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Conjure up the past. Take a hike along Bald Hill Creek for a half mile north of
the present swimming pool. Invoke
the sounds of past summer pleasures - laughter, squealing, splashing - and you
will rediscover the ol’ swimmin' holes that were part of the Hannaford profile
of three and four generations ago. Some
of today's old-timers will still recall learning how to swim in one of these
favorite haunts of long gone days. Just below the old ski-slide hill was the boy's
swimming hole. It had a muddy
bottom, but was deep enough in which to dive from springy planks anchored in the
bank. Sometimes a show-off diver
would come up embarrassed, with a face full of mud. Several rods north, around the bend, was a more
shallow spot with nice clean sand bottom. This
was the girl's swimming hole. There,
not only girls, but beginners and the more timid cavorted. Some summers a small shack was set in place at each
of these locations for use as a bathhouse.
These were usually old threshing rig cook cars provided perhaps by either
Asher Anderson or Walt Richardson. Farther north, in a bend near where the highway now
crosses the creek, was another very popular spot. Called Beggy's swimming hole, it was named for one of the
young sports in town, Beggy (Walter) Thoreson, whose father was the Lutheran
pastor, the venerable Rev. P. A. Thoreson.
No makeshift bathhouse here, this was the favorite spot for skinny
dipping. Source: Hannaford
Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 257 |