THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Spirit Lake, also known in local lore as Kaniskee, has long been associated with Indigenous traditions and supernatural stories surrounding its waters. Later accounts describe mysterious apparitions and unexplained phenomena around the lake, though many of the stories are rooted in folklore rather than a single documented haunting.
The Coeur d’Alénes Indians are said to have named Lake Kaniskee, which means Lake of the Spirit. There is a ghostly girl here with long black hair and wearing a white dress, who rides over the water here in her phantom canoe. Tales told in these parts say she was an Indian girl who drowned herself after her beloved was killed in a tribal scuffle. She is said to have rowed to the center of the lake on a moonlit night and simply jumped in.