#173: "The Gray Lake" (Patreon)

Our first musical entry to SOTWC Spooky Season is a little different from past Spooky Seasons.

The sounds you hear at the beginning and end of this instrumental are field recordings from DeGray Lake in Arkansas, the banks of which I am currently camped out along.  DeGray Lake is an isolated, rural lake in Arkansas which, upon first glance seems - like the song - idyllic and pristine.  But upon closer inspection, the beauty gives way to a mysterious ghostliness.

The lake was created by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1962 by damming the Caddo River to create a water supply for the region.  In the process, the US government bought out local homesteads through the use of eminent domain.  With the river dammed, the surrounding area was flooded with over one hundred feet of water.  To this day, the brick and concrete homes still sit at the bottom of the lake, visible in just the right light.

They say that each morning, the fog that rises from the water is the rising spirit of the drowned land beneath the lake's surface.  They say that you can hear the screams of trapped souls under the light of a full moon.  The say that once you taste the water on your lips, you are forever bound to this place, one foot in the land of the dry living, one foot in the underwater realm now inhabited by those former homesteads...

(thanks to Elise for the lovely cello parts in this one!)

((I've gotten several great spooky story submissions so far, but I'm always down to hear more!  Send an email to robtaxpayer1@gmail.com if you've got a good one!  ))