May 6—GREENSBURG — The Washington Township Advisory Board announced in a legal notice Tuesday the sale of 16 parcels of real estate in and around the Lake McCoy area; the auction is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Friday, May 17, at the Lincoln Street Business Center Conference Room, 1030 N. Lincoln Street.

Parcels for sale contain no structures and each will be sold individually. No parcels will be combined and bids for the entire list of parcels will not be accepted. All parcels will be sold "as is."

A long history

The sale of the Lake McCoy properties is just the next chapter in a sometimes incendiary saga that started in the early 1940s when Ind. 46 was moved to its current location, and an access road was built leading to the area around Lake McCoy.

In the early 1950s, the area was turned into a resort area with a clean, sandy beach and a bathhouse for guests.

Marketed as investment property and listed in real estate brochures, Lake McCoy was advertised as "Southern Indiana's Ideal Resort."

The area became not only a summer resort but a winter resort as well with ice fishing, ice skating and sledding becoming part of the leisure time at the lake.

The lake was well stocked with small bass, catfish and blue gills. New cottages were built and a new golf course near the lake was proposed.

Marketing boasted it as "an ideal spot for dancing, boating, swimming and bathing in the scenic hills of Southeastern Indiana."

After a brief heyday in the '50s and '60s, the lakefront area was turned into a small campground, with spots for tents and campers during the summer months.

A mobile home park on the south side was expanded. The residents living in the cottages and the mobile homes in the area had electricity, but few had indoor plumbing or heat. The few with water wells were usually shared with neighbors. Outhouses sat in every yard.

In the 1970s, the small camping area was converted to lakefront mobile home sites and the old rental cabins were torn down. The old bathhouse on the beach was remodeled to house an office, laundromat and an apartment for the owner.

Most of the large trees in the park area were removed; the sloping hill was bulldozed and terraced to make three levels for mobile homes. The county road leading into the park from the west was bulldozed and blocked off, leaving only one way into Lake McCoy.

Finally, after a nearly 30 year surge of popularity, Lake McCoy fell into disuse as residents moved closer to the cities and Lake Santee became more popular.

Abandoned properties fell into disrepair. Vandalism, drug arrests, property fires and water quality concerns became frequent occurrences.

The Daily News ran an article in December 2021 about a $1.8 million bond Washington Township Trustee Christian Rust proposed to clean up the Lake McCoy area. The proposed bond was loudly denounced by several local citizens and the idea was eventually abandoned.

When Trustee Bev Rivera took office in 2022, her office was tasked with the clean-up of 16 run down properties in the Lake McCoy area.

In September, Rivera contracted with Allen Excavating for $49,800 to demolish structures on several of the township-owned properties. After she announced the clean-up complete she was quoted as saying "I'm glad the cleanup is complete, but we are not interested in being landowners."

This story is still developing and the Daily News will provide updates when new information is available.

Contact Bill Rethlake at 812-651-0876 or email bill.rethlake@greensburgdailynews.com.