Program

Legends & Lore®

Subject

Folklore, Legend

Location

40 Mosher Rd, Sand Lake, NY 12153, USA

Lat/Long

42.64404, -73.527086

Grant Recipient

The Sand Lake Historical Society

In Sand Lake, New York, a story is told of the ghost of a young women seen walking the woods along Taborton Road to a nearby pond. The pond is where the body of 20-year-old Hazel Drew was found on July 11, 1908. She had been last seen four days earlier, picking berries by the side of Taborton Road. Her cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the back of her head. The event shocked the community of Sand Lake and the surrounding area, and coverage of the investigation made national news. A murderer was never found, and her tragic death remains unsolved.

Mark Frost, the co-creator of the “Twin Peaks” TV show was inspired by his grandmother’s stories about the ghost of Hazel Drew while writing and developing the show (Mark Frost, Foreword in Murder at Teal’s Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks, 2022, by David Bushman and Mark T. Givens).