The sedate and the romantic meandered on the boardwalks. Sunbathers were not yet ground cover; for if you were brave enough to wear a suit, you used it for its purpose of swimming. Some, in either formal attire or in the full-suited style of the discreet swimming suit, chose to sit near the shore sipping lemonade, sarsaparilla or another refreshing beverage. Not much point in sun bathing then, for few parts of the body were left uncovered as the adventurous woman skimmed down to balloon-leg cover-ups or the jaunty lad stepped into knit long johns.
Gentlemen in those days seldom dressed down, which meant taking off their suit jackets. They wore top hats as much from custom as for protection from the sun. Ladies still wore their skirts to the ankles, although by this time they had shed hoops and bustles that had been their silhouette in different decades from the previous century. This was the style at the open-air pavilions or along the boardwalk.
Newspaper accounts said 40,000 people flocked there on July 4, 1900. People came from Denver and Chicago, a few even from Europe.
The lake was known as the Coney Island of the Midwest. One account said, Manawa was the finest and best-patronized watering place between the two oceans at the time.
Shuttle boats carried visitors to the south side of the lake, site of a horse racing track, a French restaurant, a swimming beach and the Kursaal, a majestic two-story structure built over the water.
With its beer garden and dance floor (the waltz, two-step and cakewalk were big then), the Kursaal was the beers knees with both regulars and romantics. Visitors would rent bathing suits and wade into the water off Manhattan Beach.