World's Longest Swimming Pool
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Thomas Devilbiss

World's Longest Swimming Pool, also, Thomas Devilbiss. ⚜️. , World's Largest Swimming Pool. In 1924, Camp Miakonda's famous giant swimming pool was dug out. It was graded off to be 2 feet to 10 feet deep. It originally had a diving tower, two piers and five diving boards. In 1925 an additional area was added 40' by 60' in size and it had a fine white sand bottom. The new area's depth was between 3-4 feet deep and was for teaching non-swimmers. A walk and pier were constructed on both sides of the swimming pool area in 1925. Its perimeter was not cemented in until some time later. The pool was called "Lake Libbey" in the late 1920s. It was Toledo glass industrialist Edward Libbey who funded the further development of the pool and many other things at Miakonda when he left a bequest of $25,000.00 in 1926 after his death. Touted as the "World's Longest" the pool eventually became 480' long and held 1.3 million gallons of water. The filtration plant, which cleaned 100,000 gallons of water each hour, and other pool improvements were completed in 1941 with funds provided by a bequest from John A. Geismar. The pool had a gravel bottom and was spring fed so that the water was always ice cold. There were three defined areas of the pool of different depths. The shallow end was for non-swimmers, the middle area for beginners and the deep end, was for fully qualified swimmers. Water quality problems and physical deterioration eventually ended the giant pool in the late 1970's., Thomas Devilbiss. The official name of Camp Miakonda is DeVilbiss Scout Reservation and it was incorporated as such in 1926. When Camp Miakonda was in its early years it was Thomas DeVilbiss who was persuaded to provide a donation toward its development by some of his friends who were supporters of Scouting. He donated $30,000 in 1924 which was an immense gift at the time. Those funds paid for a number of things at the camp and paid off the mortgage from a 1922 land purchase. The camp was named for Mr. DeVilbiss right after his gift was made. He was the council president in 1928 when he died suddenly. At his death in 1928 he left another $25,000 for Miakonda. Thomas DeVilbiss's father, Allen, was a nose and throat medical doctor who invented the atomizer which allows a liquid to be into a spray. He created it so that medicine could be sprayed into a patient's throat. He started the DeVilbiss Company in 1888 in Toledo. His son. and Thomas' brother, Allen Jr., invented a springless automatic scale and started a company himself in 1897 that later became the Toledo Scale Company. Thomas developed the paint spray gun as well as perfumizers. Mr. DeVilbiss's spray gun technology was revolutionary as far as coating and painting application in industry. It was and is used throughout American industry. Mr. DeVilbiss received the first Silver Beaver awarded in our council in 1932, although it was presented posthumously.