Where the Perpetual Water Filling Crystal Lake Originates

The article form January 6, 2008, wiped out by Google on the grounds that McHenry County Blog was a “spam blog” has been found and is re-published here.

The Springs of Crystal Lake

1-6-7 No, it’s not a new subdivision or the nursing home.

This story is about the springs that supply the crystal clear water to Crystal Lake, the lake.

Illinois State Geological Survey Geologist Brandon Curry was talking about imaging “the sentiment layers below the lake’s sentiment surface.”

After using sonar to map the bottom of Crystal Lake last May at the request of the Crystal Lake Park District, Curry found curious gashes in the bottom.

Eventually, he figured out that they were springs.

I asked him how many there were.

You almost have to see it to believe it. You can see individual layers of lake sentiment.

The sentiment layers forming previously unknown places of interest, such as springs. That’s what we found.

How many?

There are ten of them. They are peppered pretty much over the southern half of the lake. I would say they are located where there is a break in slope–where the lake starts flattening out is where these pits are.

The pits are the springs. We’re just hypothesizing at this time. We’re assuming there is water flowing out of them to maintain their pit shapes.

They’re not all that deep. They’re only about a meter deep. They are about 60 feet across.

They look like giant cracks in the bottom the lake.

The distribution suggests that, if they are gashes, they are not very long.

It has been known that there’s ground water coming into the lake, but we didn’t know that there would be that many expressions of what we call springs. They are subterranean springs, just meaning they are under water, in some cases in 20-30 feet of water.

What we found was worth the price of admission right now. I think the (Crystal Lake) Park District paid about $5,000 for this and they got their money’s worth just finding that out.

I’d think that would be a great place to fish.

Speaking of fishing, I asked Curry if he was able to find posts from the old icehouse.

I found some just west of the Gate 7 Country Club Additions Property Owners Association Beach in shallow water when the lake was down. They were the size of telephone poles and I had long thought that a main structure was out beyond the swimming area and dock at Gate 9. I was led to this conclusion by the many fishermen who drop their lines there.

He found nothing that looked like posts.

Now, I wonder if there is a big spring between Gate 7 and Gate 9. I know I can feel spring water coming out of the lakebed just southeast of where the CCAPOA tethers the swimming float.

Curry did find some sedimentation over parts of some of the springs:

One of the things this method does is separate out materials with different acoustic properties. One of those covers some of the springs and the material likely is post-settlement material. I suspect that a lot of the problem with sediment in the lake—and it’s really does not seem to be a big problem.

= = = = =
The top photo is of sunset taken at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach on August 26, 2006.

This raft is in front of Lakewood’s Gate 7 Beach. I know there is a small spring to its southeast and I’m betting there’s a long one running parallel to the beach property slightly beyond the roped off area. This is a 2002 photo.

The two fishing boats seen above are both out from Lakewood’s Gate 3 Beach in mid October–one on a calm day and one in rough water on a blustery day. Are they over one of the springs Curry documented?

And I couldn’t resist including a third fishing photo in the photo explanations. You can see the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach House lights reflecting off the lake at dusk in May, 2006. Maybe it is over the spring where I’ve heard that Indians used to come and clean out the leaves into the 1920’s.

At the bottom is a picture supplied by the State Geologic Survey in May. It shows the computer screen recording the bathymetric readings.


Comments

Where the Perpetual Water Filling Crystal Lake Originates — 19 Comments

  1. Dear casual reader of this sunshine blog: let me welcome you to the wild, wild world of right wing nonsense where an irrelevant blogger continually feeds stories about ugly cats, old useless political yard signs, republikkklan fundraisers, and most recently, old recycled stories that nobody seems to care about. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the alternative parallel universe of libertarian, family values, we hate Jack Franks, God fearing, gun clinging, compassionate conservatism. Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meeeeeoooooowwwwwwwww…

  2. Dear Satan: Would you mind taking a dive into Crystal Lake to find out what’s at the very bottom? Just out of curiosity. You may probably find the very first lost spelling guide of the English language; or better still, a box with the secret plot from Illuminati to control our minds. Give it a try please. Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meow, meow, meeeeeoooooowwwwwwwww…

  3. Holy shnikeys!

    The Teacher got into the kids Avocado Tide Pod Dip in the school cafeteria again!

  4. Angel, take your liberal bullsh*t somewhere else. You can take Tom, Warren, and Alabama with you and have a circle jerk.

  5. 138 days to the Midterm elections…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meow, meow, meeeeeoooooowwwwwwwww…

  6. Hey fed, you mad bro? Tell about circle jerks. You seem to know about them.

    grab you tiki torch and keep on marching.

  7. Tommi, “bro” isn’t that racist or something. Next you will be calling me homie. Angel is waiting to teach you all about the circles. I think something about pulling a train is after that.
    It does have a flame at the end but it’s not a tiki torch.

  8. Whoa. A new element here. Circles. Crop Circles?

    What’s such a big deal here about Crystal Lake. The real deal is Geneva Lake in nearby Wisconsin where real and authentic rich people have homes along the shore.

  9. Don’t you love it when brazenly racist compassionate conservative bring the race card to the discussion? Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meeeeeoooooowwwwwwwww…138 days…

  10. Data collection about water sources in our landlocked county is valuable.
    We should expect more water mining incursions similar to Oakwood Hills power plant.
    Western McH County is vulnerable to landowners with political pull arranging infrastructure for water mining heavy industrial operations.

  11. Wondering why this article uses both the words sentiment and sediment; and also where are all these photos? I don’t particularly like this lake. All I can think of is the awful things they have pulled up out of this lake and all the people that have drowned here. (Like the little guy that just skated into black water from West Beach while no one noticed.)

  12. “I don’t particularly like this lake”. Everybody, let’s make it over there, but fast! Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meow, meow, meeeeeoooooowwwwwwwww…

  13. I concur with Stan. That’s why I avoid hospitals when sick, thinking about all the people who have died there. Stay tuned…tic, tock, meeeeeoooooowwwwwwwww…

  14. Angel? You should be equally aware of the barbaric and horrific things they do to people in hospitals. But who is Stan?

  15. I was referring to Satan. Look in the mirror for a clue. Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meow, meeeeeooooowwwwwwwww…

  16. Sorry, Angel. It was just a typo then. (And I thought you might be making some kind of sense!)

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