During the Ice Age, between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago, a huge river of ice moved slowly down from Canada through Wisconsin. Like a giant broom, the great Wisconsin Glacier swept up rocks and debris in its path, depositing it in narrow ridges along the ground. The glacier covered much of Wisconsin, and the deposits or rock and minerals left behind in its passing--up to 300 feet thick in places--created the Kettle Moraine area. The very name Kettle Moraine is derived from the hills (moraines) and hollows (kettles) that were left behind after the glacier moved on. Many kettles filled with water as the glacier melted and formed the area lakes of today, including Lauderdale Lakes, which vary in depth from ten to sixty feet.
After the glacier had passed through the area, what is now the Lauderdale Lakes chain consisted of a few small lakes and springs connected by small creeks. To this day, no outside water from streams or rivers enters our spring-fed lakes, whose combined surface area encompasses 841 acres of water. All the water in the lakes flows through Mill Lake to the outflow located between the Sterlingworth Store and the marina, and eastward into Honey Creek (called Mish-qua-woc by the Potawatomi tribe). Although Honey Creek is small and slow moving today, the early surveyors described it as having a rapid current. More than 150 years ago, the construction of a dam at the outflow of the creek was the initial step in raising the water level of the lakes.
The following is from the original 1929 Lauderdale Lakes Improvement Association Directory. The Author is unknown.
There is not in the wide world a place so sweet, As Lauderdale in whose bosom the bright water meet; Oh! The last rays of feeling and life must depart, Ere the bloom of our shores shall fade from the heart. Yet it was not that nature had shed o'er the scene, Her purest of crystal and brightest of green; 'Twas not her soft magic of streams or hill, Oh no! It was something more exquisite still. 'Twas that friends, the beloved of our bosoms, were near, Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear, And who felt how the best charms of Nature improve, When we see them reflected from looks that we love. Sweet Lauderdale Lakes! How calm could we rest In thy bosom of shade, with the friends we love best, Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease And our hears, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.<
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