Lake. The legend is when summer homes rose thick and fast around its shores and fashion folk came swell, the spirit of “Wawasee came floating back, ate up the turkey and fastened his name upon the lake where it shall remain imperishable as that of Caesar.” Six Lakes High hills, deep holes, swamps and razorback ridges made up the landscape. The deep holes were full of water and full of fish, yet the terrain around made the water inaccessible. “Immediately adjoining Lake Wawasee was a valley extending more than one mile to the inland; it was broken by several high mounds and two extensive promontories; and its border rises from above its level.” The mounds, promontories and most of the border were covered with second growth timber 40–60 feet high. Six of these little lakes from in extent and from in depth were scattered about the valley. Sudlow had a dream of “A Sportsman’s Paradise.” History Sudlow organized The Northern Indiana Improvement Company and bought the land within and surrounding the valley with the little lakes. The company constructed several dams aggregating in length, across the several openings and within a few rods of the shores of Wawasee. Wells were driven on all sides of the valley, tapping the artesian wells producing a lake with a level about nine feet above the level of Wawasee across the highway. More than of land was acquired with 325 submerged “making one of the most beautiful lakes of pure, clear water to be found in all the world. The mounds are islands and the promontories add thousands of feet of beautiful building sites to its shore line. It has no inlet except from the surrounding hills and subterranean source, but a perpetual stream flows from it into Lake Wawasee. Hatcheries In 1914 the State Commissioner of Fisheries and Game discovered a sufficient flow of water was constant from Papakeechie into Wawasee to conduct the hatching of fish on a large scale. A tract was leased from the Northern Indiana Improvement Company for the hatcheries. It also acquired title to several acres below the dam and constructed 12 ponds, one-half acre each, which the waters from Papakeechie step down a distance of about and as drainage is needed, steps down into Wawasee, “making a most perfect system for the hatching of fresh water fish.” The lease required the state to perpetually maintain the dams