A middle-class neighborhood in Suffolk County, known best as "Last stop, Ronkonkoma" to hardy LIRR commuters coming in and out of New York City, the lake the town and its nearby Lake Ronkonkoma village takes its name from is actually of historic interest. The small downtown area has not enjoyed the revival of many other downtowns on Long Island, and its proximity to transportation like MacArthur Airport and the Long Island Railroad does much for convenience but much less for property value.
Although the town and area itself doesn't have much romantic allure, the lake itself does. Long Island's deepest kettle lake, the product of glaciers from the Ice Age, this body of water is reputed to be named for a Native American princess who had once resided on these lands.
There are two warring stories, but both are of loves lost and rival civilizations -- the classic tale of romantic martyrdom. One legend claims that the princess Ronkonkoma fell in love with a settler named Hugh Birdsall, both parties rowing to the middle to alternately send love letters to one another, until ultimately, after seven years of longing, her body was propelled to the shore with a knife through her heart.
Another legend claims that the princess fell in love with a warrior from an enemy tribe across the lake, and killed herself when the warrior proved to be falsehearted and failed to appear for their rendezvous. A bit dramatic of a conclusion, but such is the stuff of legends.
As mentioned before, the end of both of the stories are essentially the same. The princess Ronkonkoma dies, and is said to vengefully claim the life of a male every year, an occurrence that has interestingly happened, according to locals and historians, nearly every year for over two centuries. Only a few women have met their ends in the lake, but stories of young men drowning are the predominant theme as the princess pulls down her victims in search or revenge for her long lost love.
Other mystical aspects surround the lake that are not legend related, such as the long-held belief that the lake is bottomless or channels out via holes in the depths into the ocean, or that supernatural portals are attributed to this body of water. Along those lines, the most notable of these tall tales was the instance of one 1930s Connecticut bootlegger, who was murdered and dumped in the Long Island Sound, only for his remains to wash up on the sands of Lake Ronkonkoma with his hat, wallet, and flask on his corpse.
A strong whirlpool is also rumored to exist at the lake's center, but interesting aspects that have been proven by science include the fact that the lake's water level rise and fall unrelatedly to rainfall, and that the surface temperature of the water is actually colder than the first twelve feet by a whopping ten degrees!
Regardless, this once heavily trafficked locals' spot no longer enjoys the popularity it once did as a summer destination, but perhaps one day it will again. It's a pretty lake, haunted or not, and the views are lovely, especially from local restaurants whose lights twinkle just offshore. Lake Ronkonkoma's visual appeal is extremely different from the vistas of the North and South Shores, and a diamond in a rough that just needs some polishing up.
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