Backpacker

2DONE IN A DAYplay listLake CrescentOLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, WAMaybe they were intrigued by a dark massbobbing in the water near SledgehammerPoint. Or maybe it was a small, white fl ashat the surface that caught their attention.Or perhaps they simply cast a line forsteelhead and were surprised to discover a5-foot-long bundle on the other end. But forsome reason on a day in July 1940, the twotrout fi shermen reeled in a nearly perfectlypreserved corpse. Lake Crescent hadsurrendered one of its secrets.Lake Crescent is nestled in a glacialvalley south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca onthe northern end of the Olympic Peninsula.Four-thousand-foot peaks rise on eitherside, as if to guard it—and maybe they are.The native Klallam and Quileute peopletell a story of a once-beautiful region thatwas marred by war. Mt. Storm King, whichsoars over the lake’s southern banks, grewangry at the tumult and threw a chunkof rock from its peak into the river valleywhere the tribes were fi ghting. The boulderkilled every one of the battling tribespeopleand dammed the water, creating anundisturbed, crescent-shaped lake.There’s some historical truth to the legend.Geological surveys indicate that a massivelandslide decimated the area 8,000 yearsago, eff ectively separating Lake Crescent andLake Sutherland. One result of the partitionis the former’s crystalline water. Withoutmajor infl ows, Lake Crescent lacks the usualamounts of plant nutrients, like nitrogenand phosphorus, preventing algae growth.It’s no wonder a fl oating body looked soout of place in the clear water.The two fi shermen, brothers, reeled inthe corpse. It was wrapped in a gray, stripedblanket and bound with rope, but tearsrevealed a shoulder and a foot, both so``````pallid the body looked less a womanthan a mannequin.“It’s like a statue,” Sheriff CharlesKemp later concluded aft er the coroner’sexamination. “The fl esh has turned to somerubber-like substance.” There was no odor,nor any sign of decomposition. Somethingabout Lake Crescent’s unique makeup hadnot only preserved the body—including aring of still-purple bruises circling the girl’sneck—but had also actuated a chemicalprocess called saponifi cation, essentiallyconverting the tissue into soap. Whatremained was the body of a woman inher mid-30s, around 5 feet, 6 inches tall,obviously strangled, and, to an extent,easily identifi able: Hallie Illingworth,missing for three years.But Illingworth was only one of LakeCrescent’s victims. In 1956, an ambulancecareened off US 101 at Meldrim Point,plunging into Lake Crescent, killing one. In``````Haunted HikesDestinations Editor Maren Horjus shares four spooky,Halloween-ready tales from her new book, Haunted Hikes.