Pyramid Lake In Nevada Has A Dark History That Will Never Be Forgotten

This unique place in Nevada is a mix of haunting natural beauty and creepy legends, coupled with a history of war and violence from the old West.

Pyramid Lake is one of the largest natural lakes in Nevada, covering 125,000 acres.

Dimka/Flickr

The water in the lake can change from blue to gray depending on lighting and weather conditions. The lake is surrounded with many striking rock formations.

Laura Jeanne/Flickr

The beauty of the lake and its shores are in stark contrast to its dark history.

Matteo Bittanti/Flickr

The lake is the site of the Pyramid Lake War of 1860. This was the largest battle between Native Americans and white settlers in the state.

Ken Lund [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Pauite tribe from the area, banded together with Bannocks and Shoshones, fought white settlers, resulting in more settlers dying than ever before in a fight between natives and settlers.

S.F. Morse [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Fearing the effects of retaliation on their people as more soldiers arrived to fight, the tribes slipped away one night. This decision saved many lives, but ended any future effective chance of armed resistance by Native Americans in Nevada.

Andrew/Flickr

The lake is the source of many evil Paiute legends. There was a belief that the lake was cursed, and at the time of the war with the settlers, many of the tribes blamed the curse for both the incursion of the settlers and the violence that erupted.

Gary O. Grimm/Flickr

One Paiute story tells of a mermaid from the lake who became enamored with a local tribesman. His friends and family balked at the union and told him to take her back to the lake. She was so enraged with this treatment that she cursed the lake and all who would live around it.

rocor/Flickr

Another local legend is of the Water Babies. These little “baby-like” creatures are demons who haunt the lake just under the surface, waiting to pull unsuspecting fisherman in. While this is just a legend, many visitors to the lake to this day report hearing strange noises on the water that sound like crying children.

James Ball/Flickr

The voices are said to be heard mostly in the spring, which coincidentally is also when the most boating accidents tend to occur. Fishing traffic on the lake is high at this time of year which may explain the coincidence…or not…

Patrick Nouhailler/Flickr

The lake has also had stories of swimmers and scuba divers drowning in the lake for odd reasons, and in some cases no bodies have been found. Even stranger, other cases have involved bodies found in nearby Lake Tahoe, even though they drowned in Pyramid Lake.

Beau Rogers/Flickr

Have you experienced the eerie beauty of Lake Pyramid? Share with us in the comments!