A Gravel Pit?
Meadow Lake is the first feature Morton Arboretum visitors usually see. It’s on the east side, adjacent to the Visitor Center parking lot.
The lake appears timeless. But it’s only 61 years old. Back in 1959, Route 53 was being widened from two lanes to four lanes. The county needed gravel for road construction.
The gravel came from the meadow behind the Arboretum’s Administration Building. The meadow dated from 1939-1941 when it was defined by plantings around its irregular edges.
The meadow was excavated in May of 1959. After it was filled with water, those same plantings defined a new shoreline.
1959 Meadow Lake construction. Source: Morton Arboretum Website
The Arboretum’s first director, Clarence Godshalk, choose the lake’s name. Taking the place of the former meadow, it was renamed Meadow Lake.
Mr. Godshalk seemed especially proud of this transformation. He wrote to the Board of Trustees: “The new Meadow Lake has given me more of a thrill in its creation than anything I have done in the Arboretum development... The first thing in the morning and the last thing at night I find great pleasure in looking at this body of water as it grows, now that the lake is being filled.”
By 2004, the six-acre lake needed major attention. Water levels fluctuated. The banks were eroded, and it needed shoreline replanting.
Contractors moved over 100,000 cubic yards of soil to reshape and stabilize over 3,800 feet of shoreline. Over 100,000 native plants were installed. And an underground conveyance system now connected it to a supply lake over 1 mile away. The cost was $3M.
“I didn’t see that!”
Part of the fun of taking a photo walk with others is what they “see.” Despite walking together through the same terrain, the images are seldom the same. When you share images afterwards, it’s common to admiringly exclaim “I didn’t see that!”
It proved to be true again last Friday.
I joined fellow photographer Sherry Snyder for a photo walk at the Arb. Arriving at 7AM, we had a wonderful time photographing and talking. Sherry suggested starting at Meadow Lake where I took this photo just before sunrise.
After moving on to a different location, Sherry found this lovely composition. When she shared with me it a few days ago, I mentally retraced our steps through that Oak Grove. I didn’t see that!
