Thanks to local historical researcher Kevin Savick, I have a copy of a Tribune article from the Jan. 15, 1957, issue regarding the largest lake in Freeborn County.

This article had as its main theme a letter given to the Albert Lea City Council from a citizen’s committee formed to advocate the cleanup of this lake and make several significant changes to its shape and even change its name.

To start off this commentary here’s the entire letter as published in the Tribune 53 years ago:

“As you know, our committee started working on the rehabilitation of Albert Lea Lake in May of 1955, so have spent a year and a half on this project

“We have gone at the matter with an open mind, listening to everyone interested and have investigated every possible angle of the problem. Our entire approach was to learn what could he done and what could not be done and to draw conclusions from hard facts.

“People outside of Albert Lea and Albert Lea Township are not particularly interested in the problem because they feel that this is our headache. They feel that we created this terrible situation, that it is up to us to correct it and that we will be the main beneficiaries, so we should pay for it.

“Sooner or later, all the area around the lake will be a part of the city of Albert Lea, so our recommendation is that the city of Albert Lea start condemnation proceedings on a friendly basis, to condemn the surface of the lake and the land under it.

“This procedure is carried on continuously in Florida in creating new land from ocean bottom and I believe it was done recently in an annexation northwest of Albert Lea. The state conservation commissioner, George Selke, has been working with us and we are sure he will agree to this procedure as will the county board and the landowners around the lake.

“After the lake has been condemned, it could be deeded to a development corporation which we would form and we would then proceed to rehabilitate the lake. After the complete work has been done, the new improved lake would be deeded back to the city and our corporation would pay for the work through the sale of the ‘new’ land created by dredging out the muck and filling in around the lake, mostly in the west end.

“This new land would be available to Wilson & Co. for expansion and also to Jobs Building for new commercial sites. There would also be greater residential locations available.

“We have a promise of $200,000 working capital and we believe the State Highway Department would be interested in building a road from Ulstad Avenue straight south across the lake, when the west side of the lake is filled.

“If there is any objection to this plan or if someone has a better plan, we will be very happy to turn over the whole project to them. Dr. (Niles) Shoff, Owen Johnson, Ken Allen and myself will be glad to cooperate with Mr. (Barkley) Omans (Albert Lea’s city manager) if you will assign to him the job of investigating the matter.”

“Because of the past undesirable character of Albert Lea Lake, we would like to rename it Lake Elissa (pronounced Lake Eleesa). This is a good Scandinavian name and there is no other in the U.S. with that title.”

The author of this letter was listed as William J. Larson, co-chairman of a citizens’ committee formed to clean up this lake. So far, I’ve been unable to find out who shared the chairmanship duties or the names of the other people involved with this project.

Members of the city council had been given copies of this letter prior to their meeting. The only official action they ever took was to “receive and file” the letter. That’s a nice way to say they did nothing.

This letter has some rather interesting points worth further commentaries. And we’ll do just that in the next column.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.