Homesteader Investigates Wailing at Lake Washington's Haunted Spring
An early Seattle settler recounts a terrifying, night-long vigil at a 'haunted' spring that kept his dog trembling and the local Indigenous community at bay.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It was a lonely homestead in the deep recesses of the forest, which borders the classic Lake Washington, from which is obtained the 'true tale.' 'Night after night,' he said, 'I had been startled by a weird, uncanny wailing, which seemed to proceed from the neighborhood of the 'Haunted Spring,' which, edged with poplars and pale, is imbued with superstitious horror by the aborigines and rarely visited by the most adventurous of the pioneers. Night after night my faithful collie slunk into the cabin, quivering with fear, as the dissonant wail shuddered through the startled air. I could bear it no longer, and the following night, after the sun had set, I determined to depart for the unhallowed spot. I followed the indistinct trail which led to the 'Haunted Spring,' picking my way over fallen logs and mossy boulders by the struggling moonbeam's ghostly light. As I neared the locality, the shrill cadence of the mysterious sound rose fearfully above the sighing of the wind through the somber pines. Not in the plane existing which the last review bore could such a frightful sound be heard. Trembling, I forced my way through the thick underbrush, hitherto partly veiled in darkness, and there, to the forked willow, close to the turbid waters of the cave, I found the cause.'
“Night after night my faithful collie slunk into the cabin, quivering with fear, as the dissonant wail shuddered through the startled air.”
Today, Lake Washington is ringed by high-tech campuses and multi-million dollar homes, but this 1888 account reveals that for early settlers, the shoreline remained a place of deep, primordial unease and folklore. It serves as a haunting reminder of the 'unseen' wilderness that Seattle’s modern urban density has long since paved over.
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