Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-05-11
A QUEER LAKE.
STORY OF BUCKSPORT'S EN-
CHANTED POND.
THE STORY OF THE DEVILS PORRIDGE
HOW A SCIENTIFIC MAN
EXPLAINS ALL.

In the old days the folks down that way
used to think that Shows pond was be-
witched. Some of the particularly su-
perstitious said that the devil used to stir
the porridge there.
OF course all those quaint myths were
cleared away long ago, but that fact doesn't
alter the curious nature of this sheet of
water.
Shows pond, called thus from an aged
hunter whose grave is on hillside that
overlooks the little lake. is situated only
about mile above Bucksport.
In these days it has tanned its spirit
somewhat, but according to a writer in
the New York Herald, it used to be a ram
pageous little fuss budget of lake. It's
most peculiar characteristic appears to be
that though water, if left uncontined has
ha bit of running down hill, the water
in Shows pond defes precedent and goes
up or down, as it chooses, ignoring both
gravity and the professors.
On calm August days, when there is not
wind enough to stir the aspen birches,
and when there has been no rain for a
month, the water will begin to rise, and
within four hours the sands of the shore
will be covered for a rod or more, repre-
senting perpendicular upheaval of near
ly four feet. Again, in the spring, after
big rains, when congested streams pour
their floods into this pond from every
hill, and the waters are swollen so that
they lap among the alders on the bank,
Shows pond will take a notion to subside.
First it will show small depression near
the eastern end. This will grow deeper
and deeper, great waves will come crash
ing on the shore and the waters will boil
will whirl in narrowing circles until it
reaches the cavity, when it will plunge
into the vortex, never to appear again.
For five or six hours the waters will bub-
BILE and roar, then suddenly the tumult
will cease, and those who care to measure
can find that the pond has subsidized four
or five feet.
About twenty years ago John Eldridge,
who lived near the pond, tied long
painter to small wherry and cast the
boat adrift, making the line fast to tree
on the shore. 1t did the usual amount of
circling and balancing, and then dived.
The line grew taut, strained for moment
and then lay slack upon the water. Ed
bridge pulled in and found whole ring
bolt and a shattered fragment of the
sternpost attached; the rest of the boat he
never saw again. This experiment can be
repeated often as anybody wishes to
lose boat.
The pond itself contains about three
hundred acres. 1t is elliptical in shape,
with its longer diameter running east and
west. 1t is framed in low, steep hills and
has no visible outlet. Current report
says the surface rises and falls with the
tides, and the fluctuations are due to the
position of the moon. This is not a fact
The subsistence always takes place during
and Immediately after the spring and
autumn freshets, and If it happens but
once year spring is the time to look for
it The upheavals, which are not SO
marked, and very infrequent, may be
looked for during the drought of summer,
when the brooks which supply the pond
are all dry. In other words Shows pond
is an aquatic paradox. In dry times it is
comparatively empty.
Various reasons have from time to time
been advanced to account for these &C.
centrcities, some of which are scientific,
several are superstitious, and a majority
are decidedly silly. AS a superstitious
belief in the occult powers of Charley
Scott first brought the pond into notice,
he should claim little attention.
a mile west from Shows pond, across
the Penobscot, is a small basin of the
river, known as Sammy's Eddy, so named
for Capt. Samuel Harding, whose house
was near. Harding lived in the town of
Prospect, about mile north of the place
where Fort Knox has since been built
After the Mexican war a crazy mulatto,
Charles Scott by name, drifted down
East and built shanty on the shores OF
Sammy's Eddy. Colored men We're not
fashionable in Prospect at that time, and
| it is said he had a hard lot with the rough
sailor lads. For nearly two years he kept
a fire burning on the shore near the howell
hot permitting IL W ~ oul udS oT mig III
W hen questioned he said the fire would
burn as long as he lived, and when he died
the "devil would boil his pot in Sammy's
Eddy.
One April morning in 1852 no smoke
came from his fire. Neighbors, W no broke
into the shanty, found Charles Scott dead
on the floor. The town gave the man a
Christian burial. On the day of the
funeral the rippled surface of Sammy's
Eddy began to wrinkle with pillows, and
in the centre of the connection great
water soaked logs were hurled out of the
flood twenty feet in the air. Waterspouts
tinged with mud and beaded with foam
shot aloft, bearing trees, driftwood and
fragments of stone, and the roaring OF
the cauldron could be heard for miles