LITTLE ROCK — Dear Otus,
Our friends have a summer home on Lake Hamilton and we frequently visit to ski and go tubing. I was disturbed by the reports of alligators in the lake. I hope that isn’t so.
- Nick Carraway Hope
Dear Nick,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and an additional pleasure to be afforded the opportunity to sound the alarm over the recently revealed reptilian infestation.
But first, since this is Arkansas’ newspaper of record, let’s set that record straight. As of Jan. 20, Lake Hamilton’s name was officially changed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to the Loren M. Hitchcock Memorial Impoundment Reservoir and Wildlife Management Area.
The commission did so in order to honor its new director for his quarter century of service to the commission and to give local schools and businesses additional time to change their names as well.
The new name will be noted on state maps beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
For example, Lake Hamilton High School in Pearcy, just west of the lake, will become Hitchcock Reservoir High School (“Home of the Wolves”) following the 2011-2012 school year.
The commissioners felt the time was right for the name change since nobody remembers C. Hamilton Moses, for whom the lake was named in 1932. Why it wasn’t Lake Moses is anybody’s guess.
Moses was best known back in the day as chairman of the board of Arkansas Power and Light (AP&L). Today, hardly anybody even remembers AP&L.
One of the first results following the construction of Carpenter Dam and the creation of the 7,460-acre lake was the influx of the state’s social aristocracy.
The lake, located justmiles from Oaklawn Race Track and the Spa City’s famous Bathhouse Row, was soon lined on the north shore with swanky homes and docks. Everybody who was anybody owned a home on the lake.
Today, the lake is Arkansas’ most popular residential recreational lake and home to 1,737. The lake is ringed with pricey condominiums, exclusive resorts, luxury motels, five-star restaurants and private homes averaging $452,652.
Despite all that ostentatious wealth, private security and social pretension, parts of Hitchcock Reservoir have become a teeming swamp of crocodilian terror no better than the meanest Louisiana bayou. I blame the residents, with their innate sense of entitlement, who have ignored the most rudimentary tenets of commonsense for decades.
Early warning sign: The state record striped bass came from Hitchcock Reservoir in 1997. It was a monster weighing 53 pounds, 13 ounces. In the 14 years since, nothing has been caught that weighs a quarter of that. The reason? Alligators.
The Greater Hot SpringsChamber of Commerce attempted to sweep the entire circumstance under the rug, but thanks to the state’s Freedom of Information Act, records of the beginning of the ’gator infestation have been uncovered.
It was in spring 1997 when the spoiled teenage spawn of the lake’s wealthy elite returned from their annual bacchanalian spring break celebrations in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.
Returning with them were dozens of baby alligator souvenirs that were all the rage in 1997. The hatchlings were cute, if not cuddly, and quite content to pass the time in a 10-gallon aquarium.
The records show an estimated 43 teens brought back one or more alligators as pets. How many of those were released into the lake once they got too big for their tanks is unknown. What is known is that the relatively harmless 4-foot ’gator captured July 20 was just the beginning.
On Thursday, a 13-foot bull ’gator was roped as it threatened traffic on the lake’s Grand Isle. ’Gator infestations (called “swarms”) have been reported as far east on the lake as GarvanWoodland Gardens and to the west at Hill Wheatley Park.
Game and Fish urges all skiers and personal watercraft users to be especially careful and, should they encounter an alligator, not attempt to capture it themselves.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you to keep hands and feet inside the boat.
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Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail:
HomeStyle, Pages 36 on 07/30/2011