Our very own Aerial Screw

An “Aerial Screw” Designed and Drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, Manuscript B Folio 83v

Ah, beautiful Cranberry Cove. Really the most beautiful spot on an otherwise pretty dreary Bass Lake. There is some rare deep water, shelter from the wind, a nice sunset view, and no public road access. You can’t see the cove from lake-encircling County Highway 210. This is the spot one would expect the wealthy to erect their cottages. It seems that there is a private helipad on a pier on Cranberry Cove. This fact was a surprise to me, but I suppose I should have guessed as much. It seems we live in a time of exceptional excess.

Of course the reason I mention this is that Bass Lake was the scene of a recent helicopter wreck. The story goes that the businessman/ owner of the aircraft was flying in with his secretary and they crashed into the lake a bit shy of the aforementioned helipad. (I’m sorry I inadvertently used the S word in my last sentence.) The unfortunate administrative assistant (Did this happen on Administrative Assistant's Day? That would be ironic, eh?) was found either dead or near dead by would be rescuers. The owner / pilot of the helicopter had not been found as of this writing. Various law enforcement types are cruising about presumably waiting for the inevitable bacteria to inflate the corpse.

I think this is kind of terrible. Terrible that nice, fun-loving people die violently in the prime of life. But also terrible that somebody uses an extremely intrusive helicopter to ruin the quiet beauty of this spot just to have a bit of that fun. Just a few miles away in the next County on Lake Maxinkuckee, either ordinance or committee prevented a similar situation. Evidently the mega-rich owner of the Indianapolis Colts football team wasn’t able to negotiate for a helipad on the end of his pier. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bass Lake neighbors of our missing helicopter pilot were quietly a bit pleased that the raucous beast of a machine had crashed. I certainly would be.

Starke County, the home of Bass Lake and the city Knox, has had a very stand off attitude towards land use regulations or restrictions on property. This is a reflection of many years of rather right wing, definitely conservative rule, by both Democrats and Republicans. I think that this attitude has done much allow the uglification of Bass Lake. Homes have been built that are absurdly excessive. Some are so large that they take up nearly their entire lot, casting a 2 story shadow on their neighbors and shocking the eyes of the passers by. Limits are needed. Sure as hell we don’t want helicopters landing on piers. There needs to be limits: limits on growth, limits on noise, and limits on density. I think that this is called civilization.