Did you know?

• Sucker Lake, the original name of Oswego Lake, was not named for anyone on the shore, it was named after a type of fish found in the lake waters.
• Before homes were built on the site, the Lake Grove Anglers’ Club held casting tournaments at the west end of the lake. The president of the organization was determined by who caught the largest bass; a 7 pound, 10-ounce fish elected the first president.
• Did you know there is a pig house on Oswego Lake? Actually, it’s a small, brick bathhouse with wooden doors, which was modeled after the 1932 Walt Disney cartoon The Three Little Pigs. Christian and Dorothy Kisky constructed it and when they hosted a theme party, Walt Disney himself provided a wolf and pig costumes for the occasion.
• Oswego Lake was created about 15,000 years ago by the Ice Age Floods, the same geologic event that created the Columbia Gorge; the lake is not man-made.
• The light on top of the 1931 Janzten Estate boathouse was once used as a beacon for airplanes back in the day when pontoon planes were allowed to land on Oswego Lake.
• In Lakewood, there are the remains of a quarry that supplied the basalt for Oswego’s first iron furnace, which began construction in 1866.
• Today’s “West Point” in the Lakewood neighborhood, was once known as “Palmer’s Point.”
• In the 1930s, the sand for the beach of Mary S. Young’s estate on Twin Points was imported from Gearhart, Oregon, not Hawaii.
• In 1929, an experimental “rocket boat” powered by gunpowder was tested on Sucker Lake. The Flying Lena, as it was called, ended its maiden voyage when the inventor jumped overboard to avoid injury.
• The promontory called “Diamond Head” was named and subdivided in 1948.