Rebel Road
History is told through legend, myth and stories. We tell stories about the weird and the mysterious, about faith and religion, cryptids and conspiracies. Challenge what you think you know and start thinking for yourself. Keep it weird friends, and pull it back to Jesus.
Rebel Road
Summer Supernatural Safety | Crater Lake & More Part 6
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We are dipping our toes into more mysterious waters and tales in our 6th installment of our Summer Supernatural Safety series! This episode we tell the origin story of Crater Lake and tell a tale of water babies that legend says live in Lake Tahoe.
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It's time for another summer rose snack, and we are chatting about some beautiful and wild lakes that you can visit that may or may not be haunted or supernaturally cursed, and millions of people visit them, and hundreds vanish every year while doing so here in the United States. Hi everybody, I'm Haley. I'm Mary. Welcome, friends.
SPEAKER_01Hi there, welcome. And if you're new here, Road Snacks are our many versions of our full-length episodes. And through the end of July, we're doing some supernatural safety on some of everyone's favorite summer activities like hiking, camping, and of course, visiting lakes. We talked about Lake Lanier last week. And if you are loving our podcast or just tuning in for the weird, please share this episode with a friend and hit that follow button wherever you're listening. But Hayley, we have a lot of weird lakes here in the US and so many more stories and tales to tell.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, let's get into it, Mary. And why don't we start this week with one of the seven wonders of Oregon? With a slight decline in visitors, this lake still sees well over half a million visitors a year. And she is steeped in legend. We are starting this episode off with Crater Lake.
SPEAKER_01The sky above the mountains bled fire. For generations, the Klamath people had lived in the shadow of Mount Mazama, a towering peak that pierced the heavens. They knew that deep within its rocky belly lived Lalao, the terrifying chief of the below world. Lalao was a creature of darkness and smoke, but his heart was not completely made of stone. From the fiery depths of his kingdom, he peered up at the surface and saw Lahoa, the beautiful daughter of the Klamath chief. Lalao demanded her hand in marriage, promising her immortality in his subterranean palace. But Lahoa refused. She could not bear the thought of a life spent in eternal darkness away from the sun and the stars. Spurned and humiliated, Lilao's sorrow instantly curdled into a monstrous rage. He roared a vow of absolute vengeance against the humans who dared to fight him. He ascended to the summit of Mazama, his massive form shrouded in ash. With a voice like grinding tectonic plates, he hurled curses at the valley below. Great sheets of liquid fire poured from his hands, rushing down the slopes towards the helpless village. The air grew thick with choking suit, and daytime turned into an ominous, suffocating night.
SPEAKER_00The people cried out to the heavens for mercy. Their prayers pierced the clouds and reached the ears of Skell, the benevolent chief of the above world. Skell looked down from the sky, his heart filled with pity for the mortals. He descended from the heavens, planting his feet firmly upon the snowy peak of Mount Shassa. Clothed in pure light and armed with bolts of blue lightning, Skell issued a challenge that shook the foundations of the earth. The battle of the gods began. The world had never seen such a fury. Lalal wrenched massive, red-hot boulders from the throat of Mazama and flung them through the sky. Skell deflected them with blinding flashes of lightning, answering with thunderbolts that split the valley walls. The earth groaned and trembled beneath the weight of their wrath. For days the sky was a chaotic swirl of blinding fire and celestial light. The humans fled into the darkness, hiding in caves, praying for Skell's victory. Realizing that the battle could destroy the entire world, two brave Clothman medicine men made the ultimate sacrifice. To appease the spirits and tip the scales, they marched up the erupting slopes of Mazama and cast themselves into the fiery abyss.
SPEAKER_01Moved by their sacrifice, Skel gathered the entirety of his cosmic strength. He struck Lilao with a final, devastating blow of pure celestial energy. Lilao reeled backwards, defeated. As he crashed back down into the underworld, the very earth gave way beneath him. The mighty peak of Mount Mizama collapsed inward, a cataclysmic implosion that swallowed the dark spirit whole, trapping him forever in the deep recesses of the earth. A heavy silence fell over the land. The fires died, the ash cleared, where the majestic peak of Mount Mizuma once stood, there was now a vast, empty caldera, a gaping wound in the earth. The spirits of the sky wept for the devastation, and their tears, along with the winter snows, began to fill the massive crater.
SPEAKER_00Century after century, the pure waters rose, deep and still, reflecting the brilliant blue of the sky above. It became Giwas, the sacred place, Crater Lake. Lalau was gone, but remnants of the battle remained. The jagged peak of Wizard Island rose from the water, a permanent reminder of the Dark Lord's defeated power. And the Claftmouth people never forgot. Passing down the story of the day the mountain fell, and the sky spirit saved the world.
SPEAKER_01And that, my friends, is the legend of how Crater Lake was formed. This is legend from the local indigenous people, the Klamath tribes. And interestingly, they see Crater Lake as a portal between the physical world and the spiritual world. Because Mount Mizuma collapsed inward, the Kalamith people viewed the resulting crater as a physical entry point into the subterranean realm. And the pristine waters that are there, they act like a seal or prison lid over the dark underworld. Because it's literally a gateway to the spirit world. Even today, the local people or the indigenous people are very cautious of crater lake.
SPEAKER_00We love a good oral tradition and tribal legend here on the Rebel Road podcast. And this is a good one. We see all through oral and written histories that bodies of water are often seen as portals to the spiritual realm. But let's look at Crater Lake. This lake is stunning. Mary, have you been?
SPEAKER_01I have not been to Crater Lake, but and we talked about how I don't like lakes. This one is on my bucket list and one to go see.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I haven't been there either. The pictures are stunning, so let's go together. But Crater Lake. Love that. Yeah, let's go. Crater Lake is that deepest lake in the United States. It's 1,943 feet deep. And it is also one of the deepest in the world. Now, it's not the deepest, but it is one of them. Now, the honor for the deepest goes to Lake Baikal in Russia. Man, they love their deep lakes there. But Lake Baikal, that one is 5,387 feet deep. But back to our deepest lake here in the United States, Crater Lake. Now she's located in Oregon and was formed when a volcano, which was Mount Mizuma, collapsed into itself. And that's from our opening story. Now, one interesting thing about Crater Lake is there are no rivers or streams flowing into or out of the lake. The entire body of water is replenished solely by rain and melted snow. And that makes it the clearest lake in the United States. You can see down well over a hundred feet in this lake. She is as beautiful as she is chilling. And even in the summer, surface temps of the water, it rarely breaks over 60 degrees. And below 300 feet, she stays a very cold 38 degrees all year round. And the tops, of course, they do freeze in the winter. So all of this, because of these cold temps, you don't see a lot of drownings in Crater Lake. Uh there have only been 13 documented drownings. But because of its location, most deaths happen really by accident with that steep incline. People just tumble to their deaths. And then it has these winding, steep roads leading into the park. And those combined, of course, with the winter weather conditions, those have also resulted in fatal car crashes. So pretty, pretty safe park, all in all, Mary.
SPEAKER_01Well, you'd think that. And while there's not a lot of deaths in her water, because a lot of people don't go in the water, I wanted to include her. Well, we wanted to include her because there's a lot of disappearances in Crater Lake National Park. And with the whole portal legend, it's wild and weird stuff. And I just want to say this people might not know this. A missing person is not considered a dead person. And a presumed dead person is not considered missing. So with that confusing statement, getting actual data is almost impossible from their national parks. But what I found fascinating is there are considered to be two missing 411 cases in Crater Lake National Park. And I know we said we were going to get away from those, but we're actually going to share one of those missing 411 cases that happened in Crater National Park.
SPEAKER_00The afternoon was growing cold as Kenneth Bulkey and his son, Sammy, stopped near the Cleatwood Cove trailhead. Sammy, who had mild autism, was a vibrant boy with a fierce curiosity and a particular fascination with finding gold, which to him meant the bright yellow volcanic pumice stones scattered around the park. When it came time to head back to their cabin at Diamond Lake, Sammy didn't want the search to end. Spotting a patch of yellow higher up on a steep cinder hill, he ran toward it. His father called out for him to stop and walk back to the car, but Sammy, viewing the entire encounter as a playful game of hide and seek, simply laughed and kept climbing.
SPEAKER_01Kenneth surged up the slope after him, but the terrain was brutal. Running on loose pumice is like trying to ascend a sand dune made of meatball-sized rocks. For every step forward you slide half a step back. Because Sammy was lightweight, he scaled the shifting terrain with ease. Kenneth watched his son clad in a bright blue winter coat press the top of the ridge. By the time Kenneth scrambled over the ridge just seconds later, Sammy was completely gone. Kenneth frantically called out, expecting his son to pop out from behind a tree. As the minutes turned to hours and darkness approached, Kenneth realized the gravity of the situation. He rushed down the road and flagged down a passing motorist to call for help. Within days, a massive rescue response was organized. Over 200 search and rescue personnel, tracking dogs, helicopters, and thermal imaging cameras descended on a six-square mile around Cleatwood Cove.
SPEAKER_00The searchers faced two immense obstacles. Because of Sammy's sensory sensitivities related to autism, he had an intense aversion to loud noises. Rescuers were instructed not to use whistles, airhorns, or shouting, as it was feared the noise would scare Sammy deeper into hiding. And just as the search hit its stride, a fierce, blinding snowstorm slammed into the mountain. Heavy snow kept the rugged, heavily wooded terrain, dropping visibility to zero and washing away any physical tracking indicators or scent lines the K-1 teams were following. After a week of trudging through deep snow and dense brush, rescuers found nothing but a single deflated yellow balloon. The formal search was called off, with officials concluding that the young boy had likely succumbed to hypothermia in the freezing wilderness.
SPEAKER_01He was only seconds ahead of his father, wearing highly visible clothing in an area heavily trafficked by tourists. The complete lack of clues, no dropped shoes, no fabric tears, no footprints, the boy simply disappeared and no trace of him was ever found.
SPEAKER_00With every missing 411 case you find, Mary, portals just become less of a crazy theory. Think about these poor parents, and we won't get into the 411 rules uh again. Please go back and listen to our first four episodes in our Supernatural Summer Safety series for those. But yes, this story it checks all of those boxes required for the missing 411. Folks, again, never let those kids run off and never let them out of your sight. Not even for a moment. But let's get back, Mary, to our weird lakes. What else do we have today?
SPEAKER_01Well, there are just so many, and not enough weeks in July, Haley. But in Nevada, Arizona, we have Lake Mead. Now, this is another lake that is thought to be highly haunted, so stay away from it. Really go visit if you want. It's also a recreational area, highly visited because it is in the desert. But Lake Mead carries a dark reputation as a death trap. There's a strong consensus that the lake is haunted by the ghosts of victims, including rumors that its murky depth served as a dumping ground for mob-related bodies, as the lake has recently receded in years, and evidence of this mob activity is being uncovered. How creepy is that? And then if we move back to the South and South Carolina, we have Lake Norman, which, like Lake Lanier, was made by flooding towns. And it's most famous for housing a legendary creature dubbed Normy. Sightings of a massive sea serpent or giant glowing-eyed creature date all the way back to pre-colonial Catawan Native American folklore. Now, Normy is not considered harmful or dangerous, but he is fun, and that is a fun name.
SPEAKER_00Well, Mary, do we want to take bets on how quickly they find Jimmy Hoffa as this water keeps receding? But maybe a different episode someday. We haven't even gotten into the lake cryptids yet. But if we want to dip our toes into those, one of my favorites can be found in Oklahoma, and that's Lake Thunderbird, where cryptid lore and legend, it says there's a giant octopus that lives there. Now, according to those regional legends, it's a massive freshwater octopus-like creature, and it uses its tentacles to seize the swimmers and then drag them down to the lakes at the murky bottom.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, see, you're getting dragged again down into murky waters. I mean, I know the ocean is a threat, but I know what's in the ocean. Well, mostly what's in the ocean. I don't want that in my swimming waters. Swimming pools all the way, baby. If we're talking about cryptids, let's talk about Lake Tahoe. It also has a cryptid, and we know people love Lake Tahoe. They have a version of the Loch Ness monster there called the Tahoe Tessie. Now she's a legendary serpent-like creature rumored to inhabit the deep icy waters of the lake. She's described as 10 to 60 feet long with smooth, dark turquoise skin, living in the vast cave systems located at the bottom of the lake.
SPEAKER_00Lake Tahoe has a lot of crazy things going on there. And so many people, even that I know, so many people love it. Like you mentioned it, Mary, they're always visiting Lake Tahoe. Yeah, they are. The original Washu and Paiute Native American folklore, it speaks of water babies, which are mysterious and sometimes malevolent spirits that are inhabiting Lake Tahoe and the Carson River. There are modern uh interpretations and artistic retellings that redesigned these spirits as tentacled or amorphous water creatures. So octopus or kind of like a sea serpent. But let's close this episode with another fun story just for fun.
SPEAKER_01The fog on Lake Tahoe didn't roll in. It seemed to rise directly from the black water, thick and smelling of crushed pine needles and whetstone. Ben pulled his oars out of the water, letting the heavy wooden rowboat drift. He was a seasonal ranger, 24, and entirely too skeptical for his own good. His supervisor had warned him never to take the patrol skiff out past twilight near Cave Rock. The washu say the water spirits wake up the sun drops, the old man had muttered. They aren't ghost Ben, they're older than the trees. Ben had laughed, and he wasn't laughing now. The lake was dead silent. No wind, no crickets from the shoreline, no hum of distant highway traffic. Then, cutting through the heavy mist, came a sound that made the pear on Ben's arms stand straight up.
SPEAKER_00It was a sharp, high-pitched wail. A baby crying out in the middle of the deepest body of water in California. Ben's instincts flared. A capsized boat? A family in trouble? He grabbed the oars, digging them into the icy water, pulling hard toward the sound. The wailing grew louder, echoing off the sheer face of cave rock just a few hundred yards away. It sounded desperate, breathless, and wet. The boat bumped against something soft. Ben dropped the oars, grabbing his flashlight and shining it over the gunnel. Floating in the water, just beneath the surface, was a thick mat of long, jet black hair. It fanned out like oil in the water, undulating against the current. Ben leaned over, his heart hammering against his ribs. The crying stopped instantly. The silence that followed was suffocating. The black hair began to sink, pulling down into the ink-dark depths. Ben reached out, a bizarre impulse telling him to grab it. When the water next to his hand erupted, it wasn't a baby.
SPEAKER_01A face broke the surface. It was the size of a toddler's head, but the skin was slick, molted, green-gray, like a trout's belly. Wide, unblinking eyes, entirely black without iris or sclera, looked into his. Below those eyes, a mouse split open from ear to ear, revealing rows of needle sharp, translucent veins. Ben screamed, throwing himself backward into the center of the rowboat. The creature didn't climb aboard. Instead, it slapped the side of the boat with a webbed clear. The impact was impossibly heavy, nearly flipping the skiff. Then scrambled for the oars, but before he could grab them, another whale pierced the fog, then another, from the left, then from the right, from directly beneath the floorboards. The water began to churn, bubbling as if it were boiling. Shadows darted beneath the surface. Dozens of them, small and lightning fast, their long hair trailing behind them like tangled weeds.
SPEAKER_00The boat rocked violently. They were pulling it down. Ben remembered the old supervisor's warnings, and a piece of trivia from his orientation manual flashed in his panicked mind. The washu left offerings, bread, pine nuts, anything to show respect, to buy safe passage. Ben didn't have pine nuts. He had his lunch box. With trembling hands, he snapped open the metal box, grabbed a half-eaten turkey sandwich, and threw it into the rolling water. Take it, he shouted, his voice cracking. I'm sorry, take it! The sandwich hit the water. Instantly, three of the gray webbed hands snatched it downward, tearing it to shreds in a frenzy of bubbles.
SPEAKER_01For a second, the rocking stopped. Ben didn't waste it. He grabbed the oars and pulled with every ounce of his strength he possessed. He didn't look back, even when he heard the rhythmic, wet thwack, thwack, thack, of rubbed hands chasing his wake, and the sound of tiny mocking laughter echoing through the fog. When the hole finally scraped the sand of the public beach, then collapsed over the oars, his lungs burning, his hands raw. The fog was already receding back into the center of the lake. As he looked out over the now placid moonlit water, he saw a single, dark ripple near Cave Rock. A tiny hand broke the surface, waved once in the moonlight, and disappeared into the deep.
SPEAKER_00And there you have it, friends. It is water babies of Lake Tahoe, and time to cancel the trip. That's a no for me, but uh I just gotta say, and maybe another safety tip, Mary. Don't go out on the water without your pine nuts or some bread. Just think about it.
SPEAKER_01Always gotta have your snacks.
SPEAKER_00Always gotta have the snacks. Everyone, thank you for listening. And be sure to join us next week as we continue our supernatural summer safety tips. Uh, but remember, what do we do? Keep it weird, and if it gets real weird, we pull it back to Jesus. Or maybe like you, Mary, just keep it on the shore. Like both of us. Amen to that. Bye. Bye.
