There were few civilized places to swim in Chariton back in the good old days --- no Crystal Lake, no Red Haw State Park beach, certainly no Vredenburg Family Aquatic Center. Bathing costumes were few and far between, too.
So most of those who chose to swim, mostly if not exclusively male, just took off their clothes and jumped into the Chariton River or, later on, one of the small ponds dug here and there around town.
That resulted in occasional clashes between populated scenery and delicate eyes in need of shielding.
Editor Dan Baker noted in his Chariton Leader of July 10, 1875, for example, that "The outrageous little cusses of the town, and some of the big cusses who ought to know better, have been wallowing around in the mud and water all week on Chariton bottom, on the Garden Grove road, to the great disgust and annoyance of the travelers along that road."
We know the Garden Grove Road exit from Chariton today less elegantly as "the dump road." The Chariton River's wooded shoreline there was a popular place, back in the day, for picnicking, church socials --- and skinny-dipping.
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During 1884, the Lucas County Joint Stock Association developed several acres in northeast Chariton into a fair grounds. One of the principal features was a large pond surrounded by a driving (or racing) course.
The grounds and course became a popular destination for Chariton's horse-and-carriage set, out for early evening or Sunday afternoon drives. The pond proved to be popular with skinny-dippers, too, and that resulted in this stiff warning to unclothed perpetrators published under the headline "It Must Stop" in The Chariton Democrat of Aug. 19, 1885:
"The Lucas County Joint Stock Association has a fine fair ground and driving course just north of the city where ladies and gentlemen would like to drive on these pleasant summer evenings. But such has been the conduct of a multitude of boys and some men of Chariton in utilizing the pond for bathing purposes, that the ladies will no longer venture there.
"Men and boys who have no right there whatever are diverting the grounds and drive from their original uses and purposes and changing them into meeting places for howling mobs of mud bathers.
"We write this in the interest of our citizens who desire a pleasant drive and should be permitted to enjoy it. We are assured by the officers of the Association that bathing in the pond must stop, and that hereafter any one using the pond for that purpose will be prosecuted."
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The driving course has long vanished and Lucas County's fairgrounds are now in the west part of town, with a view of Crystal Lake, but the pond remains --- visible from the back yards of homes that line Highway 14 north. Whether anyone skinny-dips there these days I cannot say.
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