Have you ever heard of Lake Baroda? Berrien County Drain Commissioner Christopher Quattrin tells us he’s heard for years there was once a lake where the village of Baroda is now located, although he always just thought it was folklore. However, as he told county commissioners last week, some research he’s done suggests there was, in fact, a Lake Baroda. He and his drain maintenance supervisor started reviewing soil in the area and old maps to find out.
“We were saying we have indications out there, empirical data, that would say there was water here,” Quattrin said. “So, he started finding some additional books and found some old maps, and it did indeed verify that there was a Lake Baroda.”
Quattrin says Lake Baroda would have been a very long and shallow lake with several branches.
“What we’re surmising from this overlay of the map is that this lake was drained, we believe probably in the 1800s sometime, could be early to mid-1800s when the state started being settled and the farmers came up.”
A review of archeological maps also suggests the lake was there. Plus, Quattrin says the layout of the county’s drainage system fits with the idea of there once being a lake in the center of the county that was drained. He’s doing research to learn more. Quattrin tells us if Lake Baroda was still there today, then there would be no Baroda because that area would be underwater.
