The New York Ghost Story That Will Leave You Absolutely Baffled

Mabel Smith Douglass was a 59-year-old woman from New Jersey who was quite renowned by many people on the East Coast as being an amazing educator. Mabel was a trailblazer for many and also was the Dean of the New Jersey College For Women at Rutgers, a college that was later named Douglass College in her honor.

Mabel had sadly become all too familiar with tragedy, recently losing her husband unexpectedly and then later dealing with her only son committing suicide. With so much sadness in her life, Mabel found herself institutionalized for nearly a year. In an attempt to escape from all her pain, Mabel and her daughter took a trip up to their family camp on the lake to find some peace of mind.

The only woman to ever go missing and never be found in Lake Placid, Mabel Smith Douglass rowed out onto the water and was never to be found. After searches went underway, Mabel's canoe was found washed up on shore near one of the deepest areas of Lake Placid but she remained missing. Police Officers searched the lake and the surrounding areas, even hiking trails, looking for Mabel - it was an upsetting mystery that bothered many.

A popular area for people to visit along the middle of the lake is Pulpit Rock, a spot where three scuba divers went for a swim on September 15th, 1963. Just a week shy of being exactly 30 years from the date that Mabel had gone missing, roughly 100-feet below the lake's surface the divers saw what they initially believed to be a mannequin set up in the lake as a prank. It wasn't until one of the divers pulled at the "mannequin's" arm and it detached from the body that they realized this was an actual human in the bottom of Lake Placid.

I may not have ever gone scuba diving in my life, but I can tell you that it's stories like this that keep me from desiring to do any great underwater exploring. After it was realized that they had discovered a body, two of the divers swam up to the surface to identify where the body was in the lake and to call the authorities - leaving one diver with the body so they would know exactly where it is.

Clearly having similar fears as I do, the young diver that was left with Mabel grew unnerved by how eerie the body looked. It was reported that the body was on its side with its feet in a curled up position, looking as though it was sleeping and could wake up at any moment. It was because of this that the diver decided he couldn't stay in the water with the body and began to guide it up to the surface himself.

Not only had an arm been detached when the divers first thought that it was a mannequin, but the other issue at hand was also that the body had a rope and anchor wrapped around its neck. Between getting the anchor off of the neck and taking the body out of the cold, deep waters that had kept it so well-preserved, another arm, head, and other parts came apart and were damaged by the time it was brought to the surface.

The fact that Mabel had been the only woman to ever go missing and never be found in Lake Placid was a large indicator that this was her, Mabel had also had a broken arm at the time of her disappearance and gave investigators another way to confirm her identification 30 years later. While her death was ruled an accidental drowning, many believe that Mabel was overcome with sadness and took her own life out on the lake.

Over the years many people living and visiting Lake Placid have claimed to have seen the ghost of Mabel Smith Douglass by Pulpit Rock where her body was found. If you're curious where exactly this location is, attractions like Lake Placid Boat Tours in town features tours that take you by Pulpit Rock and tell the story of Mabel's life and death. Do you believe that Mabel is still haunting the waters of Lake Placid?