Waconda Lake, reservoir in Kansas, named for the inundated spring
Waconda Lake is a reservoir in north-central Kansas that forms the centerpiece of Glen Elder State Park. It sits on the Solomon River and is surrounded by campgrounds, a marina, rental cabins, and trails that run through the adjacent wildlife area.
The lake was formed in the 1960s when a dam was built across the Solomon River to reduce flooding downstream. The rising water covered Waconda Springs, a mineral spring that had drawn Native American peoples for centuries and later became a destination for people seeking health treatments.
The name Waconda comes from Native American peoples who treated the spring here as a sacred place. A replica of that spring stands in the park today, giving visitors a sense of what the site once looked like.
The park sits east of Cawker City and is easy to reach by car. Summer is the best time for water activities, but winter draws visitors who come to watch bald eagles near the water.
The park is home to a small heritage village where an old church built by settlers in 1878 was moved and reassembled after the area flooded. Walking through this village gives a rare sense of what frontier life along the Solomon River once looked like.
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