More views of the dam
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| Renee Procise posted Municipal Beach at City Utilities Park Danny Walchle The beach closed because of a polio scare.Cleat Griswold I remember it, photo probably taken from top of dam. Looked like that when i was there in the late 1940’s. There was a softball diamond near there too, and from the stands you could also watch action at the beach. Dad and I would watch the soft ball games, and in the late afternoon before dark, there were swimmers often in the water. |
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| Renee Procise commented on her posting Here is the entire pic. The pic is from The Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society published in 'Fort Wayne,Indiana' by Ralph Violette. Neat little book;lots of pics! |
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| Renee Procise commented on her posting Carolyn Dewesse commented on a post |
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| Renee Procise commented on her posting |
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| Renee Procise commented on her posting |
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| Renee Procise commented on her posting, cropped John Rondot commented on a post From my collection: a Municipal Beach Postcard from the 1930s. |
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| Screenshot [The diving board downstream from the St. Joe Dam.] |
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| Screenshot [The Municipal Beach was on the west shore. This video is from the east shore.] |
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| Theresa Hill shared a Fort Wayne Memories post Marlene Goudey  In the forthies the river had sandy beach. My parents swim there.Mike Mettler Remember going there 1959. The 3 sets of cement stairs going down to beach are still there.Mary Catherine Wine In the 50s we swim there while my stepfather played basketball, played in the park and have picnics there we stayed all day was a lot of fun. It was so clean you could see to the bottom, also had a small wading pool.Maxine Young I remember how we walked across the bridge and through the plant to get where our car was parked, You walked around a walkway and could see of the machinery down below. It was always crowded with people leaving from the ball games. Rodney W Cone Swam there in the 60's. Mike Mettler Mom said it closed because they thought it was spreading polio. Steve Ehlerding Fewer agricultural chemicals back then? Dennis DeBruler I just Googled it: the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) wasn't invented until 1970. It is the reason most farmers have switched to no-till or minimal-till. It made the moldboard plow obsolete. I don't know the history of pesticides, but something is killing the bees. On the other hand, we used DDT back then. I don't think fertilizer has changed a lot because it is basically nitrogen and phosphorous. But I'm sure it is applied at much heavier rates. I can remember my uncle lifting bags of fertilizer to fill bins on the planter. Now it is generally handled in bulk. Sherry Coe Dennis DeBruler my Uncle always thought that diesel fuel was driving the bees out. He raised bees in Ohio. One of Sue Bee’s largest distributors at the time. Dennis DeBruler Sherry Coe Interesting. Then diesel fuel is something else that is toxic, and I would not want to swim in water that has it in the runoff. Geri Stronczek That was the only place to swim in those days. Dennis DeBruler My Mom used to haul us up to Bixler Lake in Kendallville. But I also remember going to the city pools. I wonder if the city pools were built in the 1950s. I think there were four of them, and we went to Memorial and Lawton Parks. Marlene Goudey Yes in thefifties i went. Then Dw Duke Marlene Goudey McMillen had a pool. Dennis DeBruler Dw Duke I thought McMillen was one of them. Was Swinney the fourth one? Marlene Goudey Yes i lived near lawton so went there every day Steve Ehlerding Fewer agricultural chemicals back then? Dennis DeBruler I just Googled it: the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) wasn't invented until 1970. It is the reason most farmers have switched to no-till or minimal-till. It made the moldboard plow obsolete. I don't know the history of pesticides, but something is killing the bees. On the other hand, we used DDT back then. I don't think fertilizer has changed a lot because it is basically nitrogen and phosphorous. But I'm sure it is applied at much heavier rates. I can remember my uncle lifting bags of fertilizer to fill bins on the planter. Now it is generally handled in bulk. Sherry Coe Dennis DeBruler my Uncle always thought that diesel fuel was driving the bees out. He raised bees in Ohio. One of Sue Bee’s largest distributors at the time. Dennis DeBruler Sherry Coe Interesting. Then diesel fuel is something else that is toxic, and I would not want to swim in water that has it in the runoff. Sherry Coe Dennis DeBruler that’s what he said. Also there is a link in cancer and truck drivers. Carolyn Deweese commented on a post, 1939 St Joe River. |
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| Rick Stabler posted I don't think I would want to swim in the St. Joseph River in 1936 as these people did on July 20th at the Fort Wayne Municipal Beach. Johnny Appleseed Park and the War Memorial Coliseum parking lot are just to the left of this view which today is a grassy park for Camp Canine. ACPL online collection. Juanita Leitch Went swimming there a lot in the 1940's before the polio scare. Karen Heckman Was probably alot cleaner then. Rick StablerI doubt that. Before the EPA laws of the 1970's any and everything went into rivers from chemical waste to slaughterhouse debris from towns upstream. No thanks. John Hume You need to look at where this beach is located and the direction the river flows. Also the fact that there was virtually no industries to the North of it. Then make your comments about how dirty the river was back then. Dan Auer My dad swam there. He said the water was even blue. Mike Mettler Swam there all the time up until about 1960 the three sets of cement stairs are still there. Don Sherbondy Jim Pliett , the St Joe River was super filthy, I remember well, as that’s where I spent most of my childhood. Raw sewage, green blue colored was dumped in to the river fro Leo on down. It was a time when septic systems were basically raw. Jim Krasnansky Keith Griffith From Wikipedia, your father was spot-on: "Poliovirus is usually spread from person to person through infected fecal matter entering the mouth.[1] It may also be spread by food or water containing human feces and less commonly from infected saliva.[1][3] Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to six weeks even if no symptoms are present.[1] The disease may be diagnosed by finding the virus in the feces or detecting antibodies against it in the blood.[1] The disease only occurs naturally in humans." Nolan Richhart There probably wasn’t any unrestricted farm runoff, sewage systems running directly into it, or any people upriver throwing garbage into it upriver back then. Humans were all pristine and the river was basically purified bottled water since it was upstream from Ft. Wayne. 🙂 I would never want to drink water out of that river, or any of the others... Wait, I do. All joking aside, I’ve not only been in the river there (fell in while fishing), I’ve also been in the Maumee downriver of Fort Wayne while four wheeling. It always cracks me up when people act like our waters are toxic waste dumps that will sprout extra appendages and webbed feet if you come into contact with them. They were dirty then, they’re dirty now, they’ll be dirty 50 years from now. Humans are nasty, dirty, polluting bacteria sacks. As far as the water being blue, that was from an artificial coloring. A lot of people use it in ponds. The river itself, being a mud-bottom river, will never have blue water, regardless of how clean it is. That’s like saying the St. Mary’s is toxic every St. Patrick’s Day because you saw it turn green under the Wells Street Bridge when they dye it green. All the same comments and arguments are made every time a pic like this of this swimming area comes up and is posted on here. John Hume Nolan Richhart why does the water in the ocean, lakes, and our rivers appear blue. You might want to do a little research before you say someone dyed it. Carla Stiver Nolan Richhart I grew up in Fort Wayne, left in 1984. While living there, I canoed the 3 rivers numerous times. The St Mary’s, by far, was the filthiest. I remember seeing condoms floating, numerous pieces of furniture in various parts. Under the old Hale street bridge was a very old silver- colored old time cash register, bags of garbage, submerged cars, etc. While back visiting this summer I kayaked a few times in the rivers. Although I didn’t see as much junk/garbage in the rivers, I did see sewer run off going directly into the St Mary’s. Nolan Richhart John Hume Probably because the ocean floor has a sand bottom instead of a mud bottom near most land masses, not to mention the vastly different amounts of water, surface area, and natural cycling of water. You may want to do a little research before trying to act like an all-knowing environmental engineer before making yourself look naive, not to mention locating the shift key to capitalize letters. Wait, I’ll save you a response and give you the post you were originally hoping for: Oh John, thank you for your great, logical post. Everything you said was correct and you shut down all others who disagree with you. Please continue to bless us by showering your omnipotent knowledge upon us ignorant lower life forms. You truly are a superior being when it comes to river knowledge. John Hume Nolan Richhart my punctuation and grammar are correct.Check yours though. Sorry if you thought I was being condescending. I'm only stating facts. Please accept my apologies. |
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| Randy Harter commented on Rick's post Opened by Mayor Harry Baals in 1936, it was further expanded into having a life guard, diving platform, changing rooms, kiddie pool on the "beach", concession stand, picnic area, playground and a slide that deposited you in the river. The Municipal Beach was closed to supervised swimming in the fall of 1949 due to the polio scare, but as many of you have mentioned, folks continued to swim there for years. Image courtesy of the Jan Sanner Collection. Dennis DeBruler Long before the US-30 Bypass (Coliseum Blvd.) was built. And the treeline in the background was probably the remnants of the I&M Feeder Canal. |
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| Randy Harter commented on Rick's post Here's a crop of the Jan Sanner image that shows more detail and includes the beach slide into the river. |
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| Becky Osbun commented on Theresa's post |
Kenneth Childers contributed twelve images with the comment: "Credit to the many sources that have given great views of this area!"
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| 1 Aerial view of Fort Wayne's Municipal Beach [in Newcomers key to Fort Wayne, Civic Activities Association, Bloomington, IN 1950] |
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| 2 Area swimmers once flocked to the St. Joe River [re the Municipal Beach, Fort Wayne] [Kevin Leininger in News-Sentinel 1981-08-15] Renee Procise I was only 2 or 3 when I first went there;sandy bottom and clear greenish water;you could see your feet! (By green;I meant like lake water) It closed in 1953 or 54 because of the water quality. It closed in an earlier year because of the polio scare;but reopened. Various Fort Wayne histories have different dates of closure. |
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| 3 'Baseball at Municipal Beach Park,' Fort Wayne [near dam control building] [Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana] |
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| 4 Fort Wayne Municipal Beach 1936-07-20 [posted by Dan Hitzeman in You are positively from Fort Wayne... 2018-March] |
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| 5 Municipal Bathing Beach, Fort Wayne, Ind. c. 1947 |
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| 6 Municipal Beach aerial view, Fort Wayne [Sanner Collection via Randy Harter] |
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| 7 'Municipal Beach, 1936' [Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana] |
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| 8 Municipal Beach, Fort Wayne [in 'Fort Wayne, Indiana' by Ralph Violette via Renee Procise] |
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| 9 Municipal Beach, Fort Wayne, Indiana [AC-FW Hist. Soc., via Randy Harter] |
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| 10 Share the Experience - Mural by FW artist Julia Meek 2009 - Lincolndale, Municipal Park Beach, water works |
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| 11 Swimming at Municipal Beach Park, Fort Wayne, 1930s [ACPL Community Album] |
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| 12 Swimming at Municipal Beach Park, Fort Wayne, 1930s, long shot [ACPL Community Album] |
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