“The darkness was absolute”– The Creepy Cloud of Swamp Lake
From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:
The following article was found at random in the July 31, 1908 issue of The Ephrata Journal. What is it describing? Swamp gas? A fog anomaly? A strange portal into another dimension?
HARRINGTON FOLKS ARE PERPLEXED
LAKE SURROUNDED BY DARKNESS WHILE SUN IS SHINING
Queer Phenomena Vouched for by Leading Citizens of Lincoln County Town But No Explanation is Vouchsafed — Discovered by Accident by Farmer Fulton Who Felt Creepy.
“The most remarkable natural phenomenon that has ever mystified the people of this section of the country has been discovered at a point six miles northwest of Harrington, at what is locally known as Swamp Lake. There is no light there. Darkness all-enfolding envelops the region during the twenty-four hours of the day and one day after another. The darkness is not a twilight, but a pitch-like, inky blackness. Many people have visited the locality during the past three days and all agree that the phenomenon is uncanny.”
“The first man to experience the peculiar sensation of driving out of the bright sunshine into a night black like the darkness of the mammoth cave in Kentucky was R.S. Fulton, a prominent and veracious rancher residing a mile beyond the lake. Speaking of the peculiar condition Fulton said:”
“‘I drove to Harrington with my family and we were returning home about 2 o’clock in the afternoon when, coming around the bend in the road which skirts the lake, we suddenly drove into deep twilight and then utter darkness. My smallest daughter became frightened and cried loudly. I did not know what to think of the thing myself, but thoughts of fog ran through my head and, as the horses did not appear to be frightened, I was not alarmed.'”
“‘My wife, however, requested me to stop the team, which I did after driving perhaps a hundred yards into the darkness. There was nothing but blackness all around. As we sat there a creepy sensation began to steal over me and I did not know what to do.
“‘I concluded to trust the team and gave them the word to go ahead. They went, picking their way slowly along the road, with which they are well acquainted. We traveled the entire distance along the lake, nearly three-quarters of a mile, in utter darkness and complete silence. As suddenly as we had entered the darkness we emerged from it. There is little more to add except that the air in there was perfectly dry and somewhat cooler than out in the sunshine.'”
“Fulton came to town the next morning by a different road and told the story here. He was laughed at, and the whole thing was taken as a joke, but he insisted that what he had told was absolutely true and finally a party was made up to visit the lake and see if it actually was dark there as represented. Among those who went there were Mayor Mitchum, Cashier Ellis, H.S. Bassett, W.S. Thompson, John Daniels and J.B. Eakin. They returned non-plussed and mystified, but very certain that rancher Fulton had told the truth. All agreed that the darkness was absolute.”
“People have been going up the lake all day. It is not much of a lake. It might more properly be called a swamp. The darkness seems to cover the lake and to extend to a distance of from eighty to 100 yards around it. Many theories have been advanced to account for the phenomenon. All the conditions of nature seem to be normal except that it is dark there when it is light all around.”
As a side note, “Swamp Lake” has yet to be found on any historical or modern map by this writer, although there are a number of unnamed bodies of water that qualify as candidates. In his Lakes of Washington, Ernest E. Wolcott describes 248 lakes in Lincoln County, most of them not named.
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