A chance encounter led two women of different generations to decide to put together a book on Syracuse and Wawasee history. Both have a passion for Syracuse and Lake Wawasee and it has paid off handsomely in this pictorial history.

Erin Lomax was working at Syracuse-Turkey Creek Township Public Library as director of adult circulation for a five year stint. The Indianapolis native and fifth generation seasonal resident spent her high school summers at Oakwood Park with her family and attended Goshen College. The area made a lasting impression, especially the summers. Erin was glad for the chance to return to Syracuse for a week to have book events and connect with family and friends. She is now living in Fort Pierce, Fla., where she is employed by Harbor Branch Ocean Discovery Center.

Ann Vanderford Garceau has a unique background of coming from a family that visited the lake so often that it moved to Wawasee permanently. Ann graduated from Syracuse High School in the class of 1964. Her father Jack Vanderford was the secretary-treasurer of the Wawasee Property Owners Association for 25 years.

A retired school teacher, Ann still spends summer weekends at the lake traveling from her home in Danville. She’s hooking the next two generations of her family on life at the lake. That will make six generations of her family who have lived or summered here.

As part of her job, Erin was involved with the project with the library and the Syracuse-Wawasee Museum of History of digitizing the many photos in both organization’s possession. She was getting an entire local history course one photo at a time. She noted, “Oakwood Park is in the process of changing. I’m not against that, but I wanted to be sure we got the history documented before too much change happened, not only there, but the entire area.”

Ann is a local historian. “We both tried so hard not to leave anything out of the book that would be important to anyone. We tried to cover the town and both lakes. It’s a tough job. We set a cut-off date of about 1950 although we fudged just a little on that,” she explained.

The project turned into something of a six-month marathon. “When we started, we thought we’d have a couple of years to put it all together,” Erin said. Ann added,“But then we got involved with the publisher we really wanted and boom, off it went.”

They had approached Arcadia Publishing with the book proposal after seeing similar books by the company. The nationally recognized publisher distributes throughout the United States. “We were impressed by books they already had done,” the duo commented, almost together.

Ann is one of the people who takes notes wherever she goes on who she should talk to next about local history. Her knowledge is vast and increasing all the time. She is also on the board of directors of the local museum so she keeps her finger in the area’s historical pie.

Both credited the immense help they got from three postcard and photo collectors, Garry Ringler, Chris Harris and Dave Sheets. Area families also contributed to the book and information was gleaned from many sources including well known ones like Ron and Steve Sharp, Jack Elam, and the works of Eli Lilly and many others. “We are both very grateful to everyone who assisted with this project,” said Ann.

Proceeds from the local sales of the book will benefit the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum. Copies can be purchased at the museum in the Syracuse Community Center, 103 N. Long Drive, between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Ann will also be autographing and selling copies at the Wawasee Property Owners Association-Syracuse Lake Association Joint Breakfast at Oakwood Resort, 702 E. Lake View, 7:30 a.m.-10:a.m., Saturday, June 21, and at the 105th Syracuse Alumni Association Banquet, Saturday evening, June 21 at the Syracuse Community Center. Her high school class is being honored for its 50th anniversary.