Palmdale's "Bottomless" Lake with an Aggressive Ghost Fisherman
Sierra Hwy & Ave S, Palmdale, CA
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Lake Una is on fenced private property. View from Sierra Highway only.
Access
Limited Access
Private fenced property — roadside view from Sierra Highway only
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1897 · Antelope Valley History · California Lake History
Una Lake occupies a small basin in Palmdale's Antelope Valley, positioned along the San Andreas Rift Zone on the east side of Sierra Highway. The lake is a sag pond — a natural depression formed by movement along the fault — whose size fluctuates with annual rainfall.
In the 1870s, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company built a raised causeway for its tracks and roadway across the original larger lake bed, isolating the eastern portion that remains today as Una Lake. The South Antelope Valley Irrigation Company constructed a dam west of the railroad causeway in 1897, along with a ditch from Little Rock Creek, converting the lake into a year-round irrigation source for farms south of Palmdale. Expansion of that infrastructure produced the larger Harold Reservoir in 1924, now known as Lake Palmdale. The 1915 U.S. Geological Survey topographic map for the Lake Elizabeth Quadrangle documents the early configuration.
The lake is on fenced private property, and accounts from visitors describe private security patrols along the perimeter. Lacking public access for generations, the site has accumulated a regional folklore reputation in the Antelope Valley community. Stories circulate about the lake being bottomless, about a diver who disappeared attempting to find its floor, about bodies disposed of in the water, and about a school bus that ran off Sierra Highway into the lake without the vehicle or occupants being recovered. None of these accounts are supported by news archives or geological evidence; they persist as community whisper-network lore rather than documented incidents.
Sources
The dominant paranormal claim at Lake Una involves a figure described as wearing fisherman's clothing who reportedly appears to visitors approaching the lake after dark. The figure speaks — described as slurring, and vicious in tone — ordering people to leave. This is an unusual detail in paranormal accounts: an apparition that communicates aggressively rather than silently, and specifically directs witnesses away from the water.
Separate from the fisherman accounts, multiple visitors have reported seeing dark figures climbing into the trees at the water's edge and disappearing. These shadow figures do not interact with witnesses but are described as moving deliberately before vanishing.
Darkstories.org documented an Antelope Valley account from a local resident who described the lake as having a deeply sinister local reputation — compounded by the stories of disappearing divers, dumped bodies, and the school bus legend that circulates in Palmdale and Lancaster neighborhoods.
Sluggo's Ghost Stories documented the fisherman account with specific reference to the Sierra Highway location and the aggressive nature of the alleged presence — a quality that distinguishes the Lake Una legend from more passive ghost accounts in the region.
Notable Entities
Lake Una sits immediately east of Lake Palmdale along Sierra Highway, fenced and on private property with private security patrols. The lake is visible from the highway. The ghost fisherman legend is associated with the water's edge — accessible only from the road.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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