Spirit Lake LbNA #15816

This box is part of a four box series that marks some of the surprising, and sometimes disturbing, history of the small mountain town of Grand Lake, CO. A warning... these stamps are all kinda morbid but wicked fun! Aljan

The legend of the buffalo…

Grand Lake is a fairly modern name for this lovely lake, the largest natural lake in Colorado. The name was not the only thing that was different about Grand Lake in the times in which legends were made. Grand Lake was a wild and often lonely place. Sometimes beautiful and welcoming, sometimes bitter cold and isolated. Wild creatures held rule and buffalo still roamed. Indians, mainly the Utes, hunted and camped on the lake’s shores. The Arapahoe called it Holy Lake or Spirit Lake: bataan-naache.

During the bitterly cold nights of an early December, black ice began to creep across the still surface of bataan-naache’s waters. The ice was soon thick enough to hold up many buffalo. Snow fell and covered the ice, leaving all but one patch covered in its white blanket. In the snow, the Indians could see the tracks of many buffalo. Among those were the tracks of one enormous buffalo. These tracks seemed to come from and return to the open patch of water. From this came the Indians' belief that some supernatural buffalo must live within the waters of the lake. Thus came the name Spirit Lake or batan-naache.


Grand Lake, beauty masks tragedy…

Legend has it that many, many moons ago, before the white man came to drive the Indians from the vast hunting grounds of Middle Park, the Ute or Utah Indians, members of the Shoshone tribe, roamed the beautiful lands of the western slope of the continental divide in Colorado and Utah. During the pleasant summer months they often camped on the shores of Grand Lake, fishing and hunting in this practically untouched wilderness.

The Utes, being a powerful tribe, were seldom confronted by their enemies, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, who claimed the vast valleys and plains that lay east of the continental divide. During one summer a large band of these enemies were reported to have raided several encampments in North Park. They then crossed over Willow Creek and entered Middle Park. One summer day this band thundered into the Ute camp at Grand Lake, surprising the Utes and engaging them in a fierce and sudden attack. Perhaps lulled by the peace of this beautiful place, the scouts who were usually stationed at Scout Rock or Lookout Point failed to see the approaching enemy in time to raise an alarm.

Fearing for the safety of their squaws and children, the Utes hurried then onto a huge raft. The women, using poles for oars, pushed the raft and its precious cargo of children and infants in papooses out into the middle of the lake, where they were to remain in relative safety through the course of the battle. On the shore, the warriors fought bravely, but many were killed. And while the battle raged on, the true tragedy took the form of a murderous wind that tore down the hillside and lashed out across the surface of the lake. The wind whipped up the once calm surface of the lake, overturning the raft and entreated the lives of the women and children to the dark, uncaring depths of the water.

All of the Ute’s women and children were drowned.

While the warriors were triumphant, their enemies thwarted, they were left bereft, without their families. From that day forward superstition spread and few Indians ventured near the waters again. Some say that on summer mournings, a mist will rise up from the lake and one can see ghostly forms twisting within it. And on winter nights, when the sparkling summer waters are locked under the ice in imposed darkness even the weakest of ears may hear the sad wailing of the women and the shrill cries of the children, which come from beneath the ice.

Source: Grand Lake in the Olden Days by Mary Lyons Cairns

The clues...

Turn into the town of Grand Lake off of US Hwy 34. Pass the stables on your right (mmmmm, smells like summer!) and when you come to the Y, with Mountain Food Market on your right, go LEFT towards the East Inlet. You will be on this road for about 2 or 3 miles. You will cross the river. Just before the loop that will take you down to the lakeshore and to the East Inlet Trailhead if you stay to the left, there is a small pullout on the left side of the road. It is right across from the transformer/power station/pole thingy. There is a large boulder, say the size of your average dining room table, on the left side of the pullout. If you step into the ravine and stop just as the trees start, you can look up the hill, slightly to the left and see your destination. See the upright triangle shaped boulder? It looks a bit like a monument? When I was there on July 18, 2014, there were several dead trees laying horizontally in front of it and one large dead tree pointing up the hill right beside it. Go up the little ravine about about 70 steps from the asphault and the boulder will be on your left, again, it's an upright triangle. There's a sapling aspen growing right behind the rock. At the base of the tree, tucked under the boulder and hidden behind a hand sized rock waits Spirit Lake.

Email me with the condition of my box at AljanSundance@yahoo.com

Thanks! Aljan