Chapman Lake Community is a collection of memories and moments to share with the people who hold a special spot for Chapman Lake. As a lake community we want to share our experiences and traditions to bring us all closer together. Please submit any memories or moments to contact@chapmanlake.com

Public Access Beneficiary of Eagle Scout Project

By: Jim Molebash

Scout, Tim Wielgot and his family live at Chapman Lake. He has been a Scout in Troop 819 sponsored by the Warsaw Knights of Columbus for 7 years. He has earned the Scouting Ranks of Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life. Having also earned 29 merit Badges, all he needed to earn the rank of Eagle Scout was to “plan, develop and give leadership to others in completing a service project helpful to your community “. Tim chose improvements at the Chapman Lakes Boat launch as his project.  Tim worked in coordination with the DNR and the Chapman Lakes Conservation Association provided some of the funds to make the improvements.

In early March, he and a crew of 8 other Scouts and 3 leaders descended upon the boat launch and in an all-day endeavor, finished much of the project. They cleaned up brush and fallen limbs, laid a solid foundation for the portable toilet, stabilized the west side of the shoreline, and installed a new signboard/ kiosk. Subsequent workdays saw them remove unsightly vegetation along the channel and replace it with evergreens to hold the soil of the shoreline.

Tim said this project was a great experience and honor for him.  “To be able to help so many people for many years to come is such an awesome feeling and I hope that my improvements are going to be here for decades.” Many thanks to Tim and his Scouting crew for a job well done! This is a great improvement to our Public Access site!

Kilgore Family

Ross Kilgore’s family has been coming to Chapman Lake since the 1960’s from New Castle, IN.  Now as a young father of two children, Naomi and Abel, Ross and his wife, Ashley are carrying on the tradition.  Ross is the Worship Leader at Hope Missionary Church in Bluffton, Indiana and his wife a counselor at Bluffton Elementary.  The week before Memorial Day he and his family were staying at the family lake house when their daughter picked up an old guitar that stays in the house.  With Naomi’s interest Ashley suggested Ross play the guitar. Naomi was learning about rhyming words at pre-school so they started rhyming and composing words to a song.  Ross thought, “hey, this is pretty good, we should write them down”.  Memorial weekend he decided to take some video and when he returned home Saturday evening before church on Sunday, he started recording and the rest is history!  Thank you Ross and Naomi for sharing with our Chapman Lakes family!

The Summer Kingdom

David and Missy Hathaway purchased their Chapman Lake retreat in Lozier’s Camp and Fish Park back in 2009. They have been traveling to the lake ever since. They have a daughter, Shelby, who is 20 years old. Their daughter Eden, is 18 years old and a 2020 graduate of Yorktown High School. They reside in Yorktown. Eden wrote the following essay “Summer Kingdom” for one of her college applications.

As a young girl, I spent countless weekends at the trailer my family owned on Chapman Lake. The summer days were filled with long hours on my family’s boat and endless shenanigans with the neighboring children. We went to “The Lakes” every weekend of every summer for nearly seven years. Since then, my life has changed a lot, but every once in a while, I long for just one splinter from the rotting fishing dock or a temporary sunburn caused by too much relaxation on the boat. I want to once again feel the excitement which forced me to forget my shoes at home and walk to the beach on a path of gravel. I grew so nostalgic one day that I drove the whole two hours to “The Lake” to spend the evening on a creaky swing set with my toes in the sand watching the sun set over the lily pads and cattail.

For lunch on the boat we shared our vegetables with the lake creatures, hoping eating all of our healthy food would encourage our parents to take us to the marina. On the big lake, the marina stands unsteady and quiet, yet known by all. While the adults dreaded the mediocre pizza and the faint scent of worms and minnows, us children looked forward to the $1 we would receive to buy 5 gummy worms, 3 peach rings, a Smarties sucker, and, only for the most courageous of us: A Super Sour Ball. We would get our candy, and go back to the trailers where we got ready for the night ahead. Taking off our wet clothes, we happily slipped into dry sweatpants and t-shirts for dinner beside the fire. The Hathaways, Muzzarellis, Manors, and Kimbroughs all joined around the fire to enjoy ribs, mac n’ cheese, and corn on the cob. The night would end for me and my sister with our weekly viewing of Anastasia.

Since then, there have been many years. In the third grade, the love of my life Charles Kimbrough moved to Florida with his family, leaving my family, the Muzzarellis, and the Manors. Shortly after that the Manors decided they no longer had the time to come up, and my time there slowly went from being a heavenly adventure to being a hassle and a bore. My teeth began to hurt from years of eating peach rings covered in sugar, so the marina slowly fell from my agenda. The lake water was full of the unknown, and my swimsuit returned from the boat each night as dry as the clothes which replaced it. The Muzzarellis went out for pizza, leaving my dad to make his mediocre chili. Anastasia became childish, and there was no Wi-Fi for me to watch Pretty Little Liars and 90210. The weekends felt longer, and my time felt wasted.

There have only been more and more years. I didn’t go with my parents to The Lakes because I had to work, and I saw no point if my only friends left there were much older than me. I didn’t get to wake up with the sun for a day of endless laughter and the smell of unclean lake water. I didn’t get to feel the sting on my back and the water up my nose from flying off of the inner tube my dad so viciously whipped around behind the boat. I didn’t get to smell the fire and hear the drunken laughter of my parents and their friends as I dozed off for the night. I instead spent the day as a lifeguard at the community pool trying to catch a whiff of the summer I knew as a little girl. I instead fell asleep to the silence of a dark house and the white noise coming from my phone as I called my mom to say goodnight.

The fireflies at The Lakes were more magical than the ones back home. They shined brighter. As did we. When I find the time to visit again, I see the children feeling that magic. I hear them asking to stay out on the water for five more minutes. I see them hanging up their suits for the night as they brush the terrible knots from their heads. I smell the food their fathers are making as the kids play with one another and wait. For them, things could never change, and that magical place could never lose its wonder. There have been no years for that kingdom, but there have been infinitely many in the eyes of the ones who once ruled it.

~Eden Hathaway