CENTERBURG — How can a place be long-gone, yet still hanging around?
It’s all in the name.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Lyons Lake was a popular country getaway, a small but lovely lake with a picnic pavilion. It was a popular destination for residents of central Ohio, and if the social columns of newspapers of that period are any way to measure, it was the go-to place for picnics, family reunions, and special celebrations.
We know from descriptions that it lay north of Centerburg, over the county line into Morrow County, but south of Sparta. That area, South Bloomfield Township, was originally part of Knox County, but was later ceded to Morrow as that county was being organized by the state. The lake drew people from both counties and beyond.
But if you go onto a modern map, you won’t find Lyons Lake listed among the numerous ponds that dot the township. Mind you, it’s still there, it’s just hidden.
Surprisingly, it isn’t the largest of the lakes that dot the rolling countryside north of Centerburg. It’s an average-sized body of water less than a tenth of a mile across, three and one half miles north of Centerburg on the west side of Ohio 314, at the exact geographical coordinates 40° 21′ 18” N, 82º 41′ 37” W.
What you will find on a modern map is the name Willow Lake.
What happened is that in 1962, it came to the attention of the U.S. Department of the Interior that there was a conflict of names. The United States Board on Geographic Names looked into the fact that this lake in Ohio was known as Lyons Lake, while there was another, more prominent lake in Nassau, New York, that was still operating as a resort which had been using the name even longer.
Since the one in Ohio was no longer open to the public, the facility in New York apparently asked the USBGN for a ruling that would clear the name for their commercial use. In April 1962, the board published the document — Decisions List No. 6201 — officially designating Centerburg’s former resort lake as “Willow Lake,” the name it has officially held ever since.
But it isn’t just by name that the lake hides today.
Trees have grown up around it, blocking the view from State Route 314 most of the year. If you drive north out of Centerburg on Ohio 314 for three and a half miles, you’ll notice a zig-zagging split-rail fence on the left. The lake lies behind the trees inside the fence.
Once it was the place for parties. Now, you’d never know.
