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A third legend
places the spirit at a much later date in the early 1980s. According
to this tale, a young woman and her lover agree to mete at the lake for an
evening of romance. However, when the young man arrived he was
enraged by a rumor he had heard about her and the two began to quarrel. The disagreement grew worse ending in the man drowning her in the lake. In this version, it is the murdered woman who wanders the lake.
 Finally,
if you were to ask anyone of Hispanic descent, they would most assuredly
tell you that the ghostly woman is that of
La Llorona,
who is often seen about the lakes and rivers of the southwest.
In any event,
there have been literally hundreds of sightings throughout the years of
the Lady of the Lake, who seemingly doesn’t keep her excursions only at
lakeside. She has also said to have been seen at a nearby cemetery
as well as along a dirt road called Lover’s Lane. One couple
sighting her at Lover’s Lane described her as walking along the road;
however, when she grew closer, they could see that the apparition had not
eyes.
Other strange
phenomena around the lake includes the sounds of screams, moaning,
gunshots and rapping upon vehicle windows. Others report smells of
decaying flesh, perfume and roses.
Dogs at the lake have been noticed to go into unprovoked snapping and
barking at seemingly invisible visitors.
On the breezy
Texas
border, on the prairies far away
Where the antelope is grazing and the Spanish ponies play;
Where the tawny cattle wander through the golden incensed hours,
And the sunlight woos a landscape clothed in royal robes of flowers;
Where the Elm and Clear Fork mingle, as they journey to the sea,
And the night-wind sobs sad stories o'er a wild and lonely lea;
Where of old the dusky savage and the shaggy bison trod,
And the reverent plains are sleeping 'midst drowsy dreams of God;
Where the twilight loves to linger, e'er night's sable robes are cast
'Round grim-ruined, spectral chimneys, telling stories of the past,
There upon an airy mesa, close beside a whispering rill
There to-day you'll find the ruins of Old
Fort Phantom
Hill.
- Larry Chitenden,
1938
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