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North Bayou History
Judy Mohan, North Bayou,2005
North Bayou, with its intricate
labyrinth of stumps and submerged logs, offers homeowners there a
quiet wooded nook of natural beauty.
The stumps, remnants of the lake’s logging era, serve as
guardian of the bayou and all that is in it – keeping power boats at
bay and giving nature free reign.
In the secluded bayou, turtles use the stumps for sunning
platforms, fish hide beneath them and otters play around them.
As nature lovers discovered the
bayou’s beauty, homes began to dot the shoreline, and now only a
small parcel on the bayou’s back northeast shore remains
underdeveloped. Owned
by the Maclean family, developers of Partridge Pointe, these 275
wooded acres have been set aside as a nature preserve and continue
to provide a home for the wildlife that share North Bayou with the
homeowners.
Nelson
Cottage
In the 1930’s no roads bordered the bayou.
On the north shore, a two-track lane through the woods led to
the Lilley home built by local building contractor Oscar Nelson.
On the south shore, Lakeshore Drive from town ended at the
bayou mouth. North
Bayou Resort and a couple of cottages were clustered there – and
then, solid woods.
Oblivious to property lines, contractor Oscar Nelson cut his way
through those woods, zigzagging between the larger trees, to
construct a winding two –track lane three-tenths of a mile to the
property he had chosen for his family’s cabin on the south shore of
the bayou. The site
offered a spectacular view through the bayou to the golden sand
dunes across the lake.
His two-room cabin had a small living room barely wider than the
fireplace on one wall and a kitchen with an icebox and kerosene
cooking stove. An
outside pump supplied the water.
Kerosene lamps gave evening light and an outhouse behind the
cottage took care of necessities.
In the early 1940’s when Oscar
decided to buy additional lots, he discovered that the lot he owned
was actually next to the lot on which he had built.
He hastily purchased the lot on which the cottage stood and
in subsequent years purchased other adjoining lots.
As the Nelson family grew in numbers, the little white framed
cottage grew as well, providing indoor plumbing and additional
sleeping space.
Presently owned by Oscar’s daughter Lillian and her husband, Earl
Barton, the cottage continues to be the gathering place for several
generations fo the Nelson family.
Munson-Mohan
Cottage
The house just west of the Nelson cottage,
built in 1979, had the distinction of being featured that year in
the Chicago Tribune by writer and owner Judy Munson-Mohan (Oscar’s
granddaughter), who had written a two-part feature article for the
newspaper on purchasing out-of-state property and building a
vacation home. That
home has since been renovated and enlarged.
You can read about history of the North Bayou here.
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