During a visit to Devil's Lake State Park a few years back, I saw a group of Amish women wading in the water in their full-length skirts - probably similar to ones that their great-great grandmothers wore in the late 1800s - hiked up around their calves.

Not more than 15 feet from them were several teenage girls wearing bikinis. The contrast of the two groups was jarring.

I thought of the Amish women recently when I learned the nearly 10,000-acre park would celebrate its 100th anniversary this summer. I figured if I'd gone to Devil's Lake around the turn of the 20th century, chances are I might have witnessed a similar scene - without the bikinis, of course.

Culture clashes aside, Devil's Lake is an ideal place to visit for swimming, hiking, canoeing, camping, rock climbing or - because it's only about 40 miles from my home on the west side of Madison - an afternoon picnic.

The 360-acre lake, rimmed on the east and west sides by 500-foot-tall quartzite cliffs, is one of the prettier spots in southern Wisconsin. It's lovely in any season but is especially spectacular when the colors are turning in the fall.

My wife and I took our children, now ages 8 and 10, to the park to wade in the water and play on the beach when they were toddlers. Now that they are older, we enjoy hiking in the bluffs above the lake. Soon they'll be climbing its cliffs.

According to Sue Johansen, a naturalist at Devil's Lake, the park is one of the more popular in the state system. It attracted 1.7 million visitors last year, up from 1.5 million in 2009.

Johansen said the lake was formed about 16,000 years ago when two lobes of the Green Bay glacier blocked what was a predecessor to the Wisconsin River between the east and west bluffs of the Baraboo hills. When the glacier retreated, it left behind moraines more than 100 feet thick.

Today, the lake is 47 feet deep, fed by springs, rain and snowmelt. On a typical summer afternoon, you'll often find swimmers, canoeists, anglers and other aquatic enthusiasts on the water. Triathlons are sometimes held at the park.

Johansen said American Indians who built effigy mounds lived at the lake thousands of years ago and were followed by members of the Ho-Chunk tribe, who called the body of water Spirit Lake. Some of the effigy mounds remain, including a thunderbird on the south shore.

The first European to arrive at the lake was a French trapper named John de La Ronde, who came in 1832 with his fishing gear and caught a 20-pound pike.

Louis Claude built a cabin on the north end of the lake in 1850s, and its remnants have survived in the woods to this day near the west bluff.

As Wisconsin's population grew, the lake became a popular place to visit. By 1866, the first hotel - the Minniwauken - was built on the north shore. With the addition of an annex, it could accommodate up to 200 guests. Its name was later changed to the Cliff House.

The Kirkland and Lakeview hotels were built at the south end of the lake, as well as a number of private cabins. Johansen said visitors usually arrived by train from Chicago, Milwaukee and other points to the south. Those with deeper pockets stayed at the more upscale Cliff House.

By 1900, the push started to turn the lake and surrounding terrain into a park. Success came in 1911, when the state paid $128,000 for 1,090 acres, Johansen said. Only two other parks in Wisconsin are older.

The hotels operated into the '40s but often had a tough go of it financially because of the short tourist season, she said. By the time the late 1940s rolled around, the last one was torn down.

Johansen said the park also was home to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp during the Great Depression. More than 200 men ages 18 to 25 lived at the southern end of the park and built trails, bathhouses and other structures, some of which remain today.

The camp was decommissioned in 1941, not long before the start of World War II, and turned over to the state.

Johansen said highlights of the 100th anniversary of the park include a Centennial Celebration, June 25; Old Fashioned Days and a period dance, July 23; and an ice cream social and concert, Aug. 28.

For more information on Devil's Lake State Park, call (608) 356-8301 or go to dnr.wi.gov/Org/land/parks/specific/devilslake/.

Brian E. Clark is a Madison writer and photographer.