The Towns Beneath Beaver Lake

When you spend enough time around Beaver Lake, it starts to feel like it has always been there. The water looks settled. Calm. Like it belongs.

But it doesn’t.

Before the lake, this was the White River valley. It was full of small towns, homes, stores, and quiet everyday lives. When the dam was built in the 1960s, the water rose and those places were covered. Not loudly. Not all at once. Just slowly until they were gone.

Monte Ne

The most well known town beneath the lake is Monte Ne.

Monte Ne was started by William Hope Harvey as a resort town. People came to rest, walk the paths, attend events, and gather in the big stone amphitheater. It was meant to be a place of ideas and hope.

When Beaver Lake filled, Monte Ne went under. Most of it is still there, resting below the surface. During very dry years, parts of the amphitheater show themselves again. Stone steps and walls rise out of the mud like the lake is remembering.

Glade

Glade was a small riverside community. It had a store, a post office, and families who lived close to the river because that was where life happened.

Some of Glade was moved to higher ground before the water came. Some of it wasn’t. What could not be moved was left behind and covered by the lake. Today, Glade lives on mostly through old photos and family stories.

Larue

Larue was another small town along the river. Not famous. Not fancy. Just home.

There are still traces of Larue around the lake if you know where to look. Old foundations. Pieces of road. Places where the land feels a little different. It is easy to miss unless someone tells you the story first.

Mundell

Mundell is completely underwater now.

Nothing rises up when the lake gets low. No ruins. No markers. Just water. It is one of those places that feels truly gone, even though it isn’t. The town is still there. It is just unreachable.

Pine Log

Pine Log was the home of artist Ernest Schilling. Like the other communities along the White River, it was taken by the lake.

The land that once held art, ideas, and quiet living now sits beneath the water. What remains is the work Schilling left behind and the knowledge that creativity once lived there too.

What the Lake Covers

Beaver Lake is beautiful. People swim in it, fish in it, and build memories around it. But underneath that beauty are other memories. Older ones.

These towns were not lost because they failed. They were simply in the way of something bigger. Covered up. Left behind.

This history is part of what inspired my upcoming Monte Ne soundtrack, coming soon under my music name May Poet. The songs are shaped by the quiet, the water, and the feeling that something is still down there, waiting to be remembered.

And sometimes, when the water is still and the light is low, it feels like the lake is holding its breath. Keeping secrets it does not want to forget.

Yours,

April