Wow! What a sum­mer it’s been!

I can’t remem­ber a bet­ter sum­mer in the last few years. The weath­er has been fan­tas­tic. The real estate mar­ket has been white hot. The secret is out on Lake Free­man. Seems there may be a solu­tion on the hori­zon regard­ing water flow through Oak­dale dam. We’ve had rain so the Lake lev­els have been fan­tas­tic. Sean Stokes even found a live mus­sel, hal­lelu­jah! The Fourth of July cel­e­bra­tion was just amaz­ing. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Peg Min­ni­cus who won the 4^th raf­fle GT golf cart. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Pat Muss­er won the SFLECC Waverun­ner raf­fle. The local bands have been jam­ming at all of our favorite places. SO MANY GOOD THINGS. Let’s all enjoy the rest of the sea­son, be safe and here’s to Lake Free­man, the best lake in Indiana!

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.