Long before the suburbs of New York City reached its shores, Long Island was the home of Native American tribes, including the Setaukets who lived near a large freshwater lake. According to a legend dating back to this era, the chief’s daughter, Princess Ronkonkoma, fell deeply in love with a European settler named Hugh Birdsall. Knowing their union would be forbidden, the two met in secret for over a year by the water’s edge. Eventually, the princess’s father discovered the affair and, fearing the disapproval of his people, forbade his daughter from ever seeing the settler again.
Confined to her village, the heartbroken princess would secretly row her canoe onto the lake at night, hoping for a sign from her beloved. For a time, the two exchanged messages written on pieces of bark that they would float across the water to one another. However, the settler’s messages became less frequent and finally stopped altogether, leaving the princess to realize he had abandoned her and returned overseas. Consumed by grief, she rowed out to the center of the lake one last time, where she stabbed herself in the heart and sank into the dark water, her body never to be found.
In the years and centuries following her tragic death, the story transformed into a chilling legend known as the Curse of Lake Ronkonkoma. It is said that the vengeful spirit of the princess rises from the depths once a year to claim the life of a young man, pulling him under the surface in an eternal, symbolic search for her lost love. This enduring tale has been passed down through generations and is often invoked to explain the unusually high number of mysterious drownings that have occurred at the lake, forever tying the picturesque location to a story of sorrow and supernatural revenge.
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