Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

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dauntless89
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by dauntless89 » Sat Dec 14, 2013 10:28 pm

That makes sense. I would still think there's a limit, perhaps even theoretical, to how far it can penetrate any medium including water, but if they could still see a defined hard-rock bottom it doesn't matter how deep the silt is.

My uncle was a SONAR operator in the Navy and said that all kinds of things can affect SONAR, even differences in water density from hot/cold layers. This was also 20-year-old tech. I'm sure SONAR has advanced as much as any other electronic detection technology over the same time period. He retired in the late 90s as an 0-4, working his way up from enlistment.

Come to think of it, I know on my grandpa's fish-finder, one of the newer, fancy, expensive ones, different material densities show up as different colors. If a fish-finder available at Cabelas can make that distinction, the Interspace Exploration guys probably had a much more detailed picture.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by scrappy » Sun Dec 15, 2013 1:16 pm

My dad was also Navy. He was in for 38 years and a navigator by trade and retired as a Master Chief. I have read a little about sonar both in the surface fleet and the sub fleet. Its facinating that water layers of differing temepratures can act as cloaking layers for a sub to hide in...who would have thought that possible 100 years ago. It seems there is a difference in active Vs. passive sonar in dealing with such things. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting thread and I learned quite a bit from contacting those guys. To me thats what makes a thread interesting, when it prods me to learn something.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by streamline1903 » Thu Dec 26, 2013 9:12 am

The headless Indian chief.

Hey whatever, going on any body of large water is inherently dangerous.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by streamline1903 » Thu Dec 26, 2013 10:15 am

The headless Indian Chief Joseph.

I would say don't take anything, or anyone, you care about on that lake.

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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by Stiff » Thu Dec 26, 2013 10:57 am

streamline1903 wrote:The headless Indian Chief Joseph.

I would say don't take anything, or anyone, you care about on that lake.
Are you referring to Chief Kamiakin? I am not familiar with any story or legend in that locale with a Chief Joseph.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by pirateer2007 » Thu Dec 26, 2013 12:08 pm

I work with a guy who says he's seen the train (or some rectangular structures) on his bottom scanning sonar. He said he's willing to take me out and show me. I'm going to wait till a little later in the season, but boy, am I intrigued!!
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by scrappy » Thu Dec 26, 2013 11:52 pm

pirateer2007 wrote:I work with a guy who says he's seen the train (or some rectangular structures) on his bottom scanning sonar. He said he's willing to take me out and show me. I'm going to wait till a little later in the season, but boy, am I intrigued!!
Rocky bottom structures are all you will find, as the pros with top of the line equipment and a week of non stop work (one of several visits to the lake by them) were unable to find it in a deliberate search. Also as stated above there are no records, either from the railroad or from local news sources, that ever mentioned this wreck. But by all means give it a try.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by pirateer2007 » Fri Dec 27, 2013 3:39 am

scrappy wrote:
pirateer2007 wrote:I work with a guy who says he's seen the train (or some rectangular structures) on his bottom scanning sonar. He said he's willing to take me out and show me. I'm going to wait till a little later in the season, but boy, am I intrigued!!
Rocky bottom structures are all you will find, as the pros with top of the line equipment and a week of non stop work (one of several visits to the lake by them) were unable to find it in a deliberate search. Also as stated above there are no records, either from the railroad or from local news sources, that ever mentioned this wreck. But by all means give it a try.
I wonder if insurance records would have been kept?
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by Backlash » Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:09 am

good thread!

I can verify that when the wind picks up.. you better be off the lake, or headed off.. :o


found this a while back on Rock Lake, lists some of the stuff mentioned here.
http://www.spokaneoutdoors.com/rocklake.htm
The page shows 375 feet deep, we have seen 360 on the fish finder in a few places the lake IS deep.

We have had better luck on the "small" side rather than the big side. Go under the bridge to the left of the "ramp" :roll:
It gets shallow by the bridge so make sure you are not in a big boat.

Look at the satellite view of the lake.. there are 3 sections to it. the Large side, the small side.. a creek that feeds into a medium size. We know the farmer that owns the land surrounding the medium part of the lake, we've fished it and had mixed results. The 2nd largest fish we have pulled from the lake is in that medium sized area.. 22 1/4" (Largest being 23.5" on the big side)

We don't troll, or go real deep. We know of many 20"+ trout caught on the large side by trollers.

another good article from 1995
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/a ... -good-but/

A little proof of the Model T's?
With abandoned railroad tracks running its length, Rock Lake holds other secrets, too. Supposedly there was a train wreck that dumped a load of new cars in the lake. Model T’s, to be exact.

The anonymous landowner says he has had a number of inquiries about the incident and a few years ago a team of Puget Sound salvage divers came over to look. The divers were hampered by poor diving conditions but they did bring up some brake lines and other parts.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by high country » Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:47 am

dauntless89 wrote:Without knowing first-hand a large amount about local lakebed composition and SONAR technology, I consider a possibility where the derailment did occur, but after 80-100 years the cars may have sank in silt to an undetectable level.

The father of one of my co-workers was big in the heavy equipment industry and ran a repair job shop over in Montana for most of his life. I heard through the co-worker a story about a section of road being constructed 30 or 40 years ago, where the construction crew got a large piece of equipment stuck in mud while prepping the road bed for paving. I can't remember the details, but it was a large heavy machine, perhaps a paver. They couldn't get it out and threw in the towel when it got dark. By the time they returned the next day, it had sank so far into the mud that the only thing above ground was the last 5 or 6 inches of the exhaust pipe. The contractor ended up just building the road over it because at that point, recovery and repair would have cost more than buying a replacement.

I don't know how consistent Rock Lake's bed composition is, or how far SONAR can penetrate. Silt could have also accumulated around the wreckage, burying it. This is a common phenomenon with shipwrecks. I'm talking out my ass with speculation at this point, but maybe something to think about.
the contractor was deggerstrom or materne.....my dad worked on it. It was lake cda. ..iirc.

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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by pirateer2007 » Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:48 pm

Any new stories out there?
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by scrappy » Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:51 pm

I recall that story about Lake CdA. If memory serves there was a dozer lost in the lake on that job as well.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by hatchdog » Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:22 pm

scrappy wrote:I recall that story about Lake CdA. If memory serves there was a dozer lost in the lake on that job as well.
Correct, it was when the interstate was being built east of Cda. This was on the high bridge across Blue Creek Bay. How many of you remember when I-90 wound around the lake with all those 35 mph corners and the traffic light in Wallace? A traffic light on an interstate...... :D


OH, I heard a new long range rifle range was recently discovered by Rock Lake! :lol: It's not a myth, I saw it with my own eyes.

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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by scrappy » Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:08 pm

hatchdog wrote:
scrappy wrote:I recall that story about Lake CdA. If memory serves there was a dozer lost in the lake on that job as well.
Correct, it was when the interstate was being built east of Cda. This was on the high bridge across Blue Creek Bay. How many of you remember when I-90 wound around the lake with all those 35 mph corners and the traffic light in Wallace? A traffic light on an interstate...... :D


OH, I heard a new long range rifle range was recently discovered by Rock Lake! :lol: It's not a myth, I saw it with my own eyes.
I do recall I-90 with the corners as well as the last traffic light between Boston and Seattle. That was when one could find other red lights in wallace, but thats for another thread.
I have seen this range with my eyes as well.......plan to see it again this saturday.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by EWU92 » Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:59 am

Rock pinnacles exist in the middle of the lake and regularly tear off the outdrives of unwary boaters.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by scrappy » Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:38 am

I do know of some shallow rocks just out from the northern/western shore line about 1/2 way down the lake. They are about 50yds out from the shore where you would think you would be pretty safe. Good trout fishing around them.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by EWU92 » Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:57 am

Back in the late 50'S the Belsby Brother's stole a City of Cheney Police Car and ditched it in the lake :)
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by mossrock » Thu Jun 04, 2015 7:00 pm

I too have heard about the train wreck.

Other things I have not seen mentioned or not in detail, include;

My dad went to College at Eastern in Cheney. One science expedition to the lake for class detailed the weather conditions of the lake in which the wind in the center of the lake can and does create 6' waves/swells and choppy water regularly, making for very dangerous conditions to those uninformed or unprepared.

I also have heard stories that there are lava tubes connecting Rock Lake to the Columbia River. I have heard that people who have drowned in Rock Lake have turned up later in the Columbia. I don't know if this is speculation or fact? The reports of Sturgeon in the lake are another thing that I have heard speculation on. A close friend of mine may have experienced one first hand. He was boat fishing on the lake one day alone and was casting near what he thought was a large rock projecting out of the water. He detailed that he had done this for maybe ten or so minutes when all of the sudden the rock MOVED and descended. He said that it was very large (about the length of his 14' boat) and it freaked him out!

I know another Native friend who refuses to go near or fish the lake. He has related that the Native tribes familiar with the lake are highly superstitious of it for good reason. Many Natives have disappeared or lost their lives in this body of water. I also have heard that an Indian Chief (Chief Kamiakin http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?Di ... e_id=10096 ) was/is buried very near the lake and this too is part of the taboo/curse associated with it.
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Re: Rock Lake Legends, Myths and Mysteries...

Post by scrappy » Fri Jun 05, 2015 10:47 am

Interesting, but I really doubt the lava tube idea mainly because the lake elevation is 1,728', which places the bottom just under 1,400', which is quite a bit above the elevation of the nearest part of the Columbia river. Then there is the fact that the lake is nearly 100 miles from the closest part of the river. Seepage of some sort might get there, I have heard of weird things like that in other places, but nothing that coulld transport a body.
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