an elusive, primitive, and rare, fish have been caught on occasion in Wawasee. The first account was around 1855 when Jake Renfro and three others by the last names of Kitson, Etter, and Snyder speared a sturgeon in the main channel between Syracuse Lake and Wawasee. In the 1870s, Jim Jones, the pilot of the steamboat Anna Jones, saw a sturgeon while ice fishing. The latest account was in 1991 when a sturgeon estimated at over 90 pounds was caught and released by a local fisherman, David Riddle. Sturgeon are an endangered species and protected. The Great Wawasee Storm of 1943 On Wednesday, July 21, 1943 a large thunderstorm mushroomed over the southwest tip of Michigan and moved southeast rapidly. At 6:05 pm the storm hit Elkhart ripping trees from the ground and blowing down power lines. By 6:10 the leading edge of the storm had traveled the from Elkhart to Goshen. In New Paris two smokestacks weighing 4 short tons each were destroyed. At 6:30 trees were falling in Syracuse and in minutes waves on Wawasee were at with a driving rain and hail. Six boaters on Wawasee; Sergeant Lloyd Burkholder (25) of Goshen, Dean Yoder (21) of Elkhart, Lloyd Conklin (21) of Goshen, Dorothy Beckerich (21) of Indianapolis, Billie Binkley (20), and Virginia Rush (20), lost their lives. Sources Lilly, Eli. Early Wawasee Days. Wawasee Wawasee History of Kosciusko County, Indiana