SPIRIT LAKE

History

This lake – formed at the end of the last Ice Age – is said to be one of only 2 lakes in the world with a sealed bottom; that is no water can escape the lake. A miner once dug a hole 400 feet lower than the bottom of the lake and still found no seepage or so they say.

Perfect for holding the water and the spirits in the lake forever.

This lake was once part of a massive lake that spread from where Coeur d’Alene is now well into what is now Montana and north into Canada.

The lake has a surface area of 1,445 acres and 12 miles of shoreline. It is 82 feet deep at it’s lowest level although many people and legend claims its actually over 100 feet deep in places.

The town of Spirit Lake is located on the Northeastern shore of the lake.

Paranormal Activity and Legends

According to the Kootenay – Water People - legend this lake used to be called Clear Water. That is until an event convinced them to change the name to Tesemini or Lake of the Spirits.

The Kootenay Chieftain had a very beautiful daughter who had fallen in love with one of her father’s warriors. Unfortunately, politics superseded love – doesn’t it always – and his daughter was promised to the Chieftain of a hostile tribe who lived to the east.

In the Kootenay Chieftain’s defense, he was threatened with war if he didn’t produce his daughter.

The daughter was not happy – to say the least – nor was her lover. Instead of submitting to her father’s will they pledged their eternal love to each other and leapt from a cliff hand in hand to their deaths. Now – unsurprisingly – called Suicide Cliff.

On the nights of the full moon as it’s light bathes the lake if you’re really lucky lake you can see the apparitions of the 2 lovers in their canoe gliding over the still lake waters.

Every year when the ice on the lake begins to break up mournful cries filled with sorrow fill the air. Sounds that have been called both haunting and just plain weird – and apparently unique to this lake – that are said the cries of the 2 lovers.