Spooky seismic lakes – sag ponds and monsters

A series of small lakes (ponds) form along the San Andreas fault in California called “sag ponds”. Some have spooky legends or lore associated with them, specifically, that they hide monsters or are bottomless.

While all water bodies may be considered liminal areas between worlds, or passageways for the dead, those over faults may seem extra spooky because of the exaggerated ideas people have about what tectonic faults look like and how they behave. In Part 1: Spooky seismic lakes – Loch Ness and its monster, I mentioned some weird themes associated with faults at the surface. And, I laid out the arguments for, but overwhelmingly against, the idea that seismic activity on the Great Glen Fault that runs under Loch Ness might have bolstered the monster legend. Similar arguments might be applied to sag ponds in California which are located above a strike-slip fault. I wondered how related lore might be related to their geological origin. Or not. Let’s see.

Sag ponds

“Sag ponds” occur where the infamous strike-slip San Andreas fault grinds up the underlying rock as it moves, making the fault area prone to erosion and, therefore, a depression or trench forms. The ground-up rock and clay in the fault zone is less permeable to water flow. Water collects in these low spots forming ponds or bigger lakes. Alternatively, the fault interrupts rock strata and can force groundwater to the surface where it collects. Because the fault is generally straight, there can be a chain of elongated sag ponds along the fault zone. Some are even used as reservoirs in California. Most people are unaware of why they are located there and how they formed. But for a few, the location above the fault might have helped form the legend.

Sag ponds are distinct from tectonic lakes that are formed from extensional forces that create rift or fault valleys. There are also lakes that have been created due to earthquake activity that sunk the land, or changed the course of a waterway to form a lake. There are many of these worldwide and some even have monster legends.

Several of these California sag ponds have associated legends. I’ve collected some of the most popular tales: Two lakes have monsters legends and two more have a reputation of being bottomless.

Monsters

As I wrote in Part 1, it’s possible that tiny seismic events can create upwelling, turbidity, or waves that people may interpret as a monster surfacing. However, the problem with lake monster sightings is that they are usually little more than odd waves. People don’t really see details but they imagine that there must be something underwater causing the wave. Additionally, we can’t corroborate many of these sightings, some of which are highly exaggerated, or may be outright manufactured. Eyewitness accounts aren’t enough to established a monster but they could signal there is something interesting going on, whatever the source(s).

Elizabeth Lake

I heard the story about the Elizabeth Lake dragon recently. The location in a sag pond was so fascinating that it prompted me to finally write about this topic. This particular Elizabeth Lake (there are multiple) is 17 miles northwest of Palmdale. Originally called La Laguna del Diablo (lake of the devil) prior to 1834, the name was apparently given by the early settlers because of a story that the Devil created the lake and kept one of his pets there – a smelly dragon. When newcomers moved there in the early and mid 19th century, they were disturbed by noises from the lake. A mysterious fire one year burned ranch buildings on the shore. Then came reports of a roaring monster as big as a whale with bat wings. It roiled the water and left a horrible stench. Locals claimed their livestock were taken by the monster. It was eventually “scared away” and the sightings discontinued after 1886. There is a postscript where the monster gets tied to the infamous Tombstone pterosaur, but that link is too tenuous to follow.

The dragon story is heavily embellished with obvious made-up flourishes, but the location, in a seismically active area, is intriguing. Faults may produce gas emissions or the lake could “burp” up methane from rotting vegetation causing the monster’s “stench”. The regularly booms and rumbling quakes may have fed into the story of a dragon living in the forsaken place. It’s hard to tell now. It would be interesting to know if people still observe the noises or smell from the lake.

Elsie of Lake Elsinore

Beginning in 1884, witnesses occasionally reported a long sea-serpent like creature in Lake Elsinore, located about 25 miles inland from Laguna Beach. Originally not much more than a swamp, the lake filled during the 19th century. Water at the terminus of the San Jacinto river collects in this low area created by the faults of the Elsinore fault zones. The area has hot “sulphur” springs the attracted people to the town which was just being developed in the late 1800s when the legend of a lake monster was spawned. After a 1884 report of a “sea serpent” creature (long, thin and “archy”), the next sighting was in 1934 – the same year that Nessie was popular in the press. It was given the name Elsie.

There were a few sightings in the 1960s to 1990s. The descriptions vary in size and details. A sculpted Elsie was built to commemorate the legend. Clearly Elsie is more commercial than zoological. However, in this case, there may be a direct geological connection to the sulfur springs along the lake that might be associated with mud or disturbances that fueled a strange legend. The lake is shallow and periodically dries out, so no permanent large animal population could exist. Nevertheless, monster hopefuls hypothesize that the creature hides out in the hill caves until the lake refills.

Bottomless

I’ve already written about the trope of bottomless holes, including so-called bottomless lakes. There is something about water-filled holes of all sizes that makes people wonder how deep they are. If the collective stories about a lake are intended to invoke danger, then creating a rumor that it’s “bottomless” catches on and spreads. The “logic” of these claims seems to evolve from the idea that the lake bottom has caves, tunnels or fissures that are unexplored. These become passages that connect different water bodies, sometimes the ocean. It’s fair to suppose that the known presence of a fault underwater lends itself, in their minds, to imagine a system of water-filled crevasses where strange animals can live undetected, or can traverse in secret to another lake farther away.

Faults aren’t magical. They don’t create voids and aren’t associated with caves. So the concept of passageways is completely false. While there certainly are animals that have not yet been collected and identified that live in caves or deep water, relatively inaccessible to investigation, these creatures are not monster-sized, maybe a few feet long at most. Only tiny creatures can navigate eroded pathways in water-filled rock strata. Even in a faulted area, the fractures in the rock are small. Nevertheless, the idea is too much fun to ignore and so it comes up repeatedly as an excuse for why lake monsters remain as cryptids, away from scientific detection.

Sucked under

Related to the bottomless potential is the additional scary detail that people can be sucked under the water and into the voids below by the weird geology, never to be recovered. This also doesn’t happen as described because the water body doesn’t have a drain that would draw people in, like in a bathtub. The pull generated during floods or spillway or leaking dam would definitely be hazardous but that’s not how the fantastical incidents are described. The tropes of “bottomless” and “sucked-under” appear in the spooky stories about sag ponds in California.

Lost Lake, Cajon Pass

Lost Lake is a sag pond north of San Bernadino. It has a strong association with being “bottomless” because of the known fault underneath and the deep springs that feed it. As it usually goes, the idea is enhanced by baseless stories of a people being pulled under the water and appearing miles away (the specifics are either missing or outrageously implausible  – because they are made up). There are no reports of strange beasts in this lake except for people catching what they call mutant fish. The lake is only about 15 feet deep and has dried up in the past.

Una Lake

Another “bottomless” sag pond near Palmdale is growing a reputation via unsourced forum tales. Una Lake is a small finger of water across from the artificially made Lake Palmdale. People describe vehicles disappearing in the lake and bodies that are dumped there, never to be retrieved. Again, the “pulled under” idea is common. Una Lake seems to also have a repeated story of a sighting of a long-tailed monster but I could find no source. The stories do seem to get conflated with those of Elizabeth Lake. So it might be safe to say that all of the lakes around Palmdale likely have their stories.

Fault-related lakes in other parts of the world also have legends. For example, the monstrous Hydra (the offspring of Typhon and Echidna) had its lair in the lake of Lerna in Greece. This lake was also associated with a passage to Hades (liminal, bottomless, etc.) The hydra also had poisonous breath and blood. The lake was above a fault. But it has now vanished due to increased siltation and draining of the marsh that it eventually became. Thus, its reputation of being bottomless is forever ruined.

Sag pond legends shrink and grow

It turns out that sag pond/lakes are rather unimpressive. They shrink and grow during the lifetimes of most residents so they can see for themselves that nothing big lives there. Besides the few mentioned, I was not able to find much at all to support the idea that fault-associated lakes or ponds have regular behavior that would lead observers to create legendary tales about it. This suggests that most sag pond/lakes do not have unusual natural features that could be interpreted as a monster or evil spirit, or the stories have not survived to the modern times except in a few cases. Although, I’m sure there are many more rumors and friend-of-a-friend stories I missed. Spooky tales are invented every day and shared online, only to grow in reputation and suddenly assumed to be “folklore” or factual.

Certainly, seismic activity is common in the sag pond areas of California. At best, the lake may show waves, churning of the sediment, some bubbling, and maybe changes in water level. It does not readily appear that these specific fault lakes are any weirder or associated with more folklore than any other lake. However, a more thorough study would be necessary. A study to consider the folklore of these special water bodies vs non-seismic-related lakes would be a monumental task; I don’t think it’d be worth it.

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