Crisp Lake - A short and hearsay history

Col Crisp

There was a spring just a little northeast of what is now Fairmount that was used  by the locals as were many such springs that permeated the area west of Independence.  It did not take on its present configuration until the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Rail Road built a  spur to connect with the Union Pacific.  An earthen dam was built that backed up water and Crisp Lake took on its present form.  No one is really sure if Crisp Lake was its official name or if it even had one.  Someone stared calling the new body of water after Col. Crisp of the Confederate States of America and state legislator.  Why they named it after him is lost to history or at least this short narrative.

Regardless after the rail road finished laying track the lake was there and some of the more prosperous in the area thought it would be a neat thing to have a summer cottage by a lake.  Several small little changing stations were erected which lead to bath houses, that lead to attached pavilions, and eventually cottages were erected and sprinkled the area around the lake.  To keep out undesirables an association was established called The Hutchinson Park Association.   Mr. Hutchinson was the first to build a cottage and was sort of the area’s unofficial patriarch. 

The house I grew up in was one of the original cottages.  It was owned by my Great Grandmother Stone, who in actuality was my foster grandmother whom was always referred to as Mother Stone.  Her very large house was over by Mount Washington Cemetery and 639 Lake Drive on Crisp Lake was her summer retreat.

More people started buying lots and from whom I don’t know - may be the rail road, Hutchinson, or Col Crisp.  The Association remained in tack but it did not have the legal power to establish any type of building code because no one really knew to which political jurisdiction it  belong.  Many different types of houses were built that were lived in year round.  Some were very nice houses and the people were of the upper middle class.  But things change 

The prosperous people eventually left the area or bequeathed their property to their relatives (Mother Stone gave my grandmother our house) and upper blue collar workers, for the most part, started moving in.  Sheffield Steel and Standard Oil were very big employers in the area and Crisp Lake got its share of those families.

I lived at Crisp Lake from 1947 to 1966 mostly with my grandparents.  My grandmother lived there till the early 80’s.  When I lived there the lake had rock walls that surrounded it, two sail boats, thee row boats, one of which was mine, and one canoe.  The deepest part of the lake had a dock, diving board and chained off swimming area.  There were plenty of fish, turtles, crawdads, muskrats, frogs, and snakes.  In the winter it was the main attraction for ice skaters from all over the city.

Many birds of water type variety were represented but no ducks or geese.  Then one day two mallard ducks arrived just short of winter and of course the entire human lake population fed them; fed them so much that they returned the next year and brought some of their friends and then more friends each year there after.  Some one must have told a goose because they started showing up and have dominated the place every since. 

There was no EPA at the time to keep chemical pollution from being dumped there by an intermittent stream that some of the minor industries in Maywood used to get rid of their chemical waste.  Along with the chemical pollution from the plants, the natural run off of pesticides from the surrounding terra firma and bacteria brought by the geese eventually destroyed the picturesque setting. 

The social structure of the area changed about the same time.  Sheffield Steel and Standard Oil out sourced and eventually shut down altogether, almost 5000 jobs left the area, the KC School District started bussing, the houses were getting old and run down as were the residents, the rock walls, dock and swimming area went into decay, owners moved out and renters moved in, and then someone, perhaps the City, decided it was no longer fit to swim in.

The Hutchinson Park Association is still in existence if not real viable and there are only three families that still live around the lake that were there when I called the place home and two of them moved in when I was a teenager.  Very few remember what it was like. The Association did look into what it would cost to bring the lake back to its glory days but the cost was in the 6 figure range not counting the logistics of hauling, storing and cleaning up the mud that would have to be drudged up from the lake due to contamination. 

The place has some potential given some vision and money but there seems to be no serious interest in doing so by the people who make those types of decisions. I don’t know what it would take to make the place an attractive area once again.  Perhaps a ground swell of local populace marching on then occupying city hall might work.  If a member of the city council was elected that lived in the area or one who grew up there might do the trick.  Or perhaps some local boy who remembers what it was like back in the day will win the power ball.   The power ball scenario is the one that shows the most promise I suspect.