On a sunny Saturday morning in August, divers Guy Lennon and Liz Hibbard of Cincinnati made their way to Silver Cup Lake in Cedarville, Ohio.
The former popular old quarry, which sits on the southern edge of Cedarville, near U.S. 42, is once again attracting scuba divers and other water sport enthusiasts.
After coming up from their second dive of the morning, Lennon said he's been diving for more than 20 years, while Hibbard is new to the sport.
"We had just heard about this dive site from a friend of ours last week and not being too far from Cincinnati a little over an hour's drive we came out to check it out and had two good dives," he said.
The lake has a storied past. Formerly known as Sportsman Lake, the site was a popular destination for divers, boaters, and swimmers in the 1960s and '70s.
When its former owner passed away, there was no one to take over the business. Most everything was sold at auction. After that it became a manufacturing site.
But now scuba divers like Lennon and Hibbard are coming back to the lake.
Lennon describes the water as "perfect" for diving.
"This is a 5 mm wetsuit, the water's in the 70's so it's not bad at all," he said, noting the water is a little dark.
"Probably because of the weather change and if you don't know much about these quarries [with] the weather changes, and the water temperature and the air temperature changes, you have an interesting effect on the water and the visibility," Lennon said.
"But we found a couple pretty cool rock formations I'd love to see again when we come out again, when the water's a little bit clearer. But yeah, I'd recommend to come out here to people, especially local diving, it's great."
Hibbard agrees adding, "There's some little fish that are in there, too, so it's kind of fun to be over in the shallows where there's some grasses and stuff and see them down in there in their home."
"It's kind of fun to be over in the shallows where there's some grasses and stuff and see them down in there in their home."
While scuba diving is just making its comeback here, the new owners have some big ideas for the future of what’s now called Silver Cup Lake Adventures.
Dan Deganhart, who co-owns and operates Silver Cup Properties with his three daughters, is well familiar with the properties history.
"Anybody that's 60 years old and over may have visited here back in the '60s and '70s and early '80s," he said. "So it's just been a full-turn circle for us to find the property for sale last year."
After they bought the property, they spent six months getting it ready.
"We kind of got the land cleared up and cleaned up and accessible for kayakers, paddle boarders, swimmers and the scuba divers," Deganhart said. "They've been out in full force in a short period of time and they're excited about things."
But there’s still a lot to be done, such as improve the lake’s condition, he said, like the darkness of the water the divers spoke about earlier.
"At times it's very clear, crystal clear at times," he says. "And it's only going to get better as we do the lake maintenance, put in a potential fountain in the future and aerators, and some healthy treatments it'll get crystal clear. It's spring-fed, so there's an abundance of fish and wildlife out here that's really enjoyable to see."
"It's spring-fed, so there's an abundance of fish and wildlife out here that's really enjoyable to see."
On the second floor of the main lakehouse, Deganhart’s daughter, Andrea Lisby, said the building is one of several structures on the 12-acre property, which had been used as a quarry and an aerospace manufacturing site after its recreational heyday.
Lisby said the lake’s water was tested before the family purchased it. She describes it as "very clean," but said there were environmental concerns with the buildings.
To help with that, the Greene County Department of Development was awarded $874,975 to remediate the structures.
"We're a small family," she said. "And that is going to help us a lot in the end. But yeah, I think the biggest thing is that we did go into this without knowing if we were going to get [the grant] or not so it's really cool that we did end up getting it."
Purchasing the site without knowing if the grant would be approved was a gamble that paid off and Lisby said it now allows them to focus on the full potential of what Silver Cup Lake can become.
“Our vision as a family business is to just build this amazing one-stop destination, resort-style, if you will," she said.
"We do have a lot of really fun dreams and visions. It's going to take time, it's going to happen in phases, but yeah, like how can we get people here to enjoy the lake and enjoy the property and really just bring this dream to life for the people around the area.”
Lisby describes their plans right now as “fluid,” but once they become clearer, her family is ready to dive in and make them happen.
