Greetings and Salutations
By Darrell Monroe
Press Staff Writer

Maple Sink was formed circa 1887. (2004 photo)

Some time back I got into my local history mood and spent some time listening to the oral history tapes available at the Crittenden County Library.

Shortly after I had listen to Braxton McDonald’s dialogue with Freeman McKinney on Maple Sink Lake near Dycusburg, Braxton dropped off some photographs of the body of water and some information he had gathered about it from Freeman and Leah Lindsey of Marion.

Today, I’m going to pass that on to you. Maple Sink Lake is located between Frances and Caldwell Springs Church. I happened by it one day in my ramblings across the county. Actually, Roger Linzy took me there one morning.

Anyway, Maple Sink was formed more than 90 years ago (around 1887) as a result of a large sinkhole filing up and failing to permit drainage of the several hundred acres of farm land surrounding it. The sinkhole, it was thought, led to an underground stream which carried water to the Cumberland River.

The hole was filled after a nearby barn burned and its remains were dumped into it. Because of the number of maple thickets in the area, the barn rubbish eventually clogged with leaves and drainage of the farm land ceased. Following a rainy season, Maple Sink Lake was created, covering a large area. The water, however, was not very deep except in various sinkholes and depressions in the land form.

No homes were destroyed by the lake but some landowners became isolated from their neighbors at that time.

According to McDonald, the lake soon covered between 75 and 150 acres, although he added in his notes that the size varies greatly depending on the wet and dry seasons of the year.

Maple Sink satellite image, taken Nov. 21, 1998. (Courtesy of www.terraserver.com)

Roger Linzy said that folks in the area have told him the lake is more in the neighborhood of 400-500 acres and as much as 30 feet deep in spots today. During the 50s, a fishing resort sprang up in the area with a "pretty active tourist business," Roger said. "People from Southern Indiana, Illinois and Central Kentucky used to come and go there all the time."

Today, Roger said it seems the lake and "resort" are pretty stable with people living in several house trailers there.

Although the lake has grown and changed, through the years since its beginning, folks don’t seem to talk much about it anymore.

As Roger said, "It’s just a thing that’s there. We don’t think anything about it."

Thanks to Doyle G Polk, Jr., for supplying this article.