Want to go out to White Rock Lake for a swim? No? Well, how about going to the lake for a speedboat ride?
Neither activity, no matter how unlikely it may seem today, was unusual five or six decades ago when the lake was deeper and cleaner.
In fact, individually owned speedboats and those rented from speedboat concessions were a common sight at the lake until the late 1950s.
If you owned a boat before the late 1930s, you would more than likely have preferred leaving it at the lake, which was considered to be “out in the country.” Boats and trailers were not readily available at that time for efficient, long-distance hauling.
But it wasn’t a problem to purchase one of 250 small leases at the lake – a 25-by-100-foot property where you could build a small cabin and boathouse.
Isabelle Kurz, a long-time Lakewood resident, has one memory in particular of a speedboat ride July 10, 1940.
“I remember when speedboats were allowed on White Rock Lake and docked in the boat house when not in use,” she says.
“I especially remember one Sunday morning in the ’40s, when I skipped church to take some friends on a boat ride on my dad’s Chris Craft. And there was no way to get that boat started until after 12 o’clock, when church was over. It just would not budge until church was over.
“Of course, I had my skipper brother (Albert Brydon) with me to do the navigating, and we then had a wonderful ride.”
