Local rumors from Long Island about a supposedly haunted lake. (With links.)

Lake Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, is a kettle lake, formed by glaciers.
There are legends about indian princesses drowning in it, told by teenagers.

I found this on a local teen’s homepage. I’ll include the link, but I warn
you: There’s an amazingly annoying audio file that plays automatically.
Ahem.

“Now I’ll tell you some about my town. Notice the weird name? There’s a
reason for that. The lake that’s in my town is named after a Native American princess named Ronkonkoma. There’s also a legend that goes along with it.

A long time ago, before the settlers pushed all of the Natives onto
reservations, different tribes lived around the lake. Ronkonkoma’s tribe was one of them. One day, she met a prince from the other side of the lake, and fell in love with him. But Ronkonkoma’s parents soon found out that the prince was from another tribe, so she was forbidden to see him. But nothing would stop Ronkonkoma from seeing her prince. Late one night, her prince tried to swim across the lake to get to her. On the way over, he drowned in the middle of the lake. Ronkonkoma went out after him, but she, too, drowned. Neither of them were ever seen again. It is said that, each year, Ronkonkoma comes back and takes the live of one teenage boy, since she’s still looking for her lost love . . . . . . . Isn’t that sweet? So far, the legend has been true. Each year, one teenage boy does get drowned!

Or…. something like that, anyway.

Lake Ronkonkoma (the lake) is bottomless. They’ve never found the bottom to it! (I think) It was formed by the glaciers back in the last ice age. It’s
fed by an underground stream.”
(http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Cottage/8355/town.html)

The following site seems a bit more reputable:

“Legends swirl about Lake Ronkonoma. A pamphlet, “Nesaquake Tales,” at the Smithtown Public Library, written by the late Huntington town historian
Rufus B. Langhans, tells the story of an Indian maiden who was sacrificed to appease the Great Spirit, Manitou. “Heather Flower and Other Indian Stories of Long Island” by Verne Dyson, contains another legend, “The Troubled Spirit of the Lake.” In this version, a broken-hearted Indian princess tied weights around her ankles, rowed out to the middle of the lake, slipped over the side and was never seen again. Her remorseful lover dived into the lake and searched for her body. He failed but as the story goes, her body was found floating in a Connecticut river some weeks later. Her grieving parents brought her back to Long Island and she was buried with honors at Montauk Point. But Indians believed that her spirit haunted the lake and caused whirlpools, waves, moaning sounds and other mysterious events. “Three Waves: The Story of Lake Ronkonkoma” by Ann Farnum Curtis, also tells about legends surrounding the lake. “Heather Flower” and “Three Waves” are both available in many of our public libraries. ” (http://www.lihistory.com/3/hs369a.htm)

And, from the same site,

“Q. There is an American Indian legend regarding a curse on Lake Ronkonkoma put there by one of two warring Indian tribes living on opposite sides of the lake, the curse being that a male child would drown in the lake every year until eternity. Do you have any information about this legend?
– Ginny Hedlund, Northport

A. A number of years ago, a Newsday investigative reporter, seeking to test this legend, spent hours looking at old clippings in the Newsday library.
Sure enough, for the several years that he studied, at least one young boy
had drowned in Lake Ronkonkoma every summer. This may make you want to believe the legend, but to me it means that the lake can be a dangerous place for young swimmers. The lake, the largest on Long Island, is called a kettle lake, having been formed millions of years ago by a glacier. It has been the subject of many legends, all of them seemingly told by American Indians. Another one is that of a young Indian chief who fell in love with a pretty maiden who failed to requite his love. Despondent, he paddled out to the middle of the lake, dove deeply and never surfaced, giving rise to a belief that the lake had no bottom. Later, the story goes, the chief’s body was found in Great South Bay. We know, however, that the spring-fed lake has no outlets, so this story is a conundrum.”
(http://www.lihistory.com/histpast/past0309.htm)

Ronkonkoma is maybe an hour or two outside of manhattan in moderate traffic. Two and a half to three hours if you’re driving during rush hour. And the Long Island Expressway is prepetually under construction.
They keep closing parts of it for no apparent reason. It can take an hour
and a half to drive to Queens, in bumper to bumper traffic for three quarters of the trip. Even at ten PM. So, if you’re running any kind of scene involving New York City -> Long Island transport, you are hereby obligated to include a “World’s Slowest Car Chase, Ever.” scene.