Hammond at one time had the distinction of being one of only three places in the world were the Egyptian Lotus was known to bloom. Japan and the Nile River in Egypt were the only other known natural lotus beds.

Peter Fox, Hammond’s well known and former Park Superintendent first discovered the plants around 1910. Fox found two beds of the lotus along a bend on the north shore of the Grand Calumet River a ways west of Columbia Avenue.

What a picturesque scene it must have been, on top of the river were wide stretches of deep green lily pads covering the water as stems of large colored lotus flowers protruded from the leaves. Hard to imagine that this day and age, but this was well before man’s impact took hold and helped to extinguish most of the plant and animal life that once flourished along the waterway.

As the story goes Mr. Fox was exploring among the wild growth along the river banks in search of rare plants for Harrison Park when he stumbled across them. “I remember the stir it made when I found them.” Mr. Fox said, “ I had John Rodes boy row me up the river in a boat so I could get some good specimens. My old friend at Lincoln Park, who helped me get the swans for Harrison Park later, was all excited when Jake Scholer and I took the lotus flower to him. At the time they hadn’t found the lotus beds of Grass Lake, if they were growing then and these were suppose to be the only ones in America.”

After failing to make a positive identification, Fox took some flower specimens to experts in Chicago where they confirmed his beliefs and expressed their surprise on how the Lily of the Nile found its way to the Calumet Region.