South Puget Sound Indians-
An Indian Legend About Tumwater Falls

In the old days, a terrible monster lived beneath the water in what is now called Hewitt Lake. (Today Hewitt Lake is in East Tumwater, off Yelm Highway.) The name for such monsters was Zug-wa. Old people would not swim or take their canoes onto Hewitt Lake, for fear that they might be dragged to the depths and never seen again.

One day a young man and woman who were about to be married went to look for the nest of a loon at Hewitt Lake. The man was strong and handsome. The woman was the daughter of a powerful local chief. To find the nest and eggs of a loon would bring good luck. The woman ventured out alone to a floating island covered in reeds, looking for the nest.  Suddenly she slipped beneath the water and never surfaced again.  The man quickly dived in to search for her, and he, too was lost from sight.

Later their bodies were found below Tumwater Falls, drawn all the way from the lake through a mysterious underground passage. Even now, if you listen, sometimes you can hear their cries in the thundering waterfall.

Legend as told by Del McBride, former curator of the Washington State Capital Museum in Olympia.  Del was born at Nisqually, Washington and spent most of his life in this area.  His mother was descended from the pioneer McAllister and Mounts families, with some Cowlitz/Quinault Indian ancestry.  Del attributed this legend to the Nisqually tribe.

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