Conroy's Bear Lake Resort

Conroy's Bear Lake camp ground is on Bear Lake (where else?), about five miles south of Manawa on county highway 22. As far as my memory's concerned, it's always been there. My dad used to take us camping there so long ago that I don't have any specific memory of it, except for a big blue tent we used to have and a particularly scary episode that had to do with daddy long leg spiders.

This post card was dated 1963, but I've got a view just like this engraved in my memory, minus the Chevy Bel-Aires. Actually, there may have been a few Chevys.

The beach was an especially popular swimming hole. It's where we went swimming when the millpond was ice-freaking-cold, if we had that choice. It had a wide, sandy beach and a shallow bottom that went a long way out, and never seemed to get too weedy. The shallow waters generally stayed pretty warm.

One especially sentimental note has to be said for the old cedar that hung over the water for all those years. You can see it in the second photo; it's the tree on the far left that looks like it's falling over, and it hung there forever. When I remember the bathing beach at Bear Lake, I always think of that tree. (If it's gone now, I don't want to know. Thanks.)

There was always boating at Bear Lake, but in my day it was v-hull fishing boats, and speed boats with overmuscled outboard engines pulling water skiers in tight circles, and maybe even daring a pass at the ski jump. At one time there was a long dock that ran out into the lake, running out from where the camp grounds looked out on the water, south of the beach.

The photo of the flat-bottom punts lined up along the shore is probably from a time when the pace of life was decidedly quieter and slower, the days when the world looked especially good in sepia tones. (Although, now that I look at it, it's probably not that old after all — the boat they're taking out appears to have an electric outboard motor propped on its stern.)

North of the beach, an odd number of cozy cottages were tucked into the tree-lined coast of the lake. I want to think they're all still there, tiny and old-fashioned, and absolutely haven't been bulldozed for a row of modern condos.

At least Conroy's is still there. I've never been so happy to find a web page. Maybe it'll always be there, and the beach, and the cottages. Maybe a Chevy Bel Aire even shows up once in a while. I sure hope so.