The Spirit of the Lake

by

Lori Van Arsdale - Mayor of Hemet

At the end of a day in the year 2021

As someone on the lakeshore is watching the setting sun

Will the Spirit of this Lake rise up to tell the tale

Of the history of this valley that we all love so well

Will it whisper of the families that were early pioneers

Or reflect upon the water that past many thousand years

Filled with mastodons and mammoths, camels and even sloths

And Native American Indians with battles won and lost

How will it express the feelings of that farmer in his field

Taking in all the beauty that nature has to yield

Yet knowing that he'll be moving soon and no longer will be there

This land that for generations has been a part of his family

Or will the Spirit of the Lake in an early morning fog

Conjure up for a lonely fisherman that lively dialogue

Between the team of Paleontologists that were digging in the ground

When they first discovered a mammoth's tusk just seventeen feet down

Beneath these waters lie the hopes and dreams of so many gone before

Whose lives have truly been enriched having touched this valley floor

These stories of old must not be lost, as we know our lesson well

For its up to US and the Spirit ... of the Lake to tell the tales.

Delivered on March 18, 2000 at the dedication of the Diamond Valley Lake by Metropolitan Water District in the Domenigoni Valley.

Huell Howser of the television show  "California Gold" was Master of Ceremonies for the dedication.