Norris Inlet - Maxinkuckee Wetland Conservation Area  

By the 1981 the area on the Southeast corner of Lake Maxinkuckee was under the control of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources this area is between the lake, Sycamore Rd., 20th B. Rd., Mystic Golf Course and in back of the Culver Marina. Early plat maps label this area as the 'Norris Inlet'.

It is described in the Lake Maxinkuckee A physical and biological survey By Barton Warren Evermann & Howard Walton Clark as follows:

Norris Inlet has its sources in some small springs southeast of the lake and about two miles distant

It flows in northwesterly direction and enters the lake through the marsh at the southeast corner; though this creek does not carry much if any more water than either of the others just described it is usually spoken of as the inlet

The upper part of this creek flows through fields and other cleared land and the banks are usually well and sodded

The marsh about the Norris Inlet is about 80 rods wide and is 2 mile long and is a flat level quaking bog full of holes

The lower portion of the creek is through a wet marsh with an abundance of marsh grass and sedges but with scarcely any woody vegetation...

One Township YesterYears:

There is but little marshlande today contingent to the lake. The largest and lowest marsh is in the soutest corne along the Norris inlet.

Several acres of it are too marshy to trespass upon a foot, on horseback or otherwise. Recently this marsh has been partially improved by a sort of canalization scheme.

From the: Biennial Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries and Game for Indiana For the Fiscal Years of 1913 and 1914 George William Miles Commssioner Assisted by Preston H Miles pg. 89-9_ comes this discription:

At the farthest southern extremity of the lake is Norris Bay, into which empties the Norris inlet. This small stream flows through a marshland grown thick with cattails flags lily pads and spatterdock

From the mouth of the inlet the shore line begins curving gently...

REDISCOVERY OF WOLFFIELLA GLADIATA (LEMNACEAE) IN INDIANA Mitchell S. Alix & Robin W. Scribailo Department of Biology Purdue University North Central Westville, IN, 1998

One year later, our investigations led us to Lake Maxinkuckee in Marshall County, which is the location of the first documented report of W. gladiata in Indiana (Coulter 1901).

Coulter (1901) reported on the specimens collected by H. W. Clark (his number 618453 in US), which were growing near the Norris Inlet.

Although we visited and extensively searched potential habitats on three differentoccasions throughout the growing season, no plants of W. gladiata were located. Most of the area around the lake has been extensively developed over the past hundred years, leaving only a small number of undisturbed strips of shoreline and a few sheltered bays.

This has been found as pertaining to the name:

The Kline Wetlands also know as the Lake Maxinkuckee Wetland and Conservation Area, locals have been calling it the Kline wetland for many, many years. Before the Mystic Hills Golf Course was built, before the Culver Marina was moved here, and before the channels were dredged to form what is now known as Venetian Village, this area was originally a marshy area and natural wetland near a small cattle farm nestled along a stream that feeds into Lake Maxinkuckee.

one can see that others did not research very well into the area and the names it carried in the past also as found in "One Townships YesterYears"

One of the eight children was named Ransom, and when he grew up he bought the farm ad­joining his father's. This farm is now occupied by Everett M. Nor­ris. It is located on the Norris Road and is known widely for its orchards. Ransom Norris pur­chased it from the Erie Canal Company and paid $1.25 an acre for it. The Canal Company had obtained the land from the gov­ernment, it is asserted, as pay for digging the Erie Canal. The com­pany got a tremendous tract when land was almost worthless. The name of Ransom H. Norris is given by the historian Thompson in the list of Union Township pioneers who s ettled prior to 1840. The Norris Inlet, a stream tributary to Lake Maxinkuckee, was so named due to its nearness to the Norris land.

This is from the 1900 Topographical map of the lake.

Landowners as can be determined is:

1835 - Aub-be-naub-ee's Reservation - part of

1837 - 30 June - James F. D. - Lanier Land Patent Sec 34 118 79A/100,198 79/100A

18__ - Mc Millen

1876 - not stated

1880 - D. Easterday 133.06A [Daniel Easterday]

1898 - E. A. LaBounty

1936 - L. A. LaBounty

1948 - Mary LaBounty

1956 - B. La Bounty

1974 - B. & Mary LaBounty

1981 - 2016 Indiana Department of Natural Resuorces

1922 Plat Map Labled as Norris Inlet

E1/2 NW1/4 EX 4A OFF N END - 76 acres

The Kline diverted water from an artificial channel at the southeast end of the lake, restoring part of the area noted in the turn-of-the-century study at the Norris Inlet. .... A ditch that was dug about 1967 at the Kline site was similar to a ditch that had been dug nearby a couple of years before to create Venetian Village, a housing development on the South Shore. Earlier channeling also exists to the north at Culver Marina. The 76-acre Kline site was sold to the DNR, becoming the Maxinkuckee Wetland Conservation Area. Lake Maxinkuckee Restored Wetlands Fred Karst Restoration work done sometime after 1987 as a Project Manual Kline Ditch Maxinkuckee was assembled and contained data and how to bid on the project This 80 acre wetland, owned by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources with stewardship granted to the Lake Maxinkuckee Envoiromental Council

Fred Karst's Article on Lake Maxinkuckee Restoration Wetlands NOTE: I have not been agle to find again on interent - had saved down for interesting facts - credits, pictures all same except som page formating/layot may be a little different and simpler.