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Sara, Guardian of the Lake

by Uncle Wes

When I first moved up here some four years back I had always heard of strange happenings, haunting of spirits past in this old country side. I naturally took them with a grain of salt and laughed them off until recently when I witnessed something extraordinary I’ve never told anyone of this until now, let me start at the beginning and explain how this whole event took place. Back in the late 1800’s there was a resort on the lake that was quite popular with the wealthy folks from Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver all came to spend their vacations in fact the building was in the very spot that the current Day lodge is located now. Anyway this was quite the scenic area back then it was surrounded by old growth cedar trees and was considered to be in the wilderness. Back in those days when you went to a resort they had activities for the guests each evening, ballroom dancing, lavish parties where the champagne flowed freely, yes it was quite the festive place to be if you could afford it.

The lodge itself was huge three stories high with the guests staying on the second floor, the employees on the top floor, and the main floor was something to behold with a ballroom, formal dining room, library, kitchen, reading room, and a main gathering room with a huge stone fire place for relaxing and socializing, it was quite the luxurious place with its crystal chandeliers, big picture windows over looking the lake and a covered porch that went around the whole building, in a word beautiful. One evening late in the summer they were having a formal dance with the orchestra playing the songs of their time the champagne was being consumed at a tremendous rate, as this was the last big evening of the season. There was a young beautiful woman, Sara with her long flowing white dress, beautiful long golden locks of hair, and the deepest blue eyes that you can imagine dancing, drinking, and enjoying this last evening with her fiancée Richard a very wealthy, handsome young man from Seattle.

As the evening wore on and the champagne began to take effect Sara and Richard decided that they needed to go out for air one thing led to another and they decided to take one of the canoes out on the lake for one last romantic evening on the lake. Now with both of them being intoxicated it seemed a wonderful thing to do and they took off from the dock paddling their way into the darkness in high spirits. After about a half hour on the lake something went terrible wrong the canoe had over turned and Richard came back to the top he called out for Sara over and over without any reply he dived over and over trying to locate her but came up with nothing he cried for help and folks from the lodge were soon there to help him with there lanterns they searched the water all night trying to rescue Sara but they couldn’t find her. The next morning the Sheriffs department and volunteers searched the whole lake bottom with grappling hooks and divers trying to locate Sara’s body but they came up empty handed. Richard who was heart broken returned to Seattle and Sara’s body never was recovered.

As the years went on there were rumors of several people seeing a woman in a long flowing white dress walking across the top of the water and she always stopped and paused looking at them smiling and gently flowing to the other side of the lake only to disappear. Like all things the resort was bought out and turned into a park/campground with a day lodge, boat rentals, and restaurant. Now two years before I started here two girls were out in a paddle boat and came into the office very excited saying they had seen a body at the bottom of the lake there description of the woman wearing a long white flowing dress matched Sara. The Rangers new immediately who it was but still they had to call in the Sheriffs department and begin dredging the lake bottom looking for this body. Needless to say they came up empty handed once again. The very first year I worked here I had heard a rumor of a gentleman that lived in a house on the lake had gone for his evening swim across the lake and he cramped up out in the middle of the lake and started going down and then passed out. When he came to on the other side of the lake on the beach he said he had seen a beautiful young woman standing over him she smiled at him and then walked away. He said it was as if she just disappeared into the forest.

Two years ago on the opening day of trout season it was cold wet and miserable and as usual there were a lot of folks in search of their opening day trout limits. An older couple was out on the lake doing this very thing when for some reason they both stood up in excitement of a very large fish they had hooked into and the small 12 foot aluminum boat they were in capsized now neither one of them was wearing a life jacket and the gentleman came right back up to the top grabbing a hold of the boat calling out for his wife. She couldn’t swim and went straight to the bottom of the lake she thought this was the end for her and she said just as she was gasping and about to lost consciousness she felt two hands under her arm pits raise her towards the surface where she grabbed onto the bow of the boat. As other boats came to their rescue she kept asking for the person that saved her, but nobody had gone in the water after her. She told us her story and we knew right away that it was Sara that had rescued her. Now I’ve got to tell you I’m the kind of guy that believes but yet I don’t its hard to explain I guess I’m the type that has to witness it to be a true believer.

One day last September on a Tuesday it was very early and there was a thick fog holding on the surface of the lake, you could barely see five feet in front of you. I started motoring out to the north end of the lake and when I reached the middle I put the motor in neutral so I could rig up and start my trolling pattern when out of the corner of my eye I seen something as I turned to look I seen a woman’s figure standing up and just floating across the top of the water heading to the other side. She was wearing a long white dress and the material seemed to flutter in the breeze when all of a sudden she paused and looked directly at me and smiled. She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life she had the deepest dark blue eyes I have ever seen then she turned and continued to the other side of the lake and disappeared into the fog bank. Now you would think I would be terrified at such a site but instead I had a sense of contentment and warmth that to this day I can’t explain. Anyway I started fishing and was hooking and releasing trout in the 12 to 18 inch range and I didn’t seem to want to keep any of them, every time I let one go I immediately had another on it was my most successful day ever 43 trout in four hours, in fact I have never had a day any better than that one. Now if you ask me do I believe in Sara I have to say yes, she truly is the guardian of the lake and I have seen her up close and have no other explanation for what I witnessed.

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