English Lake is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Railroad Township, Starke County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, located along the

Kankakee River The Kankakee River is a tributary of the Illinois River, approximately long, in the Central Corn Belt Plains of northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois in the United States. At one time, the river drained one of the largest wetlands in N ...

. It is a small community of only a few hundred individuals. It is named for English Lake, which once existed at the junction of the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

with the Kankakee. The headquarters for the

Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area The Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area is situated in Starke County at the junction of the Yellow River with the Kankakee River. The state purchased of marshland in 1927 for a Civilian Conservation Corp. camp. The camp consisted of up to 400 men. ...

is located at English Lake.

History

The area where the community would develop was first recorded in an 1834 survey by Silvester Sibley. He listed the area as sandy, with rolling hills and trees including

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

, gum,

sassafras ''Sassafras'' is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.Wolfe, Jack A. & Wehr, Wesley C. 1987. The sassafras is an ornamental tree. "Middle Eoc ...

, whatleberry,

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

, and

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

. It also identified that it was in the "great marsh" of the Kankakee. An 1835 survey by Jeremiah Smith likened the area to

Hades Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...

of Greek mythology. The survey of 1903 identified the lake as the largest in the state of Indiana. The town of English Lake began as a railroad station in 1860 for the Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, also known as the Panhandle Route.''Who Pulled the Plug on English Lake, A Journal''; Bob Stachura; 2nd Ed.; 2004 By 1864, the wildlife of the "Great Marsh" was bringing in hunters from around the country. The English Lake Gun Club was founded in 1864, adjacent to the railroad tracks. In 1897, the Brighton Rod and Gun Club of Brighton Park,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

had established a clubhouse along the Panhandle Route. In 1900, the Railroad Club opened a clubhouse in English Lake for the Pennsylvania Railroad workers of Logansport. A post office was established at English Lake in 1860, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1960.

Geography

English Lake is named for the 'lake' that once existed on the Kankakee River. It was the widest part of the river. During the spring floods, it could become 7 miles long and 1 to 2 miles wide. (11 km by 2 to 3 km).

Dredging

Beginning in 1871, there were efforts to drain the "Great Marsh" to create farmland. The Kankakee Valley Daring Company failed that year due to lack of funds. In 1887 and 1897 additional attempts to create a drainage program failed due to local protests over the assessments to be used to pay for the project. The Craigmile Ditch, a lateral to the Kankakee, was stopped in 1898 when it reached the railway crossing. It was not until 1902, when the courts ruled that the Kankakee could be ditched, that the work really began. The court case was over a bill passed by the state legislature in 1899 to begin the ditching effort. By October of that year, it had been taken to court. In 1900, the ditching case was elevated to the Circuit Court and there were proposals to change the route and not to assess local land owners for the cost. So far, all the ditching efforts had been upstream of English Lake on either the

or the

. The court decision opened the way for dredging on the main river through the lake. By July 1904, the dredges were into English Lake and working their way upstream. By the end of the year, there were seven dredges at work.''Who Pulled the Plug on English Lake, A Journal''; Bob Stachura; 2nd Ed.; 2004; pg 166

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Indiana Unincorporated communities in Starke County, Indiana