HUMBOLDT PARK — All along the lakefront Tuesday, disappointed kids building sand castles and kicking soccer balls could only look longingly at the bright blue lake water they weren’t allowed to splash in.
The Chicago Park District's no-swimming edict was purely a precaution after powerful summer storms the night before required opening river locks — a move akin to flushing wastewater into Lake Michigan like a toilet that might have contaminated water near the shore.
But not all Chicago beachgoers suffered on the sand.
At Humboldt Park Beach, kids splashed and swam in the former lagoon that was drained to its clay bottom in the '70s, covered with sand from the Indiana Dunes and regularly gets filled with filtered freshwater that’s just deep enough to cool off in on a hot day.
The tiny beach tucked behind the park’s majestic field house is hard to find, but it’s no secret to neighbors who brought their kids there Tuesday to flop in the giant natural wading pool of sorts on Chicago’s otherwise sand-only beach day.
“I feel fortunate, lucky really,” Jaron Rowe said as he helped his daughter, Ruby, and her friends built sand mushroom near the shoreline. “It’s great. The water temperature is perfect, 68 all the time. It’s clean and the water’s filtered all the time. You can’t beat it.”
And 11-year-old Oscar Isleno said he felt like the smartest kid in school for knowing about the most overlooked beach in the city, especially Tuesday.
“I am a smart one because I get to swim, we can get wet and have some fun,” Oscar said. “We get to go all the way out there (in the water) and it’s not too deep. Other kids are jealous, yeah.”
Humboldt Park Beach lifeguards said they watched over about as many swimmers as they normally would on a Tuesday.
And Humboldt Park neighbors like Rowe like having the swimming hole to themselves.
“I moved to the neighborhood seven years ago and went for a walk in the park with [Ruby] in a stroller and stumbled on this place,” he said. “It’s wonderful, man. Wonderful.”
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