If you’re lucky enough to live on the Lake, you’re lucky enough.

At Lake Free­man Life, that’s our mot­to. 2023 will be full of good fortune.

We’re very lucky, for­tu­nate and grate­ful that a log­i­cal com­pro­mise was arrived at regard­ing the min­i­mum flow out of Oak­dale Dam. Looks like low­er water lev­els will be a rare occur­rence mov­ing forward. 

More impor­tant­ly, we are lucky enough to live on Lake Free­man, Lake Shaf­fer and the River. 

I say that because we are all kin­dred spir­its with a love for the water.

We are lucky for all our thriv­ing wildlife. White Pel­i­cans? Seri­ous­ly? There are so many beau­ti­ful crea­tures here. The Eagles are so numer­ous we take them for grant­ed. It wasn’t that long ago I remem­ber see­ing my first one.

Absolute­ly the most impor­tant thing we have to be thank­ful for are the friends and fam­i­ly we are lucky enough to share the Lake Life with. We are all so priv­i­leged to have our ​“Lake Fam­i­ly”. You know what I’m talk­ing about.

With all the trou­bles in the world and our coun­try, Lake Free­man is our hap­py place.

Cheers.

The true sto­ry of how Lake Free­man got its name.

Many have thought, includ­ing myself, that the name Lake Free­man came to be after the Chief Engi­neer, Roger Free­man inter­vened in a dis­pute between the towns of Del­phi and Mon­ti­cel­lo. Del­phi want­ed to call the reser­voir north of the new­ly built Oak­dale Dam, Lake Del­phi. In fact, there are ear­ly pho­tos labeled with this name. Mon­ti­cel­lo thought Lake Mon­ti­cel­lo would be appro­pri­ate. When the two could not come to an agree­ment, they decid­ed, because of the benev­o­lent nature of Mr. Free­man, to call the reser­voir Lake Freeman.

Here’s the true story.

I recent­ly was con­tact­ed by Deb­o­rah Giraud (pro­nounced Girow). She is the grand­daugh­ter of Roger Free­man. I had the plea­sure of speak­ing with her and her moth­er, Anne Free­man Giraud. The 102-year-old daugh­ter of Roger Free­man! It was an hon­or to say the least. Two very sharp and well-informed ladies.

Roger Free­man designed both the Nor­way Dam (1923) and Oak­dale Dam (1925). It was his insight and rec­om­men­da­tion to the Indi­ana Hydro-Elec­tric Com­pa­ny to har­ness the pow­er of the Tippeca­noe Riv­er and bring elec­tric­i­ty to rur­al cen­tral Indi­ana and beyond. In fact, as ear­ly as 1856, two Nor­we­gian immi­grants, rec­og­niz­ing the pow­er of the riv­er, built a cof­fer dam to pow­er a grist mill.

Mr. Free­man was not an absen­tee leader. He lived with the more than 500 labor­ers who phys­i­cal­ly built the dams. He was away from his fam­i­ly for months. He was just 32 when con­struc­tion began on Nor­way. The con­di­tions were dif­fi­cult, keep in mind the crew lived at the site and worked through harsh winters.

Dur­ing the win­ter of 1925, amid con­struc­tion of the Oak­dale Dam, Roger Free­man was in New York and fell ill from appen­dici­tis and was rushed to surgery. Well, in those days an appen­dec­to­my was not a rou­tine surgery. Mr. Free­man devel­oped com­pli­ca­tions and passed away on Jan­u­ary 21^st, 1925. Six months before the com­ple­tion of Oak­dale Dam. The crew was shocked and sad­dened but pushed on.

In a peti­tion by Indi­ana Sen­a­tor Emery Sell­ers to the Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion of Indi­ana dat­ed April 15^th, 1925, he for­mal­ly asked that the new­ly formed Lake be named, in the spir­it of ​“ambi­tious effort”, Free­man Lake. Just five days lat­er, the Com­mis­sion unan­i­mous­ly for­mal­ly approved. 

The Oak­dale Dam was com­plet­ed on August 1^st, 1925. Had it not been for the vision, inge­nu­ity and dri­ve of Roger Free­man, our beloved twin lakes and the pow­er they pro­duce, may not have every been real­ized. Thank you Mr. Freeman!

Roger Free­man passed at just 36 years of age 

Born July 20^th, 1892 • Died Jan­u­ary 21^st, 1925

Wife: Mary (Brad­street) Freeman

Chil­dren: (1919) Anne Brad­street Free­man Giraud, Roger Morse Free­man, Jr.