Sept. 13 eventful day at Crystal Lake

Photo by Mike Eckels With Crystal Lake serving as a backdrop, friends and family gathered in the park to witness Molly Thomas and Ashton Sisson exchange wedding vows Sept. 13. Decatur Mayor and former justice of the peace Bob Tharp performed the service.
Photo by Mike Eckels With Crystal Lake serving as a backdrop, friends and family gathered in the park to witness Molly Thomas and Ashton Sisson exchange wedding vows Sept. 13. Decatur Mayor and former justice of the peace Bob Tharp performed the service.

DECATUR -- It was anything but a normal morning on beautiful Crystal Lake near Decatur Sept. 13. Absent from the lake were the swarms of fisherman, flock of Egyptian Geese, and the usual assortment of small critters.

The only activity on this day was the Decatur newspaper reporter feeding geese and a father-son duo armed with metal detectors looking for lost treasure.

All was quite, until, from the parking lot near the entrance to the Crystal Lake Park a series of three sharp cracks followed by a twenty-foot tree limb crashing into the ground.

The smallest part of the limb hit the ground first and the entire limb stood on end for a fraction of a second before the heavier end fell backwards and hit the pavement narrowly missing a brand new pickup truck by a mere four inches.

The three individuals on hand went to examine the carnage. The only causality was the reporters nerves after he realized that the parking space where the tree came down was the one where he normally parked.

The younger treasure hunter, Eric Morales Jr., went back to his treasurer hunting while his father, Eric Morales Sr. and the reporter started talking about the art of treasurer hunting. The pair were standing by the boat ramp when suddenly the quiet was once again broken by the sound of several cars traveling down Crystal Lake Road toward the park.

Within five minutes, the parking lot was full of cars and about 20 people began swarming around the first picnic table closest to the park entrance. Than a familiar face exited one of the cars. It was Decatur Mayor Bob Tharp.

As it turned out Tharp, also a former justice of the peace, was there to perform a wedding.

Molley Jean Thomas and Ashton Dakota Sisson decided to have their wedding ceremony in a beautiful outdoor setting and Crystal Lake fit that bill.

With the sparkling waters of the lake and the bluffs as a back drop, the father of the bride walked his daughter down the sidewalk and to the remains of one of the mighty oak trees that was blown over by the Crystal Lake tornado in 2015. From the remaining four-foot high tree stump new life was growing. A fitting place for a new kind of life to begin as the newlyweds began their long journey together.

What began as a peaceful morning that had quickly turned into chaos, once again settled into its peaceful existence. But the near tragedy of the falling tree limb, the hunt for buried treasure, and the joining together of two lives will forever be instilled in the hearts and minds of those who experienced this eventful morning at Crystal Lake.

General News on 09/27/2017