Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams is a research and education center based at Grace College in Winona Lake. The organization helps landowners and businesses by recommending lake-focused best-practices, based on thorough research, and it helps local families and businesses adopt those practices.
Headquartered in the Dr. Dane A. Miller Science Complex on the Grace campus, the Lilly Center accomplishes its mission in three ways: conducting research, providing resources and engaging and educating residents while collaborating with local organizations. Their goal is to make the freshwater lakes and streams of Kosciusko County clean, healthy, safe and beautiful.
The Lilly Center has a staff of about a dozen, augmented by more than 15 Grace students who conduct the research studies, administer a school aquarium program and initiate fishing and nature events for school children each year. Through strategic research, detailed scientific analysis and weekly sampling, the center gathers essential, high-quality data on Kosciusko County waterways. Then, using education and collaboration, they equip community members to protect natural resources.
A recent podcast by the Center featured the three primary founders of the Center — Dr. Frank Levinson, Dr. Ron Manahan and local resident Suzie Light. Manahan served 20 years as the president of Grace College & Seminary, beginning in 1994. Suzie Light for 27 years directed the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, retiring in June 2020. And Dr. Frank Levinson, whose Ph.D. is in astronomy, grew up vacationing on Wawasee and is a successful entrepreneur and business owner with a passion for freshwater health and education.
Lilly Center Founded in 2007
The Lilly Center was birthed in 2007 The trio of founding visionaries sought to create an entity that would be data driven, educational and replicable.
A formative influence on several of the founders was the Au Sable Institute, situated in upper lower Michigan. Founded in 1961 by a professor from Taylor University, Au Sable began with one man's dream to establish a summer nature camp for youth which evolved into the organization known today as Au Sable Institute.
The founder, Dr. Harold Snyder, realized the Au Sable site would be an ideal venue for field experience for Taylor biology students. Thus Au Sable began its evolution from boys' camp to educational enterprise for college students. Students from Greenville College and Spring Arbor University soon began coming to Au Sable in the summers as well.
In 1979, Au Sable Trails Camp for Youth officially became known as the Au Sable Institute and was registered as a 501(c)3 organization. The transition from camp to educational institution was underway.
Au Sable today is a highly-regarded educational organization that provides a wide variety of environmental science courses each year to students from over 50 participating Christian colleges, with classes in northern lower Michigan, Washington state and Costa Rica. Au Sable is a valued resource in educating and inspiring future leaders in Christian environmental science to make a difference in the world.
Dr. Ron Manahan had taught environmental ethics at Au Sable for four years, and Dr. Nate Bosch, as an undergraduate student, became interested in limnology (study of freshwater) through Au Sable.
But lakes-centered research did not originate with the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams.
Prof. Eigenmann and Indiana University
Indiana University professor Charles H. Eigenmann established the first inland biological station in the United States at Turkey (now Wawasee) Lake in Kosciusko County, the summer of 1895.
The university trustees permitted Eigenmann to use apparatus from the university’s zoology department for a nine-week summer session with the understanding that there would be no cost to the university for operating the station. The first year, however, was such a success that thereafter the trustees provided permanent equipment.
The purpose of the station was research and instruction in the biological sciences. Nineteen students attended the first year, 32 the second year, 63 the third and 103 the fourth. At the end of the fourth year the station was moved to Eagle Lake (Winona Lake) where land was gifted by the Winona Christian Assembly along with funds for erecting two small, two-story frame buildings.
The Winona Lake campus was at the south end of Winona Lake, along what today is Park Avenue just north of Stone Camp. The biological station stood opposite Kosciusko Lodge, with Cherry Creek (now filled in and no longer extant) between them.
The 1920 announcement for the summer session outlined living arrangements for the students, which included tent camping, renting a room for $2 to $4 a week, or staying at a local hotel with weekly rates of $10 and up. Boats could be rented.
In 1938 the formal instruction at the station ceased, a victim of the Depression. After that it was used primarily as a research center for faculty and graduate students. In 1960, the Department of Zoology proposed a new program in field biology which included building new facilities in Whitley and Noble counties. In 1965, the land at Winona Lake was sold back to the Winona Lake Bible Conference for $2,000.
Dr. Nate Bosch, the Creighton Brothers endowed director of the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams, said, “We have utilized early data to get a sense of how the lake has changed, including data from the IU Biological Station that Eigenmann led. We have data on our local lakes going back to 1875.”
Bosch continued, “I would say our local lakes, including Winona, are the most thoroughly studied lakes in Indiana without question, and I would argue they are likely the most studied in the Midwest other than the Great Lakes of course. This is due to a combination of historical research and our current Lilly Center research.”
The Lilly Center invites visitors to its Grace College campus. Further information may be found at https://lakes.grace.edu/.
