By Dan Tortorice
Friends of Lake View Hill Park
This past summer Dane County Parks, with the valuable assistance of youth from Operation Fresh Start, cleared the brush from the waterfall feature just north of the main building in Lake View Hill Park.
This fascinating object was constructed by Lake View Sanatorium nearly a century ago. The tuberculosis hospital was able to cure some people of that vicious disease without the use of modern antibiotics. They did this with a holistic approach, using diet, fresh air, exercise, and what we would now call mindfulness meditation.
The sanatorium was built in 1930, the beginning of the Great Depression, so money was tight. They chose this spectacular location for its sunshine and fresh breezes.
Nineteenth-century landscapers like Frederick Law Olmstead pioneered the idea of designing natural settings to promote physical and mental health. The superintendents of Lake View took this to another level. Money was scarce, but they had free water from their well and water tower. They used the water to design features such as ponds, the waterfall, and a stream that ran down the hill to form a small lake.
When you examine the waterfall, it’s obvious that the stones were gathered from the property. They carefully selected interesting objects with red tones, mica and some nice pieces of granite. They used cement to glue some rocks together and to form pools to create drips down the slope.
You can work yourself into a meditative state just picturing in your mind how the water would have dripped and flowed down the falls.
Lake View Hill Park is one of just four Dane County Parks to have a dual mission, both ecological and cultural heritage. The Friends of Lake View Hill Park hope to create an interpretive sign at the waterfall to help new visitors understand its function.
