The Legends of Devil’s Lake (1)

Someone asked me recently to look up some history about Devil’s Lake. As long as I am looking it up I might as well write a story about it. Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin has been linked since early times to the Dells. When white people first arrived it already had a rich history of Indian Legends and I think here is where its history should start. Most legends, Indian or otherwise, have some basis in fact. In oral histories of all ancient societies facts tend to merge with fancy to form legends when history is not promptly written down. I can’t see anything about this beautiful lake that looks like the Devil. But Indians called it Spirit Lake when white men first came and to the whites all the Indian Spirits were Devils. The most plausible legend tells of a Frenchman named Pierre who won the heart of the daughter of the local chief. Her name was called “Early Dawn” in English. But an Indian brave named Windago also sought Early Dawn as a wife. When both came to the chief to ask for her hand in marriage the chief said the first one to swim across the lake and climb a high pine and bring back an eagle fledgling from the nest would win her. The race across the lake was swift and they both started to climb the tree at the same time. Pierre seemed to be winning the climb so Windago tripped him in the tree and he fell down to his death. Early Dawn, watching from the opposite bank, screamed and flung herself into the water and drowned attempting to cross to her love. In the evenings it is said her spirit still floats above the water at dusk. Hence Spirit Lake.