Mesmerized by the beckoning I started swimming out further and further from the group. I was brought to my senses when an older girl from the neighborhood swam to me, grabbed me by the arm harshly scolded me, and ordered me back to shore. Kryptonite didn't scare me, but teenage girls .. that was another matter altogether... This incident was quickly tucked away into a musty nook in the attic of my mind, only to be recollected years later as I began reading about the Legend of the Lady of the River.

Were other boys beckoned out by this same voice, never to return ?

Twice more in perusing years I had second hand experiences with the lady at the bottom of the River .. One was shortly after my personal experience . My family had moved away from Pleasant Port to another town on Connecticut, a few days before moving I had visited some older neighborhood boys , at the time they were building a raft that they planned to float in the river.

Days later, in my new home I recall my Mom showing me a copy of the Pleasant Port Post. On the Front Page was one of the teenagers . Apparently they succeeded in building their raft and getting it to the river, two left on the raft, only one returned.

The raft was dragged out by an unusual current, one of the boys, who could swim jumped off and swam to shore, as I recall he supposedly told the other, who couldn't swim, to stay on the raft , he would get help.. for whatever reason the non swimmer did not comply.. why? ... no one will ever know.

The legend

There are a few varieties of the The Lady of the River legend.

One Version tells of a young girl who rowed out to the middle of the river, and drowned herself by tying rocks to her ankles and jumping overboard. . She was distressed that her father did not approve of her romance with the man she loved. The girl's body was never found.

The residents explain that strange sounds and lights occur around the river, sounds of groaning, whirlpools, and bizarre lights are said to be the Lady in her endless grief.

In another version the young girl was in love with a soldier who was murdered in war. She was so aggrieved by it that she committed suicide by drowning herself in the river.

While wading out to her death she vowed to onlookers, that she would avenge the tragic death of her lover and every year she would take any man from Pleasant down with her. It is claimed that every year at least one male dies swimming in the river.