Have you ever seen a lake with a giant concrete funnel that swallows water like a bathtub drain? That is the surreal sight at this California recreation area, named for a lost town that now lies beneath the surface.
The famous “Glory Hole” spillway is rarely active, triggered only a handful of times in decades, but when it is, photographers flock from miles away. Beneath the water rests the town of Monticello, a small community that was condemned in the 1950s to make way for a dam.
Homes were demolished, graves were moved, and the rising waters erased what was once there. During extreme droughts, remnants of the old town sometimes reappear, a ghostly reminder of what was lost…