Sharing Clear Lake’s history

[caption id="attachment_12378" align="alignleft" width="270"] Dorothy Garlock and H Milton Duesenberg display some of the 92 glass negatives Dorothy recently donated to the Clear Lake Historical Society.[/caption]

Ninety-two glass negatives have been donated to Clear Lake Historical Society to preserve and share with the community.

The gift comes from Dorothy Garlock, along with daughter Lindy Lemon who has stored the fragile negatives for many years.

Dorothy vividly recalls when she was ordered by the former Mirror-Reporter editor to pack up remaining  contents of the office after it moved operations from what today is the Senior Center on South 4th Street to a new office on Main Avenue.

“The building had been sold and what was left was supposed to go to the dump,” said Dorothy.  “In one room there was a box and when I unwrapped what was inside I found slides of old Clear Lake.  I knew those couldn’t be destroyed.”

She called the newspaper’s owner and asked if she could have the box.  She was told she could keep whatever she wanted.

With the help of her husband, Herb, Dorothy gathered up the negatives and several old papers and took them to her house in rural Clear Lake.  They were tucked away there for 20 years before they eventually were re-packed and stored with Lindy’s help.

“This is one of the best donations we’ve had at the History Room,” said H Milton Duesenberg, historian at the Clear Lake Public Library where he helps to share Clear Lake history with the public.  He and Lindy have been scanning the glass negatives and creating prints for the archives.  The 92 slides contain images dating back to about 1908 and feature people, along with many cars and boats.  Most of the negatives measure five-by-seven inches.  A few are eight-by-10 and there are several smaller ones.  All are in pristine condition, according to Duesenberg.

Dorothy takes great pride in having preserved - and now being able to share - pieces of local history with the community.

“Clear Lake was my husband’s hometown, not mine, but we both love the community,” she said.

Dorothy was employed at the Mirror-Reporter for 14 years, starting as a book keeper in the mid-1950s and filling in to write-up weddings, Cook of the Week columns and obituaries. She taught herself to take and develop photos for the newspaper.

Her writing talents eventually turned toward romance novels and today she is among the country’s most popular authors.    She quit her newspaper job when her first book was picked up.   She continues to write, with assistance from her grandson, Adam Lemon, and has published about 60 books to date.  She is one of Amazon’s most popular-selling artists.  During her career over 20 million copies of her books are in print in 18 languages and 36 countries.   Her latest, “Twice In A Lifetime,” is on shelves now.