There’s nothing better than finding out history about your hometown. For this week’s blog I decided to find out about the History of Wyandotte County Lake. In high school American History, I found out that Wyandotte County Lake was apart of the 1930′s workmen’s relief act. In order to find some history about Wyandotte County Lake I visited the Kansas City, KS public library site and there I came to the following web address http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/wyco/parks/damhist.html. Here at this site I was able to find a host of information about the History of Wyandotte County Lake.
Wyandotte County Lake was apart of the New Deal Act proposed by President Roosevelt. The construction of the lake was a way for residents to seek employment while providing a method of water conservation for Wyandotte County. Construction on the lake started in 1936 and it wasn’t fully complete until 1943.While on the website I was able to view an excerpt from a speech by Wyandotte County Parks Ranger Timothy H. Johnson. The title of this excerpt is The Building of The Lake The Early Years. By reading this I was able to get an idea of what pioneers of Wyandotte County Lake had in mind as far as the planning, constructing and use of the lake. In particular I found it to be very interesting on how much the workers were paid for a 69 hour work week. Their weekly salary doesn’t even compare to what modern days workers make in just one day of work.
Also at the Kansas Public Library website I was able to view a chronological timeline of the construction of Wyandotte County Lake. This was interesting because as with most plans everything does not always go as planned. The time period in which the lake was being constructed workers were faced with several set backs such as the damn collapsing prior to the completion of the lake as well as worker strikes.
July 11, 2008 at 1:52 pm |
Cool entry Darian. Also incredibly appropriate for what we learned in class this week. I find it a little weird to think about how these man-made lakes were made and why. For example, Lawrence gets most of its water from Clinton Lake. I don’t think Clinton Lake was built until the 1950′s. So, how did Lawrence get any of its water before then? Plus its such a recreational attraction any more. Wyandotte has an interesting history anyway. For my digital narrative I did some research into the history of the segregation in Wyandotte public schools. There was no segregation until 1903 when an altercation between a black and white kid resulted in the white kids death and the community went beserk. A segregated school, Sumner High, was built and still exists today and wasn’t desegregated until 1977, even though Brown v. Board was in 1954.
July 11, 2008 at 2:57 pm |
Good post Darian! It seems like construction work hasn’t changed much…nothing ever gets done on time today either.