Stumps!!….and the loss of the Lightnings

The stumps of trees left at the lake bottom since the inception of the Club proved to be a problem from day one.  On Feb 29, 1944 commodore Charles Siegenthaler asked this of the conservancy district: “We are wondering why the level of the lake cannot be held several feet above last summer’s level.  There should not be any great loss of land, that is land of value, and it could certainly take care of the stumps, et.c”

Sadly for the club, in 1953, most of the Lightning fleet left to club to start their own on Clearfork lake.  According to an article in the Mansfield News Journal on July 26, 1953,  “…a series of mishaps because of that (Charles Mill’s) lake’s shallowness and abundance of submerged stumps drove the Lightning class owners to look for a new sailing area.”  Included in those exiting were several of the founders of the club, including Sigenthaler, Grotegut, Macy, and Huston.