By Mary Glass, Examiner.com
Before it was called Grand Lake, Colorado’s largest natural body of water was known as Spirit Lake. It’s a name that dates back to a time when Native Americans occupied the land. Legend says that one summer day a band of Ute Indians was camped on the lake shore when they were attacked by an Arapaho war party. While the men stayed to fight the Ute women and children fled. They boarded a large raft and paddled to the middle of the lake where they thought they would be safe.
As the battle raged on shore an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in. The ominous gray clouds grew and grew until they darkened the entire sky. Then a violent gust of wind ripped over the lake and capsized the raft scattering the women and children into the choppy water. Unable to swim back to shore the women and children drowned, each and every one sucked down to a watery grave.
Now many people say eerie things can be seen and heard around these haunted waters. Some have seen the ghostly figures of women rising with the mist in morning. Others have heard the desperate screams of children coming from beneath the placid waters. There is also a story of a mighty buffalo spirit rising out of the ice, roaming the frozen lake then returning to water leaving only monstrous hoof prints behind.
Many locals still call Grand Lake Spirit Lake, and on your next visit I implore you to take a moment whilst enjoying the beautiful scenery to gaze down upon the rippling water and ponder the legend that lies in its depths.