Support for the Lake Bella Vista
It has been interesting to see the variety of Letters to the Editor regarding Lake Bella Vista.
One letter stated that the lake had never had any history of public utility. While I am uncertain what he meant by "utility," I must say that in its beginning Lake Bella Vista was used to create the electricity for the summer resort.
Between the hydroelectric generation of electricity and the hydraulic rams that pumped the water to the various ground tanks at the highest elevations for gravity delivery to the users, there was no fuel used to create electricity or deliver water to a cottages' kitchen sinks during the resort's early years.
Again, assuming this is what Mr. Van Horn meant, would he want all the lakes in the City of Bella Vista removed since none of them makes electricity? I don't know.
It is very nice to see the city of Bentonville's determination to keep Lake Bella Vista there -- thank you, Mayor McCaslin.
Apparently debris, mostly large logs, jammed the flood gates at the bridge recently, and the lake was drained to clear the snags and remove other trees and foreign objects from the lake bed so that it doesn't become clogged again soon.
The clearing of debris will be good for the lake, and while this is happening, Little Sugar Creek still flowed through the lake bed giving members of the Friends of Sugar Creek, whose goal is to return the creek to its pre-1915 condition so it can be used for canoeing/kayaking, will have the opportunity to see just how "wild" the free-flowing creek is.
They got to see that having the lake like we have had for 100 years is without a doubt the best thing for the creek and people who enjoy its many pleasures daily.
The idea that the lake was useless because it didn't provide sport fishing fails to give value to the people who enjoy fishing from the shoreline. Since the old resort's history starting 1915, people have enjoyed lake fishing and frog gigging at night.
In fact, fresh catfish, perch and frog legs were served at the resort's lodge dining room and later at the Sunset Hotel. Now when I see people fishing I know that they will eat well that night if they are lucky.
Fishing at Lake Bella Vista may not be trendy to some, but it may be dinner or simply a pleasant way to pass some quiet time to others, and that alone makes it worth keeping.
Our Bella Vista Historical Society congratulates Bentonville on its preservation of the Lake -- thank you!
Carole Harter
Bella Vista Historical Society
Editorial on 08/26/2015