By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Friendly postcard collecting rivals Floyd Jerdon and Rick Rasmussen finally decided, if you can't beat him, publish a book together.
It's been 14 years since they started running across each other at postcard shows.
Rasmussen started collecting them for three Paw Paw Lake books he published in 1994, 1996 and 1999, the last in conjunction with Deer Forest's 50th anniversary.
Jerdon began collecting postcards 16 years ago and focused on Sister Lakes because of his real estate company's involvement in properties on those inland bodies of water.
Rasmussen, of Coloma, said his 900 cards eventually conceded defeat to Jerdon's "huge collection" of 1,200 cards.
And that's not counting Floyd's wife Donna's collection of Dowagiac-oriented cards.
Rasmussen returned to concentrating on Paw Paw Lake cards, suggesting that someday they should collaborate on a book about Sister Lakes.
That day has arrived. They have joined forces on a pictorial book about Sister Lakes they plan to have available in time for the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival in May 2007.
They are looking for information, old postcards and stories about Cable, Crooked, Dewey, Indian, Keeler, Little Crooked, Magician, Pipestone, Priest and Round lakes.
Specifically, they said Tuesday they are looking for the where, when and who of postcards related to:
Mrs. Kent's cottages.
The crooked tree on Indian Lake.
Lovers Lane.
Suits' Dance Hall.
Schur's Store on Round Lake.
Hall's Store on Magician Lake.
Anderson's Oakhill Farm.
Dernbach's Pool Hall.
Highland Home Resort.
The Red and White Store.
The Hermitage and Idlewild resorts.
Camp Geraldine.
Lakeview Home.
Did Maple Row Castle become Britton's Resort on Round Lake?
When was Whiting's changed from Ludwig's Store?
Was Rendezvous Restaurant a resort before?
"Picture postcards didn't get started until about 1905. Some of these are postmarked 1910, so a lot of the people who would know aren't here anymore," Jerdon said.
Their publisher, Arcadia, which has one of its offices in Chicago, is the same one which published Southwestern Michigan College Museum's book.
"Not knowing what all's out there is part of the fun," Jerdon laughed. "I've collected coins and stamps. It's the fun of the chase. You go with a young lady, then you marry her and the chase is over."
The 1,200 cards had to be narrowed to about 200. "Twenty to 30 are resorts or groups of cottages or businesses no longer in business. When I did the first Paw Paw Lake book, the Tri-City Record put in a blurb asking for anyone who met their spouse at Crystal Palace. I got letters from all over the country," Rasmussen said. "That little paper gets sent all over the country."
"Floyd has some very rare Potawatomi Indians (cards)," which will form the first chapter. "Chief Pokagon outsmarted the white man when it came time to be removed. He was able to take his document to Detroit, sit down in front of a judge and say, 'We've done everything you wanted. We've become 'civilized' and Christian. We're Catholic. We're farmers. And we also own land.' The judge said okay and that particular band was able to stay here when the rest got shipped out to Kansas."
One photo in the book will not be a postcard, and that's an early photo of the Catholic Church in Silver Creek Township. "We think that photo was taken in the late 1890s," Rasmussen said.
"For some reason or another," Jerdon said, "Sister Lakes contained more resorts than any of the other lakes. Magician had a sprinkling. Indian Lake had five or six. But Round and Big and Little Crooked, were a beehive of resorts. The heyday was probably the teens and the '20s. They began to trail off in the later '30s. The typical vacationer came in on the New York Central (train). They could take the Interurban to Indian Lake and walk to their hotels. As automobile transportation (became more prevalent), people thought, 'We'll own a cottage instead of going to a resort.' That really started in the '30s and '40s. After World War II the resorts were largely gone. Shady Shores, with individual cottages, is still in operation today. Bird's Nest at Indian Lake was one of the last. We sold it in the late '60s to a large family group who tried to bring it back. But there were 37 rooms and one bathroom at the end of each hall. That just wasn't the lifestyle people wanted anymore."
Rasmussen, since retired, worked for a school system in Elgin, Ill.
"This all started out for my 50th birthday," Rasmussen said. "I took a year off. I was on sabbatical, back visiting my dad, who lived on Paw Paw Lake. My best buddy, who was a teacher over in Watervliet, was going to help me. The fun in this is that somebody will know something if you get the word out and get some buzz going."