AN OQUIRRH LAKE TALE

                   AN OQUIRRH LAKE TALE

Everyone knew there was something strange about Oquirrh Lake from the first time they saw it up until the present day. I am not talking about the name, which is strange in itself. I am talking about some of the happenings that have come to light recently! Of course everyone did not become acquainted with Oquirrh Lake at the same time but it seems many people have a story to tell?

When people get together in the community of Daybreak it just seems like Oquirrh Lake seems to become one of the topics of conversation?

No matter how many people get together just to talk they all seem to have a story or a tale about the big lake at Daybreak.

I guess first of all the question needs to be asked, “who ever heard of a lake with a plastic bottom?”

Well John J.___ knows why it was built that way and he does not think it is the reason that they tell us? They tell us it was built that way to keep the water from seeping out, but John knows different! When they were first digging the big hole, even before they put the plastic down and started to fill it with water John had an experience he does not like to talk about and even tries not to remember.

He was walking his dog one night and as he looked over toward the big hole in the ground that was soon to become Oquirrh Lake he saw a strange sight. There was smoke coming out of the cracks in the ground. It looked like smoke but John says it also looked like steam and it seemed to give off a vapor. In fact it looked moist and it had a horrid smell.

John decided to walk over and have a look to see if he could tell what was going on. When he took his first step into the hole he heard a blood curdling noise that did not sound human but it also did not sound like an animal?

Needless to say the dog walking was over for the night and John almost ran all the way home dragging his dog behind him. The dog kept stopping and turning back toward the hole and barking and yelping then putting his tail down and running right along with John.

Of course John thinks the plastic it to keep whatever is under the lake there forever. He has told me he hopes he never sees it or hears it again!

John would probably never thought about it again if he had not been talking to Cory B.__ down by the elementary school one day and he casually mentioned the story to Cory.

Cory then told him his story-----. I was coming home from the airport one night and it was late. Actually a little after midnight and as I passed the lake I thought I thought I heard a siren so I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped as I had been taught to do. However no one passed me and I could not see an emergency vehicle anywhere but I could still hear the wailing.

I opened the door to see if I could determine where the noise was coming from. Not only was the screeching, siren type noise still there I also saw a vile green mist rising out of the lake and moving toward the road where I was parked. I rushed back to the car and opened the door and jumped in but then I realized the green mist had already started to seep into the car. I slammed the door. As I did there was a shrieking scream like I have never heard before and never hope to hear again. The only thing I can imagine was that when I slammed the door it must have caught whatever the green mist was and that was what set off the scream.

Of course Cory had never mentioned to anyone because he did not think they would believe him. However he knows the thing is still there because he has seen that green vapor-like mist from an airplane as he has flown into Salt Lake on late night flights. He says, “No I do not know what it is, but I hope I never see or hear it up close again.”

In 1938 there was a miner by the name of Ralph Jones who worked at Kennecott. He lived down by the Jordan River. He did not have a car so he rode his horse to work at the mine. He rode it up and back every day, winter and summer.

Ralph stayed to himself and never bothered anybody and he was a good conscientious worker. Everyone liked Ralph and his boss at the mine always said he could do the work of two men.

That is why it was so strange to everyone when one day Ralph did not show up to work. After he did not show up for three days a couple of the guys decided they would follow his horse tracks to his old home and see if they could find out what had happened to him.

It was early spring, March I think, and the ground was moist so it was easy to follow the tracks of Ralph and his horse. He and his horse had been coming and going on this same trail for several years but because of the moist ground it would be easy for the men to tell which were, the new hoof prints.

Well just as planned after work that night a couple of the guys left the mine and followed Ralph’s tracks until they were almost to his house. They went up a little hill and down into a small ravine and in the bottom the tracks just ended? No more tracks, no more Ralph and no more clues.

That is there were no more clues for years until a couple of months ago? Nancy M.__ and Jan C.___ were out jogging around the lake and they noticed some bubbles coming up in the water out near the middle by the bridge. They also noticed that all the seagulls flew off and none would go back to that spot on the lake. They kept flying around and around and squawking at each other but they would not land on the water.

Well Nancy was the adventurous type and she told Jan they should go down by the lake and see if they could tell what was causing the bubbles? Jan was not so sure she wanted to go. All the squawking of the gulls had made her a little uneasy. However she did not want Nancy to think she was a “wimp” so she said. “OK let’s go.”

As they took a few steps toward the lake Jan stopped in her tracks and yelled to Nancy, “did you hear a horse noise that sounded like he was in pain or something?” Nancy told her she thought she had heard something but she was sure it was just the wind. Jan thought to herself, “what wind?” Then they both thought to themselves, “How could a horse be in the lake?”

Since they had started toward the lake they decided they might as well try and find out what was causing the bubbles coming up out of Oquirrh Lake? They got close to the edge and the water started to boil, it turned a murky green color, steam come to the surface and the putrid smell almost made them sick. Then they heard the horse noise again and the voice of a man that was almost not human. It was a scream and a bellow and a yell all at the same time. It sounded like someone or something caught in a trap. “LET ME OUT, I CANNOT STAND IT FOR ANOTHER MINUTE. I HAVE BEEN PUNISHED ENOUGH! I AM RALPH JONES AND I HAVE LIVED IN THIS HELL HOLE WAY TO LONG! HELP ME OUT NOW OR BOTH OF YOU WILL REGRET IT!”

Of course no one knew why Nancy and Jan’s families moved to Cedar Hills so quickly? I suppose no one would ever have known their story if someone from Daybreak had not met them in the mall one day and heard their story. They said they finally decided to move for several reasons? They never could understand why, after that night only their windows would shake and rattle when there was no wind blowing. They also wondered why the mist would come out along their sidewalks and not near anyone else’s?

I suppose Ralph and his horse are still under Oquirrh Lake and on a breezy summer night the smell sifts through Daybreak. Of course everyone says it is the compost operation out to the south west but Nancy and Jan swear it smells just like the lake did on THAT NIGHT.

W.R. Baldwin