Washington: North Bend, Rattlesnake lake 2015

Rattlesnake Lake is just a small lake and public park. It’s too cold in this area for rattlesnakes so I don’t know where the name came from.
This is another small unassuming park that people look over, until you look just below the surface. It’s a historical site. The location of the now forgotten town of Moncton.
It’s a fascinating story, I’ve included links to the history below.

I’d heard on the local news that Rattlesnake Lake was at the lowest point in 100 years, so I grabbed my camera and headed up there to see for myself. The water level was 60 feet below normal levels.
Fascinating to see a dry lake bed. But seeing old forgotten foundations of houses, made this a truly interesting day. A chance to discover forgotten history.
I was trying to find interesting ways to photograph a dry lake bed. I started taking pictures very low, looking through the roots, using eth stumps to frame the scene beyond. I was trying to make it look a little on the creepy side. Once you notice the notches in the huge tree stumps, smoothed and worn by the years of being submerged, they start to look like angry eyes. The stumps take on their own personality, you imagine them watching you, trying to pull their roots out of the dirt to follow you…. Or come get you….
The notches in the trees are from the old logging days. The bottom few feet of every tree widens out dramatically to help the tree stand better. This base is undesirable to the logging companies, and too hard to cut through with Axes and hand saws, so loggers start cutting above this flare. They cut notches in the tree, and jam special boards into the holes to stand onto begin cutting.
You’ll see these notches in all old stumps if you look. Interesting fun fact.

I also ran into a blue Heron, and 3 river otters in the lake. Always curious, they were following me wondering what I was doing.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and please check out the links below for more history in this area.

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Websites:
a web page on the history of the town of Moncton
http://ghosttowns.com/states/wa/moncton-cedarfalls.html

a web page with photos about the history of Moncton
http://www.craigmagnuson.com/moncton.htm

more history of the town
https://www.historylink.org/File/2436

a video on the story of Cedar falls / Moncton. Very interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDMjBQHXkQE

a video done by the company that flooded the town, about the demise of the town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGWyDF891lw

Music:
For Music: www.Elements.envato.com

Happy upbeat Acoustic ARCHIMUSIC 2:13
Inspiring and uplifting acoustic Indie TimCat 3:10
Country Stroll PhilLarson 4:02
Keep Going Basspartout 3:00
The Surfing Dead simming 3:18