MYTHS OF LAKE RONKONKOMA
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PRINCESS RONKONKOMA
Perhaps the most popular legend of Lake Ronkonkoma involves the tale of the Indian Princess whose unrequited love has dominated the myths of the lake since the 1600s. Specific details of the legend vary, but all versions have served as a facilitator of a handful of additional stories regarding the lake, including its fabled bottomless depths and mysterious healing powers.
The legend refers to a beautiful Indian girl, Ronkonkoma, whose father belonged to the Setauket Sachem tribe. According to historians, the Sachems were one of four tribes bordering the lake in the mid 1600s, a time that witnessed the increased presence of settlers to Long Island.
Ronkonkoma supposedly fell in love with a settler named Hugh Birdsall, who worked as a woodcutter and lived in a log cabin on the banks of nearby Connetquot River. On moonlit nights, Ronkonkoma would steal away into the forest and make her way to Birdsall where she would watch him from the cover of the trees.
As legend goes, Birdsall was unaware of her presence until one summer night when the moon was full, and he, unable to sleep, he paced back and forth in front of his cabin. It was then that Ronkonkoma, clad in colored glass beads, caught the light of the full moon and revealed her presence. Birdsall fell in love with Ronkonkoma immediately. Her father, however, forbade the marriage and refused his daughter to see her lover ever again.
For seven long years, the two lovers continued their affair, sustaining their love on the messages they were able to get to one another. Everyday, the princess would paddle her canoe to the middle of the lake and gently float a patch of birch bark, safely embedding a note of longing. Everyday, for seven years, Birdsall would wait at the edge of the water for the piece of bark he knew would eventually surface.
In the last month of the seventh year, however, Ronkonkoma, bursting with the pain of her solitude, sent a cryptic message to her lover, saying only that she would join him in the morn. As dawn broke, the woodcutter, waiting faithfully by the riverside, say a canoe suddenly rise from the depths of the river and come rushing toward him as if guided by a magical hand. Inside was his princess, nestled amidst boughs of pine, with a knife piercing her heart. Without uttering a word, the heartbroken Birdsall leaped into the canoe and cradled her lifeless form as the two were carried out to sea to a life beyond the grave.
Legend courtesy of:
THE CURSE OF LAKE RONKONKOMA
By Michael Ebert
While the tales of the young Indian and Birdsall end with their respective deaths, the legends of the princess endure. There have been several reports that Birdsall was indeed real, and that despite the claims, he did not join his princess in the afterlife, instead choosing to return to England where he eventually married.
Other accounts involved the princess revisiting the lake, walking on water and taking the life of a man annually in search of her forbidden love. Her ghost is said to dwell in the depths of the lake, and some say each year, the princess drags down a least one young man to be her lover in death. This thought is considered the basis for the curse that at lease one person shall drown in the waters of the lake each year.
While locals will confirm that drowning incidents are frequent at the lake, it is difficult to conclude whether or not deaths occur annually as the legend portends. Still, certain locals and historians will claim that almost every year for 200 years someone has drowned in Lake Ronkonkoma . . . almost always a male. Additionally, various County Police officials insist that at least one person drowns in Lake Ronkonkoma each year. The most disturbing certainty is that police and locals alike can only recall a handful of women having drowned in the lake.
Many other locals continue to attribute drowning incidents to the princess as local articles have consistently quoted residents who believe in her cruel annual quest for the life of a male. Some storytellers simply recognize the princess as a lingering spirit that claims the lives of young men in search of her lost love.
