Rising From the Lake Part 1

Graveyards rising from the lake. Looting in broad daylight.

The year was 1977. Having been plagued by drought for seven years, the river arms that fed Shasta Lake dried up. Manzanita trees withered and died. The lake fell to its lowest level ever and, in the process, a lot of history got revealed.

An old cemetery emerged near where the once thriving town of Kennet used to be. Kennet itself is now so deep under the lake that it never gets exposed.

Lola M. Schwartz - Librarian for the Shasta Historical Society - and her husband, Jim were boating on Lake Shasta that summer and saw this amazing sight.

“It was very exciting”, she remembers. There was a black wrought-iron fence all around that cemetery. It looked brand new – the water had preserved it. And you could tell where the graves were. Those that had been moved were sunken and those that (remained) were smooth.”

Throughout that summer, Lola and Jim visited the cemetery often. In a later visit, Schwartz found the fence was missing – someone had stolen it!