A career move brought Dave Simanton to the South Bend area and a desirable home brought him to Barron Lake. That combination, along with a wonderful partner and good neighbors, are what’s keeping him lake side.
“A house I wanted became available here,” Dave said. “The lake was the frosting on the cake.”
Dave was working in the tool and die industry when a better-paying job opportunity arose in South Bend. He and his family loved water, but he said he couldn’t see putting in a pool.
“I didn’t want to put money into a hole in the ground,” Dave said, who moved to Barron Lake in 1993. “My kids were young, and I knew they’d use the pool, but when they grow older they don’t use it much and then you’re stuck with it. We moved to Barron Lake and my kids really enjoyed the lake atmosphere.”
His children spent a lot of time on the water and had fun undertaking one of their favorite pastimes: driving the jet ski. His son got his license, but his daughter didn’t. “One day, my daughter decided she wanted to take her friend for a ride on the jet ski. I let her because she knew how to run it. She comes back and she asks me if she can go around the lake just one more time with her friend. I told her yes. Well, she went around, and the water patrol followed her back. The officer asked her for her license, and she told him she didn’t have one. So, he wrote her up a ticket,” Dave said.
“Some of my fondest memories over the years of living on the lake, are raising my kids here. fun in the sun, jet skis, paddle boats, and swimming,” Dave said. He also loved flying his plane, a Cessna 172, over the lake, giving people rides and buzzing the lake from above.
The changes he’s seen around the lake in the years he has lived here have been good, he says, like new additions and remodeling of homes and cottages.
He talks with great fondness about his neighborhood and the people who live nearby. “We love that it’s a small lake and we’re a close-knit community,” he said, noting that he and his neighbors often enjoyed time together. “Unfortunately, we all are getting older and we’re not able to do lake life as we knew it. Many people in our area have had health issues, they’re aging and even passing away, which saddens us,” Dave said.
Dave divorced in 2001 but said he kept the house because he loved living at the lake. Then in 2014, he met Dana, who lived in Niles. “She loved the lake and all that goes with it, including me,” he said. The two married in 2018 and Dana moved into Dave’s home on Oriole. “We remodeled the whole house, built a barn, put on a porch and built our little compound together.”
The two are taking advantage of all the area has to offer. “We are enjoying all aspects of the lake life—boating, campfires on the beach, kayaking, being outside, the people on the lake, neighbors, and the sunsets.”
“Dana and I always want to live here,” Dave said. “We have built the Dana and Dave compound and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Story as told by Dave Simanton. Written by Jodi Marneris for the Barron Lake Association. September 2023.
