I went hiking yesterday, looking for life wherever I might find it,
and ended up on the shores of a lake.
This lake is actually a man-made lake with a drowned settlement at the bottom. Ironically, the once living town of Cedar Springs had plenty of water with abundant rain, spring runoffs, and a year-round stream, so the residents (first ranchers, then homesteaders, and finally townspeople) never expected to have water problems. But when the state needed reservoirs to store water for its ever-growing population, this shallow canyon seemed a natural location. And so the town with plenty of water was killed by even more water.
I didn’t think of that poor drowned town when I was hiking, of course. I just enjoyed the walk through the woods to the shores of the lake. It was a gorgeous day, and even the difficult footing, rivulets to cross on slippery rocks, and fallen tree trunks to clamber over didn’t dampen my pleasure at the stunning scenery.
***
Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Follow Pat on Google+. Like Pat on Facebook.
Bertram's Blog 
March 9, 2014 at 6:24 pm
Looks like a pretty spot. I’m reading the novel “Long Man” about one of those towns that was in the wrong place when the Feds wanted to build a dam.
March 9, 2014 at 6:32 pm
Sounds like a fascinating book.
March 11, 2014 at 10:11 am
I’m enjoying it so far…now at about the half-way point.
March 9, 2014 at 6:54 pm
It’s a very pretty lake. And the history surrounding it might make a good ghost story.
March 10, 2014 at 6:07 pm
Feel free to use the lake as a setting for a story!
March 10, 2014 at 7:03 pm
If I come up with something, I’ll let you know.
March 10, 2014 at 5:09 pm
How strange, we have a place such as this in my fair city as well. Makes one wonder how many of them there are
March 10, 2014 at 5:23 pm
Probably hundreds. Since the 1930s, there have been one heck of a lot of dams built.
March 10, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Ooops, sorry bout that. LOL Got up to close the drapes and somehow the first of this message got sent before I was able to finish it. All I was going to add was, I wondered how many places there are like that in the US, and that it must be a great deal warmer where you are than I. I can barely wait to see green once again and yes, all the work of mowing, trimming, and weeding that accompanies it. (Just hope my beautiful Magnolia tree doesn’t get ‘fooled’ by the few warmer days here and there and then have it’s little blossoms freeze off.) I am so winter weary and long for the beauty of Spring. The pics are beautiful!
March 10, 2014 at 5:34 pm
This has been probably the most idyllic place in the country this winter. No snow. Just a couple of days of rain. Sun most days. Not even much wind, which is surprising.
March 11, 2014 at 9:56 am
Beautiful pictures. Some should write a ghost story about the town that was before Slide Lake in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Go there and take in the ambiance while you listen to the history of the lake. go up on the mountain behind it and have a conversation with the fallen rock and log that did’t slide as far as into the lake itself.
March 11, 2014 at 12:00 pm
I’ll have to go there sometime. Sounds fascinating.