Fun Fact #423 What the Devil?

 Current Fun Fact #423

What The Devil?

Near the Cities of Santa Clarita and Lanchester in California, sits a beautiful body of water called “Lake Elizabeth”. However if you were to drive by, you’d notice it’s fenced in and according to local legend --for good reason.

A local Legend says that long ago, the Devil was upset at his pet and so decided to send it elsewhere. He dug a long gouge in the earth where water would collect, with a passageway to Hell at the bottom. He then set his pet loose and returned home. 

The first recorded sighting came from 1830, soon followed by tales of terrible noises and missing cows driving many from the area. Eventually in 1890 several local ranchers gathered and hunted down the beast only for their bullets to bounce off its gray hide. It flew away as the ground shook violently.

However, these tales arise not from some foul beast or even the Devil himself, but from Geology. Lake Elizbeth is not a lake but actually a sag pond, which forms when water collects in the depression formed by two tectonic plates drifting apart –in this case the San Andreas Fault. Hence why the lake can seem suddenly deep in places, yet dry up in times of drought as it has no native water source. However this makes it ideal for containing and raising schools of fish to stock other lakes throughout the state. Thanks to this profitable business the lake is fenced off to better control fishing on the lake, which has public access.  Perhaps Geology really is a rocking subject of study afterall. 

Image is from the Lancaster Museum of Art & History

 http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=37