The community of Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana was once a bustling tourist town with more than 50 resorts on its shores - with ballrooms, restaurants, taverns and more that even extended out via piers onto the water. Tourists came in droves in the summer months by train on the Monon Railroad from Chicago to stay in resorts and cabins and enjoy lake life.
For those making their way to Lassen’s Resort, which opened in 1896 and operated into the 1940s, one of their steamboats picked them up at the train depot and ferried them across the lake to their destination. The Dewey Line of steamboats was run by the Lassen brothers, who owned the resort.
This year, regular steamboat rides are back on Cedar Lake. The Cedar Lake Historical Association is offering 20-minute and 45-minute narrated excursions on the lake on Wednesdays through September 25. The boat is operated together with volunteers from the Hesston Steam Museum and CLHA.
On the tour, you get a taste of what resort life was like in Cedar Lake a century ago. You’ll head out on a pier right in front of the former resort, the only remaining hotel/resort on the lake, which now serves at the CLHA’s historical museum, The Museum at Lassen’s Resort. There you board the 20-passenger vessel, Steamer Dewey and learn about how the wooden pier once extended 300 feet out into the water, where you would find a ballroom with a 1,000-individual capacity, along with a buffet restaurant, barber shop and tavern. The Monon depot was on the western shore, and the majority of visitors to Lassen’s Resort made their way there by steam train and then steamboat.
Volunteer museum staff give an overview of the lake and its history during the ride, going back to the 1700s when the area was inhabited by Potawatomi Indians, through the tourist/resort heyday and into the second half of the 20th century when big names came to perform at Midway Ballroom, including Frankie Yankovic, the Everly Brothers, Beach Boys, Barbara Mandrell, the Oak Ridge Boys, Conway Twitty and Survivor before it burned down in 1987.
Steamer Dewey is actually the Alabama No. 4, a converted 1915 lifeboat off the SS Alabama, a steamship that cruised the Great Lakes from 1909 to 1946. A second boat, the Baby Dewey, is an electric boat that seats six and is available for sunset dinner charters.
CLHA hosts Steam Through History Day annually on the 4th Wednesday of July in celebration of its rebirth of the Dewey Line. It is a day to discover the tremendous power of steam and its impact on humanity. Several other steam-powered machines will be on display, and this year will include and an opportunity to learn more about the heritage of the Potawatomi at Cedar Lake.
It was during the Steam through History Day celebration when the steamboat rides were first introduced (and 1,000 passengers took rides in a 4 1/2 day period). The Steam Through History Day event will return on July 24.
The all-volunteer group of the CLHA has won regional, state and national awards for the steamboat project. It is currently the only place in the state of Indiana where you can board a steamboat for hire and take a ride.
Tickets for rides on the Steamboat Dewey are available at lassensresort.org. The Monon Route is a 20-minute ride for $15. You will journey to the site of the former Monon Railroad Depot from Lassen’s Resort while you learn the science of steam power and how Cedar Lake became a resort destination. The Premium Route takes you around the lake while sharing hotel and restaurant stories from Cedar Lake’s resort-era history. Tickets are $35 for the 45-minute tour ($30 for children under 13).
To view an interactive map of the lake and former resorts, visit cedarlakehistory.org. Purchase tickets for steamboat rides at lassensresort.org.
