Cedar Lake Has Always Been an Oasis For People

Cedar Lake Has Always Been an Oasis For People. Early Inhabitants at Cedar Lake , Water provides necessities for life and respite. , As James Hervey Ball explained in 1884, the native peoples "could not well have declined the inducement to have resorted here for council, pleasure, rest and food.", The French recorded the earliest historic groups in the area surrounding Cedar Lake as the Illinois and Miami in the mid-to-late seventeenth century. However, the area is best known for the Potawatomi, who were originally from land between Lake Superior and Lake Huron., Potawatomi are of the Central Algonquian group. They migrated south beginning in 1500 and arrived at the Michigan/Indiana border by 1600. There were various Potawatomi camps around Cedar Lake in the 1830s, including a summer village at the east side. The Potawatomi called the lake, "Mes-kwah-ock-bis," meaning Lake of the Red Cedars, due to the native red cedar trees (Juniperus virginiana, eastern red cedar). They hunted, gathered, and planted corn, beans and squash, lived in wigwams, paddled their canoes upon the lake to fish., During the Removal Period, 1795 to 1840, the United States government began a series of treaties and purchased land from the Potawatomi as part of the process of removing them to reservations west of the Mississippi River. In September 1838, many Potawatomi were removed from Indiana in what is known as the "Trail of Death.", The Museum at Lassen's Resort on Cedar Lake , To learn more and experience a steam boat trip across Cedar Lake, visit The Story of Cedar Lake exhibit today! , Presenting the Relevance of Cedar Lake History - Cedar Lake Historical Association - www.lassensresort.org , [Captions:] , Map of Lake County taken from a map drawn by H.S. Ball - 1873 , Indian Trails by Beulah Brannon - 1966 , Trails on Map: , . Sauk . Cedar Lake . Pottawotomie . Calumet Beach . Tolleston Beach . Calumet River . Lake Shore . Dunes . Lake Prairie