The Demented Driller of Deep Lake.

[Tony Livingston]

   No one knows how deep it really is, at least no one alive today.

[David Dillman]

Mike,

I never did fish their when I was a kid, because I wasn't much of a fisherman.  Me and my buddies would drive up from the Frankfort area to jump off the cliffs, and go down the water slide.  It was a great time and alot of good memories.  I live around the Quad cities in IL,  My friends have tried to get me to move back to Indiana, but the fishing is better here. 

Dilly

[David Dillman]

Frances Park in Logansport, Indiana was a quarry that filled up overnight because they hit a underground springs.  People still dive and check out the mining equipment.   I never fished it, but we used to jump off the 75 foot cliffs, when I was a kid. 

Dilly

[Leo Nguyen]

Okay..I'm not watch any more movie about fishing for a few weeks. This is too scary.

[Jen Nayfly]

Tony you should be a playwrite!!!!!!!!

[Greg McWilliams]

ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS!!!!!!!!

[Bruce Condello]

That made my week.  Worth waiting for.  An all time BBG classic.

[Tony Livingston]

Found it....but I don't remember finishing it????

 

   No one knows how deep it really is, at least no one alive today. It had been a limestone quarry in the early 1900's, and the sheer rock  walls that define its perimeter still bear the tool marks left behind by the drill bits. The story goes that the mining company went bankrupt and simply walked away, abandoning the site and leaving the floor of the pit littered with equipment. Eventually, the cavernous hole filled with water, completely submerging the remnants of the mining operation,  concealing the twisted, rusted machinery along with thousands of feet of steel cables.....enough to ensnare anything that finds it's way to the bottom of the pit.

Willard Densham owned the property that Deep lake sits on up until the late 60's. It was before my time, but the old folks still speak hesitantly of Densham, even after all these years. The general concensus is that he was a bit "off".... lived by himself, hunted and fished for most of his food, although he did come to town every couple of weeks to get his mail and neccesities....usually on a Tuesday.

Everybody in town knew him, and most agreed that he was the best fisherman in the county. Peculiar perhaps, but there was no denying the photographs and the occasional fish that Densham would show off around the hardware store where he obtained his ammunition and fishing supplies. Those were the biggest Bluegills that folks around these parts had ever seen. Even now, there's a couple of yellowed photographs that still hang in the hardware store that show Bluegills almost beyond belief.

I understand that most local anglers had tried at one time or another to get permission from Densham to fish his lake, but none ever did. And the boxes of .30-.30 ammunition that he packed out every couple of weeks left little room for arguments.

Then, in October of 69' came the worst cold snap that anyone could remember. It snowed the second weekend of the month, and temps dropped into the teens at night, while only climbing into the mid 20's during the day. The ponds and lakes skimmed over, and farmers were chopping holes in the ice to water their cattle. Folks figured they were in for a record winter all right.

October 30th fell on a Tuesday that year, and the regulars down at Friedman's Hardware and Supplies were more than a little surprised when Willard Densham never put in an appearance. Those were different times back then and neighbors looked out for each other, even if that person was a bit eccentric. So the next morning a few locals headed up to Deep lake, to find out what had kept Densham from making his rounds.

They found the house in order, with the exception of Willard's coonhounds...they hadn't been fed, nor had the ice been dumped from their water bowls. And there was no sign of Willard Densham himself.

They searched the outbuildings and the grounds immediate to the house, then expanded their efforts to the property itself. And that's when they found it. Standing on the steep shoreline of the frozen lake they could all plainly see the broken shards of ice, and the discolored area where the hole had re-frozen. There was no mystery here, Densham had ventured out, foolishly, and had gone through. Off to the side of the hole sat a flexible flyer sled, with a wooden crate on top...the angler's ice fishing gear.

The sheriff was called to the scene, but there was nothing anyone could do. The ice was far too thin to approach the hole, and it was obvious that he had gone through and not come back out. "She'll thaw soon, and we'll find em' up top in a few days" was the sheriff's response. And in fact he was partly correct.....it did thaw, and the ice disappeared. But Willard Densham never came to the surface. It was assumed that the body was entrapped in the twisted coils of heavy cables that lay on the bottom. The lake's depth and metal debris made dragging an impossibility.

The town placed a simple marker at an empty gravesite, to acknowledge the passing of Willard Densham. Life returned to normal, and winter came and went. The following spring found many people thinking again of Deep lake, and the gigantic Bluegills that prowled its depths. Densham was gone. He had no family, and no one was left to deny access to what was surely the best fishing hole in the county. The first two anglers made no secret of their plans to fish the lake, and expectations were high as to the stories and photos that would be shared upon their arrival back in town.

Except they never made it back.

The coroner said it was a sharp instrument, but he couldn't identify it. However, my father, who was a volunteer fireman at the time and helped carry out the bodies, recognized what would account for such wounds...... They were made by an ice auger.

No one else tried to fish Deep lake that season, and they still don't today. The property is abandoned, although the surrounding areas are  popular with Deer hunters, and folks who search for morel mushrooms and ginseng. There's been some pretty unusual trailcam photos taken, but only a few know about, or will talk about them.

Stories come and go, but this one is a constant for my area. People still whisper about Willard Densham, and the year of the frozen Halloween.

It grows cold, early this year.......

 

[Bruce Condello]

The plot thickens...

[Bruce Condello]

Mike!  THAT'S the mysterious part. LOL

[Bruce Condello]

This just "appeared".  Actually all he little hairs on the back of my neck just stood up.  This is WAAAAY freaking me out.