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Miller Park Lake weathered racism, pollution
By Bill Kemp
Archivist/librarian
McLean County Museum of History
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BLOOMINGTON — Before the pools at O’Neil and Holiday parks, before the aquatic centers at Fairview and Anderson, and certainly before the “spraygrounds” at Tipton and McGraw, there were the sandy beaches of Miller Park.

For some 100 years, the park’s beaches offered young and old alike a much-needed respite from the hot, humid summers of corn country.

Yet it’s hard to believe (or perhaps not so hard) that for some 50 years, blacks and whites swam in separate, specially designated areas of Miller Park Lake.

In 1908, park commissioners decided to build a separate beach and bathing facilities for blacks. According to the Pantagraph, the efforts of blacks to swim at the public beach were resented by less-than-accommodating members of the white community, resulting in “some friction.”

Park officials, in a gesture emblematic of the convoluted and deteriorating state of race relations in Bloomington, stated that blacks were “entitled to some rights” to the taxpayer-supported lake. Their decision, though, was not to integrate the public beach, but rather to build separate and inevitably unequal facilities.

Miller Park Lake is actually two lakes — the older northeastern section and the larger one to the southwest. Alas, this geographic division served the needs of the segregation plan quite well.

In 1896, the city dammed the stream that ran through the park, creating the lagoon-like lake stretching northeast of the present-day arched stone bridge. Six years later, the city erected an earthen dam along the western edge of the park, creating at that time one of the largest artificial lakes in Illinois. These two bodies of water were then united to create today’s lake.

The commissioners located the “colored” beach in the old part of the lake, east of the stone bridge. The existing (and much larger) beach in the new part of the lake then became the exclusive domain of whites.

This disgraceful arrangement remained in place for decades. As late as August 1950, the McLean County Health Department recommended to Mayor Cecil Cone that the toilets used by black swimmers, which were little more than outhouses, be connected to the city’s sewer system.

Racial divisions aside, the park also struggled to keep sewage and storm water runoff from polluting the lake.

In the spring of 1940, an official with the state health department called Miller Park’s beaches “a menace to the health of the community.” With ongoing concerns by the state, and complaints by swimmers of ringworm, conjunctivitis and dermatitis, the city finally closed the beaches in August 1953. The lake remained off-limits to swimmers for nearly four years.

Officials banned swimming again in August 1973 when sewage was found draining into lake. “This history of swimming in Miller Park,” the Pantagraph noted, “has always been an open again, closed again situation.”

Even so, the lake remained one of the city’s more popular summer destinations. For decades, overcrowded beaches were the norm on hot summer days. In 1928, for example, beach attendance surpassed 31,000, and in 1968, the number of swimmers reached 1,238 during a single day.

Yet beginning in the 1970s, swimmers began gravitating to the newly opened public pools in other parts of the city.

In 1970, the city purchased the formerly private Holiday Park, which included an outdoor pool. On Memorial Day 1975, O’Neil Park became home to the second public pool in Bloomington. The following year, with a decline in attendance, especially in the evening, the city reduced swimming hours at Miller Park Lake. By the mid-1980s, five weeks were trimmed from the traditional Memorial Day-to-Labor Day season.

The Miller Park beach finally closed for good in 2002.

Take a look
For years, city officials relied on revenue from park concessions run by private operators to pay for park upkeep and improvements. Pictured here is the 40-foot water toboggan slide installed in 1961 by Fun Fair Amusements, Inc. In 1969, the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department assumed control of the beach, and Fun Fair removed the slide. (Pantagraph file photo)
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Reader comments on this story - 12 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Former Resident wrote on Aug 20, 2007 8:49 PM:

" I remember summer camps in the 1980's when I was a young person and the time we spent swimming (it was not too bad then) and learning to fish. I have not been in IL for 10 years and I did not even know they closed the beach. This is why articles like this are nice. "

to amusement rides at 534pm wrote on Aug 19, 2007 8:05 PM:

" I sure do remember those rides! They were enclosed in a little fence or something. I also remember the concession stand across the road that had the best orange popsicles ever. I remember Saturday night dances in the pavilion and rock and roll bands. Our family had many a reunion in that park without the worry of shootings and such. How about watching the seals play in the zoo building. I have long since left Illinois but I will always remember that place fondly. It is really too bad that ipods, cell phones and boom boxes have taken the place of simple pleasures for our younger kids. "

schmoo wrote on Aug 19, 2007 6:43 PM:

" blah, ect.... How much longer do we have to endure the equall rights game, food stamps, medical cards for life why work when you can get it for free,we created it, now we have to eat it, for life. "

Miller Park amusement rides wrote on Aug 19, 2007 5:34 PM:

" I love Bill Kemp's articles. Does anyone else recall the amusement rides at Miller Park? I believe this would have been around 1965. There was a ferris wheel and maybe 4 or 5 other rides. I don't know if they were a permanent fixture, or just a traveling carnival. Anyone remember? "

wow! wrote on Aug 19, 2007 2:54 PM:

" why are we such a shallow town? pluss who would swim there now?..all it has is goose poop. moving on, visit the tigers and go to the CULTURE FAIR, and stop crying. "

There's plenty of wrote on Aug 19, 2007 2:21 PM:

" days when there are 750+ geese sitting on that lake. At the end of February this year, the ice on that lake was brown after a whole month of geese roosting on it. And when that ice melts all that poop goes right into the water. Ick! "

Miller Park wrote on Aug 19, 2007 12:49 PM:

" I'm glad swimming is no longer. The water is like toxic waste - very disgusting. Other than that, WHY is this article even here? I hate this town and this paper - nothing important. "

pitdogg wrote on Aug 19, 2007 11:44 AM:

" And what has the city done but to let this former good fishing lake just go way downhill. As a kid in the 70's-80's I fished there everyday though the summer caught big bass and bluegills but not anymore. Who's bright idea was it to knock 3 holes in the overflow by morris ave. dropping the lake by 8 inches and cutting down all the trees on that side that shaded the lake and fisherman of the late afternoon sun. that drop has had a impact on the water quality for sure. Time to DRAIN it CLEAN it and restock the lake for the future children. AND LIMIT THE GEESE THEY ARE RUINING THE AREA BECAUSE OF ALL THE POOP!!! HEALTH HAZARD Ducks are one thing but 40-75 canadian geese most times is way too many. "

Court Clerk wrote on Aug 19, 2007 10:47 AM:

" Can never have a history article without mentioning race problems. "

Tax payer... wrote on Aug 19, 2007 7:42 AM:

" I like the idea of getting more based on taxes... Better beaches, better seats, better parking, you name it. It shouldn't be about color, race, or creed. It should be about what you pay. "

cool wrote on Aug 19, 2007 5:49 AM:

" i remember that slide, boy was that fun "

well... wrote on Aug 19, 2007 12:36 AM:

" when I went to the beach it was like swimming in toxic waste, the sand was gritty and littered, and the place just wreaked of disrepair. Gee, I wonder why it closed? "
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