LEGEND HAS IT that in the early 1900’s –when Rucker Mill was central to downtown and locomotives hauled lumber by way of a trestle just over the lake’s surface–one such locomotive derailed, plunging below the water forever.

 

There were no reported eyewitnesses of the actual event.  

 

However, many claim to have seen the wreckage while flying overhead or boating over it. Indeed, one longtime resident (and the first mayor of Lake Stevens), Bill Hawkins, claims to have dived deep into the water where the submerged train lay, and was able to “ring its bell”. 

 

Strangely, many who looked in the area later found nothing – not while swimming nor while fishing. And so, for years area residents debated and argued the existence of “the train in the lake.” 

 

Then on July 15th, 1995 confirmation was provided by a Navy SEAL team who searched the cove bottom, and succeeded in finding the locomotive. 

 

Legend was confirmed as fact. 

 

Dozens of feet below the surface, the engine will remain, settled in the sediment where it landed over 100 years ago.  Once the existence was confirmed, officials closed the case and insisted that the train remain on the lake bottom.

 

Yet what many do not know, is that when the bell was first rung all those years ago, a rare magic fell over the train.

 

A beam of light shot out from its headlight, and in front of it, memories of all the places the train had gone and the people it had encountered projected into the lake’s murky waters. Its first audience was just the fish and aquatic life of the lake, but slowly others joined, drawn to the magic light that danced beneath the water’s surface. 

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On calm nights as the sky darkens, if you listen closely, the toll of the railroad bell can be faintly heard below the surface. The locomotive shakes and twitches as it awakens.

 

 "CHUGGA CHUGGA CHUGGA CHUGGA CHOO CHOO! "

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Logs roll into formation across the lake’s floor to create an underwater amphitheater. The aquatic inhabitants of the lake (and sometimes, others) congregate around the old locomotive as its bell tolls out DING DING DING! Its headlight flickers, then steadies, then hurls out a beam of light - illuminating moving images, telling fantastic stories.

 

For anyone who will gather and join it.