By Seth Boyes - Staff Writer

A series of minor thefts in early September had Lakes Area store clerks scratching their heads. Newspaper racks were empty. Storefront vending boxes were cleaned out, and copies of the Sept. 2 Dickinson County News were hard to come by just 24 hours after the weekly newspaper was distributed throughout the Iowa Great Lakes.

Don't go out alone, 18-year-old Calvin Grosvenor was taught.

It's considered the number one rule for open water diving — and Thursday afternoon it saved a life on West Lake Okoboji.

Grosvenor is credited with not only bringing his diving partner to the surface of the lake during an emergency, but swimming him to shore and performing CPR until help arrived.

Dickinson County's population numbered around 1,200 some 150 years ago. The city of Milford had just been platted, and the area's growing population had decided it was high time the community was home to a newspaper. A number of newspapers sprang up in the region in the years and decades to come, eventually joining together to form what is today the Dickinson County News.

THE BIRTH OF THE BEACON