Raspberry Days. Every August, for three days spanning a sunny summer weekend, the town of Garden City, Utah celebrates what they call ‘Raspberry Days‘. They grow lots of raspberries there. The community celebrates with a parade, festival and fair, a rodeo, a golf tournament, fireworks, pie eating contests, live concerts, dances, a boat light parade at the marina, a Miss Berry Princess contest, pancake breakfasts and ...wait a minute ...”boat light parade”? ..”marina”? ....
Garden City, Utah sits on the western shore of one of the most beautiful fresh water lakes in the world. Bear Lake. It’s 25 miles long and about 10 miles wide and straddles the Northern Utah / Southern Idaho border. The lake is over 250,000 years old and was formed by geologic activity along its’ western edge, a fault zone, which continues active to this day ever increasing the depth of the lake. Bear Lake is about 200 feet at its‘ deepest spot and is characterized by its magnificently dramatic and iconic turquoise-blue color which is due to limestone deposits suspended in the water. It looks like a giant swimming pool and can be seen from outer space.
In the early nineteenth century, trappers and traders the likes of Jeremiah Johnson would rendezvous with the Indians on the north shore of Bear Lake, near today’s Laketown to swap furs and pelts for goods and services.
Of course, Bear Lake has its’ myths, legends and stories. Stories, myths and legend of a Loch Ness-type monster living in its’ depths. There have been sightings, although unsubstantiated or recorded, and there have been fakes, frauds, mock-ups and hoaxes ...like UFOs. Fun stuff.
Nonetheless, it’s a spectacular lake, and it is no wonder that over the years, despite the harsh winter season, Bear Lake has become a popular summer resort complete with a world-class marina, condominiums for sale, acreage property to purchase, gift shops, burger joints, pizza, chicken and taco stands, dinner theatre, and yes, a liquor store just a few miles up the road over the Idaho state line where you can also buy a lottery ticket. The place is basically a farming community virtually deserted in the winter, Coney Island / Raspberry Days in the summer ...and you’ll want a famous Bear Lake raspberry milk shake to complete the experience.
...so, it’s further no wonder that when my son-in-law invited us to spend a Raspberry Days’ weekend at a cabin on the lake for boating, water skiing, wakeboarding and swimming, we accepted immediately.
Our fist day out on the boat was a spectacularly beautiful blue-sky summer day. 83 degrees, there was a slight breeze, and the water was a little choppy in places, which made it all the more exciting. Water spray in my face as we raced over the waves, I was a Walter Mitty character lost in the moment. I was JFK on PT 109. I was John Wayne in the classic film ‘They were Expendable‘ about PT (Patrol Torpedo) boats fighting WW II in the South Pacific ...https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=they+were+expendable
I was the swashbuckling adventurer in the film 'Sahara‘ ...https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sahara+pull+a+panama+clip
I’m pretty much a homebody and this was my Walter Mitty moment. I was so wrapped up in the thrill and excitement of my PT boat ‘high seas’ adventure I hardly noticed the strange occurrence happening off the starboard bow. Then it caught my eye. A wave, more like a wake about 100 yards out. The surrounding water was choppy but no whitecaps. What caught my eye was the whitecap atop this small wave-like feature. The water was dark under it. It reminded me of a submarine running just below the surface. It looked to be about 75 to 100 feet long.
I called out for everyone to look, and they all saw it too. Then, it turned and headed straight for us gradually raising out of the water picking up speed. But this ‘submarine‘ had a head. It looked like the long-neck dinosaur eating the leaves off the tree in ‘Jurassic Park’, the Brachiosaurus. It was the Bear Lake Monster. It was no myth, it was true. We all saw it. Yikes!
What happened next can only be described as a dream-like sequence. The monster, let’s call him, or her, “Raspy” for Raspberry Days, or “Isabella” has also been suggested by some of the locals who still believe this is a fun myth to promote, kept coming at us. But within our horror this was no fun, we were running for our lives!
My son-in-law, Jason, opened up the throttle as far as it would go and headed for shore, the bow up and slapping the choppy water with continuous bangs and jolts spraying water everywhere. We were panicked. The monster was gaining on us. Then, with one swoop of its‘ long neck it turned downward and with it's powerful jaws plucked little Oliver, Jason’s 18-month old nephew, out of the boat by the back of his life vest. Jason kept shouting at me, “John! ..John! .. Quick! ...change the title of this story! ...‘The Bear Lake Monster 'Loves' Children‘ ...people who don’t finish reading this may think it means the monster loves to EAT children! Ollie is NOT expendable!”
Jason had a point, but I noticed something that I couldn’t explain. I didn’t sense malice in the beast, I saw ...kindness ...love. I told Jason to hold on, I told him to stop the boat. He did. The monster stopped too, and then gently placed Oliver on his back and circled our boat several times giving the boy the ride of his life that he would never forget. Pure joy. Frightening and joyful at the same time. We all relaxed, except Oliver’s mother, of course. But it was apparent that Ollie was in no danger.
Then, the monster used his long neck like a crane reaching back picking up Oliver by his life vest again and ever so gently placed him back on the boat.
We were all standing there in silence with our mouths wide open not believing what we were seeing as Raspy, or Isabella, silently submerged back into the depths of Bear Lake. I swear I saw a smile on her, his, face. Oliver reached out and said in his soft little voice ...”more!”.
We wondered if anyone on shore or in other boats had seen what had happened. We were all too stunned and consumed with fright and concerned for Oliver’s safety that none of us had recorded the event on our phones. Apparently no one else had seen what happened so we decided to keep it to ourselves because we did’t think anyone would believe us. Didn’t want to come off like a bunch of nut-cases.
Laying in bed that night, I asked myself, what would John Wayne have done in his PT boat? Blow it out of the water, most likely. As I fell into a deep sleep I began to dream about the day’s events, about the Bear Lake Monster, about little Oliver riding on its‘ back ...about raspberry milk shakes, Raspberry Day parades and the associated festivities ...
The dream seemed all too real.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
http://newsbout.com/a/John+Kushma
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