandpa took us, we packed up our poles and bait, walking from Tulip Road to Dahlia Drive to the north end of the big lake where Snake and Anglers islands still stand out amongst the weeping willows.

In his book, "The Ghost on Anglers Island," local author Buck McKibben describes the scene well.

"In the daytime Anglers Island was a plush tropical paradise surrounded by weeping willow trees, cattails, and lily pads. It was also full of wildlife ... ducks, geese, muskrats ... you name it, and it was there. Huge fish, not to mention gigantic water snakes, inhabited the channel surrounding it. It had a boat dock to fish off of and a shelter house to camp out underneath. It had everything you could imagine. There was just one problem though, at night the island looked different. The willow trees looked as if they would snatch you right off the ground. The cattails looked like millions of spears lined up to protect the island's shoreline."

While McKibben's description is from the viewpoint of young boys looking to solve a mystery, in the 1940s Anglers Island did indeed have a shelter house on it. Local residents enjoyed fish fries and dances there. Summer fun was one of the prime reasons for buying property in the area.

According to a Dec. 11, 1947, article in the Crystal Lakes Progress, billed as "Ohio's Smallest Weekly Newspaper," 250 homes had been built by 1940. Many of them were for summer use only but some were permanent all-year residences.

The area's unique history began in 1925 when the Dayton Journal and Dayton Herald newspapers held a promotion for readers to have summer homes in a local vacation spot. A New York real estate promotion company was hired, choosing this area because of the natural beauty of the lakes and clear spring water. Originally, 150 acres were developed with about 10 miles of roads. The club house, bath house and swimming beach were developed, and the developers eventually deeded the roads to Clark County.

Grandma and Grandpappy are gone. Notter's Market is gone. Anglers Island shelter house is gone. But I'll always be able to find my way around Crystal Lakes. Tulip to Dahlia or Lake to Grove to Lakeshore ... I know them all by heart.

Contact Moore at Box 61, Medway, OH 45341 or mooredcr@juno.com.

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