Lake Shafer

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Lake Shafer is part of the man made Twin Lakes areas in Monticello, Indiana, the other being Lake Freeman. They were both created in the 1920's when two dams were built outside of Monticello, Indiana on the Tippecanoe River.

Construction on the Norway Dam...two miles north of Monticello began in 1922, finished in 1924 which forms Lake Shafer and construction on the Oakdale Dam began...six miles south of Monticello in 1923 and was completed in 1925 to form Lake Freeman.

Both lakes are roughly 1500 acres and 50 miles in shoreline size and attract a great deal of part time residents who own property there. These people traditionally come from Chicagoland, Indianapolis, southern Michigan, western Ohio, eastern Illinois, and throughout Indiana.

Lake Shafer remains the more commercial of the two lakes, largely in part to the presence of the Indiana Beach Amusement Park and Camp Resort plus a vast amount of rental cottages and homes and boat rental marinas. Many of Lake Shafer's residents are part timers, spending a large majority of their time on the lake mainly during the weekends, traditionally April through October. Because of the visitors to the lake and the majority of the residents, the lake is often very very busy with boat traffic during the weekend time periods when "in season," referring to Indiana Beach's prime business season of the first part of June through the middle part of August.

Lake Shafer's depths vary throughout the lake. Some parts of the northern part of the main lake have shallowed to as low as 4 feet because of feeding sediments from the Tippecanoe River. There are many sandbars on the northern part of the lake where the Tippecanoe River first morphs into Lake Shafer. The southern part of the main lake sees depths varying from 7 to 30 feet deep at the Norway Dam. Since 2004, there have been active efforts on the lake to dredge many parts of the shallow areas on the lake to remove debris from the bottom of the lake, remove sandbars, and increase the lake's depth.

Since formed, Lake Shafer has been drained in 1975, 1985, and 1995, so repair work could be made to the Norway Dam.

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