In the early 1900’s, a group of 40 men who called

themselves the Canadohta Club, made millions in the

oil business in Titusville.
They bought all the land around Canadohta Lake

hoping to make it a privately-owned lake for their club.

There was one parcel owned by Ben Ruggles and a few of his partners that they could not buy. Ben and his partners kept this parcel in an effort to keep the lake from going private.

The Ruggles parcel gave the public access to the lake

without going over the club property.

Ruggles was arrested several times on the lake by an armed patrol that was hired by the club to keep out trespassers.

The club built a small dam where Oil Creek flows from the
lake and claimed that Canadohta was man-made.

Local residents bombed the dam and peppered the patrol boats with buckshot. Ruggles was arrested again and when the case went to court, he convinced the Crawford County Court Judges that the lake had been there long before the club built the dam.

His proof was producing the photograph (above) of the steamboat that had been taken many years before the club came into existence.

In 1923 the judge ordered that the lake be

“Held in Trust by the Commonwealth For the People

and Cannot be Closed.”

~Thank you Mr. Ben Ruggles!