White Rock Lake

[John Dolva]

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1764046

"A Visitor's Guide to White Rock Lake

The lake itself is located in northeast Dallas, bordered by Mockingbird Lane, Buckner Boulevard and Garland Road. Lawther Road circles the lake.

Among the many attractions are:

-The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens (8525 Garland Road) and the adjacent Degolyer Estate—a 66-acre paradise where patrons walk among beautiful plants and trees with a stunning backdrop of the lake.

-Abundant recreational facilities, including three lovely and enjoyable rental facilities, several picnic areas, fishing piers, parks, baseball diamonds, and playgrounds.

-An Audubon Society designated bird-watching area. White Rock boasts over two hundred species of birds, dozens of mammals and abundant amphibians and reptiles. The urban wildlife preserve on the southwest side of the lake is a wonderful place to see the animals of White Rock Park.

-The lake offers two sailing clubs. White Rock is home base for a lot of canoe and kayak enthusiasts.

-Much more information about the history, geology, and wildlife of the area can be found at the White Rock Museum, located at the Bath House Cultural Center.

-Mockingbird Point Off-Leash Dog Park (opened in 2001)—this facility provides a beautiful place for dogs and their human pals to enjoy the fresh air and beauty of White Rock Park.

-Overlooking the west side of White Rock Lake, the old Cox Cemetery has the graves of many of Dallas' early settlers and of veterans dating back to the Civil War.

-Near Cox Cemetery is Mount Vernon mansion, a nearly-exact replica of President Washington's famous home. Built in 1938, this was long the home of self-made oil millionaire H. L. Hunt.

-More than 11 miles of hiking and biking trails.

-Several annual events including the Run The Rock Marathon.

Legends of the Lake

The most colorful legend associated with White Rock Lake is that of the Lady of the Lake. According to the story, a ghostly apparition of a beautiful woman has been seen on the shores of the little lake. In a variation of the Vanishing Hitchhiker tales, she has disappeared from the cars of those people who have offered her a lift home. The tales go on to tell that when her would-be Good Samaritans arrive at the address that the vanishing woman gave them, they are informed that she died in a boating accident on White Rock Lake a few weeks earlier.

Alternate versions of the legend tell of a suicidal woman who drove her car into the lake. Her specter supposedly still haunts the one of the old abandoned buildings near the lake. The woods and roads near the lake can be pretty spooky at night—a perfect place to see a woman garbed in old-fashioned white clothing, rising from the waters.

Residents also tell the more light-hearted legend of Bonnie Belle Island, a fanciful isle that is sometimes spotted in White Rock. This `magical isle' is actually a sort of joke based on a recurring error made by map-makers. For some reason, many maps of the lake feature an island called Belle or Bonnie Belle Island, even though no such place exists. Other fables tell of creepy groups of devil-worshipping cultists who gather at Cox Cemetery or nearby Flagpole Hill to perform occult rites (which, in the imagination of teenaged boys, involve all manner of absurd horrors!)**.

There are several plausible but unconfirmed stories of the remains of Dallas-area mobsters being found during dredging of the lake. At least one story that circulated in the late '60s claimed that several of Jack Ruby's associates, possibly able to shed some light on President Kennedy's assassination in 1963, have met their fate in White Rock Lake's murky depths. Skeletons in chains or "concrete shoes" have supposedly been found near the Mockingbird Lane bridge or further out in the deeps."

[John Dolva]

Some people who had homes around White Rock Lake at some time.

[John Dolva]

I've known they were living out there. Bookhout and Holmes definitely in 63. (Hunt confuses me. I can't find a clear statement that he lived there in 63. I do find indication that he didn't live right there in 63, while at the time of looking at this half a year ago, I just logged it in my head, and some of the memories are that hunt was there then. now I can't find where he was living exactly then.)

Walker???? Anyway, up there strikes me as the equivalent of the eastern coastal suburbs of Sydney, and the western side of downtown Dallas like the western plains of Sydney, (where the 'westies' live.) Uptown, downtown. Oswald was a 'westie'. (EDIT:: perhaps not quite, .he had significant sponsors}

At the time I saw no connections between Bookhout and Hunt or Holmes and Hunt, but a solid one between Bookhout and Holmes, and it intrigued me that Bookhout also is underresearched. Now it appears that Bookhouts potential alibi was at the Mercantile Bank. 7th floor Hunt. Then on to Nagel.

Edited June 28, 2006 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

topical bump