In the beginning, Indian Lake residents communicated via Smoke Signals.  The Smoke Signal was the name of the newsletter first issued by the Indian Lake Lodge beginning in 1965.  It began publication, on a monthly basis, in early 1965 and was essentially a local newspaper dedicated to all things at Indian Lake.  The earliest edition we’ve been able to locate is April 1965.  Early editions, 4 pages in length, focused on the progress of the lake’s development, welcomed new residents, showed new homes, reviewed events such as golf and skiing, chronicled Arnold Palmer’s tournament victories, etc.  There is a wealth of old pictures and stories.  Even some of the old advertisements are entertaining.  It went to 8 pages early in 1967, but varied at times between 4 and 8 pages.

 

We’ve embarked on a project to capture some of this history in an archive, scanning these old documents for posterity, and the enjoyment of current and future residents. 

 

So far we have located 100+ issues, ranging between April 1965 and July 1971.  Our only complete year is 1968, with all months now safely on file and archived. 

 

If you have, or know someone who may have, saved any of these precious documents, please let us know.  We will scan them and add them to the archive, and return them if you’d like. 

 

We also have some later newsletters, called The Northwinds News.  These began in 1993 as a Lodge publication, and with mostly a lodge focus.  There are, however, some community-based tidbits and ads of interest.  We have only 8 newsletters on file ranging from May 1993 through June 1994.

 

We are interested also in capturing other articles from local papers, etc., concerning Indian Lake.  One very interesting article on file is from the Somerset REC Penn Lines publication in February 1987 which chronicles the then current plans to revitalize the Lodge and life at the lake.

 

We know the lodge was closed for 11 years from sometime in late 1974 to early 1986.  Any news about or during these gaps would be GREATLY appreciated.  Actually, any news would be appreciated and included in the archive.