Do you know the story of this little Lake?
Was it one of the original Great Lakes that moved south for the winter? Was it a favorite watering hole for nomadic Indians before high school football games?
As a guy who had to go through 10th grade twice once said: “Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.” I would cite the re-election of Bill Clinton as a recent example.
We Lake Highlanders must not forget our history. For instance, how many of our kids know that the Battle of the Alamode was fought near the present-day location of Braum’s at Kingsley and Audelia? Or that Flagpole Hill was an ancient Indian burial ground for those who used the Lake as a favorite watering hole?
How many of us know the colorful history of the Lake that was originally known by its ancient Cocopoan Indian name – Ahahahahchuy (the Cocopoans eventually died out from acute allergy problems).
The first recorded reference to the Lake was found in the diary of the famous 16th-century French explorer, Jean Jacques du Pont de la Oui-Oui. While leading his expedition through what we now know as Winfrey Point, he writes: “We came upon a quaint inn overlooking a lake and sought refreshment and rest but were turned away by the proprietor, who said he was booked one year in advance by other foreign explorers.
Cocopoan Indian legend held that the Lake was originally formed when their great chief – Autopartz – sneezed a big hole in the ground. Mere legend? Maybe. Yet it’s curious that not one Chief Auto Parts store, to this day, sells any kind of allergy medicine.
After de la Oui-Oui claimed the area for France in 1643, and the Cocopoans were slowly consumed by a cloud of pollen, the Lake became quite a crossroads of trade and commerce. Fur traders would float down the Mississippi and take DART to the Lake just to be near the opportunities presented by the hustle and bustle of sailboats and joggers. You could hardly find a jogger who was not wearing beaver-skin umbros.
And then, along about 1700, the Spanish forces under the command of Generalissimo Juan Walne (ancestor of our current City Councilman) defeated the French at the Battle of Little Big Porn (present site of PT’s Gentleman’s Club).
Next issue, more White Rock Lake History: Titanic chooses Atlantic Ocean run over White Rock Lake; Sir Edmund Hillary climbs Flagpole Hill; Civic leader Miss Audelia Buckner is diagnosed with “Loop 12 Syndrome,” a form of schizophrenia; City of Dallas annexes the village of Lake Highlands and promises bigger trash cans.
