One person was shot and killed on an LIRR train in Ronkonkoma. Underground Water Resources of Long Island, New York. Professional Paper, January 1, 1994. https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp44. The views expressed here are the author's own. Then, after all those years of being kept apart from her love, she rowed to the middle of the lake and stabbed herself to death. The dream was so unsettling that Igneri told his fellow guards, and just as a precaution, the town allowed me to bring more guards to the lake for that day, July 4. This all ties in to the old Indian stories about the lakes ability to transport victims to other places quite nicely. The myths and legends surrounding Lake Ronkonkoma would be easy to dismiss as silly superstition were it not for the eerie reality: For many decades, someone drowned in Lake Ronkonkoma almost every year. Landlines (3) (718) 487-4084 (718) 380-8546 Show 1 More Cell Phones (2) Premium . They were one of the most spectacular sporting events in the country, let alone just the New York area. Virginia Schutte, 72, who lives on the edge of the lake, said her uncle was a lifeguard there briefly when she was little. Is it truth or just tall tales? When they start making their circles . In commemoration of her broken heart, she would drown one poor male a year in revenge for Huges ignorance, or something like that. Lake Ronkonkomas average depth is fifteen feet, although there are spots within the Lake that measure at least sixty five feet deep. Brian Kachejian is an award winning writer and Certified New York State Social Studies and Music teacher. It means the search is on for yet another body. and M.A. Is It Haunted? I always wanted to write a story about growing up by [Lake Ronkonkoma] and what it was like for me, she said. Also experienced here have been the sounds of weapon-factory . Police Make An Arrest In Ronkonkoma Hit-And-Run; Feb 28, 2023 - . Sometimes it's cryptids or some kind of lake monster that dwells within the depths of the lake. It eventually became an OTB. The problem was the Native Americans didnt have twentieth century technology. . Neither did the colonists. However, many years ago during the first half of the 1900s, the name Ronkonkoma or more specifically Lake Ronkonkoma represented a vacation spot, a summer house or bungalow. A privately own record store that not only was a local favorite but a destination for all serious record collectors looking to get rare albums and tapes. This connection has played a role in some of the myths and mysteries surrounding the Lake. [viii] Mannino, Kaitlynn. "You must remember that the lake is larger and deeper than many people realize. Virginia Schutte, 72, who lives on the edge of the lake, said. Yes, flower arrangements are fulfilled and delivered by local florists from Lake Ronkonkoma. Nonetheless, its been there for probably close to twenty thousand years give or take a few thousand. For example, Capp said she found in her research that calling a chiefs daughter, princess, is a racist term and in actuality, there were no princesses and tribal leaders werent really called chiefs, these titles were given by Europeans. Greater Oyster Bay Situated right on Portion Road about two hundred feet east of Rosevale Avenue, Little Vincents Pizzeria developed the reputation of being the best Pizzeria on Long Island. This post was contributed by a community member. Her spirit would then haunt Lake Ronkonkoma for the rest of time. Vincent Monaco opened Little Vincents in 1971. It is a kettle lake formed by retreating glaciers and is the largest freshwater lake on Long Island; it has a circumference of about 2 miles (3.2 km) and is 0.65 miles (1.05 km) across on average. Because of the danger of the races William K. Vanderbilt set out to build a road that would head east on Long Island called Motor Parkway. This pervasive rumor is fueled by claims that Lake Ronkonkoma has more drownings than usual and that the vast majority of these are young males between the ages of 18 and 38. With Tesi Copa, Michael Koscik, Kat Sarfas. Greater Rockville Centre Greg Cergol reports. A few holes of 20 to 30 feet of water . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. As for the claims of underwater tunnels, although it is unknown if such passages actually exist here or not, the lake does lie near an extensive groundwater flow system that is separated by a divide through the center of Long Island, with water flowing south to Long Island Sound and north to the Great South Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The area saw a great amount of development throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as hotels, beach pavilions, guesthouses, opulent summer residences, and stores sprung up to take advantage of the influx of wealthy tourists, and the previously rural farming area was transformed into more of a fashionable commercial district for the rich. He warned his staff of 11 lifeguardsand sure enough, late that afternoon, an epileptic 15-year-old boy had a seizure and went down in the water. A soundings. Good Samaritans, Cops Save Man And His Dog From Frigid Lake Ronkonkoma - Sachem, NY - Bystanders pulled the man from the water, but an officer had to wade out to retrieve the pooch, cops say. Greater Moriches Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. Search Lake Ronkonkoma obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. Include the name . . Lake Ronkonkoma history is a story defined by generations of people. Drowning statistics back up the legend, some residents said. She visited the local historical society to investigate the legend of The Lady on the Lake.. If you experience any difficulty in accessing any part of this website, please feel free to call us at (631) 588-1515 or email us at
[email protected]. . Adding to the spooky quality of such tales is that some men who have reportedly almost drowned in the lake also have said that during their ordeal they felt as though they were being pulled under or that they could even feel icy fingers clutching at them. Yes, simply click Add a photo located underneath the main photo of the obituary then upload the photos/videos you wish to share. Jun 2020 Couples. Leave a . Filter 0 0. Each time he reached the waters surface in his dream, he saw fireworks. It was an area rapidly developing in the 1970s all around Lake Ronkonkoma that no one who had visited the area in the first half of the twentieth century could ever had imagined. Every article you read on Anomalien is made possible thanks to the generous donations of our supporters. My fathers stories about Lake Ronkonkoma were a common one for all those city kids and families that visited Lake Ronkonkoma for summer retreats in the early to mid-twentieth century. Since then, the local tribes claim that every year the princess lures a young man out into the murky depths of the lake and drowns him, which is said to be mostly out of profound loneliness and desire to find a new lover rather than any malicious or evil intent. John Christopher Sears February 3, 1958 - February 15, 2023 John Christopher Sears of Holbrook, N.Y., passed away peacefully in his sleep on February 15, 2023, surrounded by family and friends. While looking up these records on microfilm would be a chore, with online Lake Ronkonkoma obituaries, all you need is a name, state of death, and year of death. Select "More search options" to: Search for a memorial or contributor by ID. All those spots have now been cleared and fenced off. She left Oneonta two years ago to be with family on Long Island. The farms (peaches, potatoes, ducks, etc) are all gone replaced by housing developments , wineries and strip shopping centers. The department said it only started breaking down drowning statistics specifically for Lake Ronkonkoma starting in 2001, and since then, there also was a male who died in 2012 and another male. "The guy even reportedly sold 'lake juice' in small vials, and I found an old ad promoting the lake as a health resort that cured diseases," says Ebert. Sat. Call us 631-588-9599 One of the other great myths that have defined Lake Ronkonkoma history is that of the story of The Lady Of The Lake. As the majority of deaths due to drowning in Lake Ronkonkoma have been mostly male, the story is defined by the heartbreak of unfilled love. Kind regards, There have been several books, a movie project, a wall mural of the princess and now even a sculpture of her carved out of a local tree trunk. Continue to follow greaterronk.com for updates on the film. p.503. Accessed March 22, 2020. http://www.native-languages.org/mailbag/ronkonkoma.htm. . Greater Lindenhurst Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Because I am touching upon Native American folklore and I am speaking in a climate where the world is very socially aware of injustice and systematic racism, what I ended up really identifying was combining the supernatural component with a family suffering from a tragic loss, while being haunted by a so-called legend, she said. Nevertheless, there is enough strangeness and persistent stories of curses on Lake Ronkonkoma that it has caught the attention of several paranormal investigation groups, who have studied the lake trying to find out if there is anything to the tales. [ix] Veatch, A.C., Charles Sumner Slichter, Isaiah Bowman, W.O. View Cell Phone Number View Background Report. And the longer you hear it going, youre like, Oh, my God, theyre not going to find them.. The train sat at the station through the morning commute, shutting . Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. You have successfully removed Lake Ronkonkoma Cemetery from your Photo Volunteer cemetery list. Lake Ronkonkoma is Long Island's biggest and deepest freshwater lake - it also has an eerily long list of recorded deaths by drowning and a plethora of legends surrounding it. What Im really doing is challenging racial injustices that exist in the town, in my own backyard.. Accessed March 22, 2020. http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_1914_petit_trianon_menu#. So every day for 7 years, she would write letters on pieces of bark, row to the middle of the lake, and float the letters across the lake to Hugh. At the time, the area was sparsely populated, but this would change in the late 1800s, when the lake became a popular summer resort for the rich and famous from New York City. View form 7-11 Photo: Brian Kachejian 2020, [i] Eisenstadt, P. E. (2005). Of course, it we extend beyond the social history of Lake Ronkonkoma into the origins of the Lake formation itself, the history of the Lake goes back thousands of years. Only twenty six years old at the time, but also heir to a very wealthy family, William K. Vanderbilt began organizing the Vanderbilt Cup Races as a way to compete with the successful European Car Races. In 2020, the median property value in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY was $369,800, and the homeownership rate was 69.3%. One such local group calling itself the Long Island Paranormal Investigators has spent a considerable amount of time studying Lake Ronkonkoma using a wide array of sophisticated, fancy sounding equipment such as Electro-Magnetic Field meters, motion sensors, and Geiger counters. There have been over 160 drowning deaths reported at Lake Ronkonkoma since the mid-1800s. Land formations, hills, roads, etc were all obviously fueled by the impact of glaciers. Salary range is 55K and 65K depending on experience. In Capps opinion, these tales are a misconstrued western version of the many stereotypical ideas associated with indigenous people. RONKONKOMA, N.Y. -- A suspect is still on the run following a fatal shooting on a Long Island Rail Road train about to pull out of the Ronkonkoma station early Wednesday morning. Dobbs, whose father, Emerson James Dobbs, died in 2021, owned or co-owned commercial properties in Huntington Village, including the building the 5,870-square-foot space at 313 New York Ave. that was home to the Book Revue. Dr. David Igneri will present a program entitled Haunting of Lake Ronkonkoma at the next meeting of the Bay Shore Historical Society,Thurs., Aug. 21, 7:30 p.m. at the Bay Shore/Brightwaters Library, One South Country Rd., Brightwaters. As the majority of deaths due to drowning in Lake Ronkonkoma have been mostly male, the story is defined by the heartbreak of unfilled love. In the 70s and 80s, Lake Ronkonkoma was a place for young couples to go parking. But it is deep enough to keep some secrets as well. While of course there are those who would like to think that this can all be attributed to the purported curse of the lake, the more likely explanation is that on a lake with many tourists, often with drinking involved, there will inevitably be drownings, and many of those being the most careless are going to perhaps be more likely to be young men. Interestingly, throughout settlement of the area and throughout this rise and fall of the resort, indeed even into the present, there has long been talk that the lake has many inexplicable mysteries, some directly related to the Native American lore surrounding it. [2] Lake Ronkonkoma is mainly located in the Town of Brookhaven, but has small sections in the Town of Smithtown and the Town of Islip . So every day for 7 years, she would write letters on pieces of bark, row to the middle of the lake, and float the letters across the lake to Hugh. In many places, various debris and garbage that had been left behind lined the shore, and it was not until 1962 that some semblance of life was breathed back into the area, when Brookhaven Town turned the beach area into a town-owned beach, yet some of the derelict ruins of the old resort buildings can be seen even today. The first time he remembers hearing about the lake's "curse" was when he attended Ronkonkoma Junior High School in the early 1990s and one of his classmates drowned in the lake. That closed in 2021. In addition to this project, Capp is releasing a new feature film this holiday season called Four Cousins and A Christmas which is set to be released in November (streaming availability TBA). Pictures filled with Vincent posing with celebrities. On The Surface, Everything Seems Normal Just by looking at this lake, you'd never suspect anything about it or that it has been the location of 160 drownings since the mid-1800s into the 1970s, with about 30 more in the decades to follow that. The Long Island Paranormal Investigators take a particular interest in Lake Ronkonkoma as well, partly because their group is based in Ronkonkoma. Thousands of people die in Lake Ronkonkoma each year, and most of these people are mentioned in local New York obituaries. Join MU Plus+ and get exclusive shows and extensions & much more! In the 1900s, a diving platform was erected in the lake and it was said that some people dove in to never surface, their bodies never found. While the idea of piranhas being found far from their native habitat is not in and of itself too far-fetched, as this has happened in other lakes and rivers due to released pets, Lake Ronkonkoma is thought to be too cold to be a suitable habitat for the tropical fish and evidence of their presence here is inconclusive at best. 389 Obituaries Search Ronkonkoma obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. Very peaceful and a beautiful place to watch the sunset. It was a little surreal for many of those city kids who grew up to be working class people who always viewed Lake Ronkonkoma as a summer resort to actually be moving there to live. SACHEM DENTAL GROUP - RONKONKOMA - 34 Photos & 48 Reviews - 469 Hawkins Ave, Ronkonkoma, NY - Yelp Restaurants Home Services Auto Services Sachem Dental Group - Ronkonkoma 48 reviews Claimed Orthodontists, Endodontists, Periodontists Edit Closed 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM See hours Write a review Add photo Photos & videos See all 34 photos See All 34 "While at the lake, we have observed higher EMF fields than what we would have expected to encounter; however, we remain unsure if this was caused by buried or nearby electrical power lines, nearby homes or businesses, or something else. The legend does say that the princess lives in the deep hole [near] the Lighthouse. It was a fun place that eventually closed down in the 2000s only to be reopened recently in the Patchogue area. Kevin Conley, 40, of Sound Beach, disappeared on Lake Ronkonkoma in Suffolk County on Aug. 14. These waters were considered to be sacred and full of spirits both benign and malevolent, and the lake was steeped in a variety of spooky legends concerning these spirits. The fish people have reported seeing are most likely the sturdier pacu, which looks very much like a piranha but is not dangerous, and bites reported by swimmers are thought to be more likely from pike, which are found in Lake Ronkonkoma and are known to bite on occasion, or turtles. In the 1970s and 1980s, Lake Ronkonkoma was not a place where teens went swimming anymore like the ones who vacationed there in the first half of the century. With such a beautiful Hotel nestled on the banks of an incredibly beautiful Lake in a very secluded area, the Hotel and Lake Ronkonkoma became a destination for New Yorks elite. Heres how to answer that question for kids.