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NEW STORY
The Great Lakes
Inspire Artist’s Love for
Haunted Hydrology
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Umm. Yes. Hello.
It’s Spooky Lake Month!
Every October, Geo Rutherford
ascends from the glacial depths
of Wisconsin’s Fish Lake to
bestow her social media
followers with a beloved series:
31 days of haunted hydrology.
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In these videos that have gone
viral across the internet, Geo
covers everything from what
would happen to you if you died
in Lake Baikal to mysteriously
migrating desert mud puddles.
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For the child of two professors–
one in earth sciences, the other
in economics–this limnological
love may seem like a natural
evolution into the era of social
media science content.
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But Geo’s soaked soliloquies
also draw from a deep well of
experience as an artist and arts
educator, including several
summers working at Michigan’s
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.
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“I do think that my experience in
a classroom, boots on the
ground, is what made Spooky
Lake Month possible,” Geo says.
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Her grad thesis was all about the
Great Lakes. She took to TikTok
sharing her Great Lakes inspired
art and that eventually spiraled
into (spooky) lake education.
“I’m not really a scientist,”
Geo explains.
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Although terms like “spooky”
and “haunted” can circulate like
catnip through a social media
algorithm with thriving
subcultures dedicated to true
crime and the macabre, Geo
admits that the terms don’t
properly encapsulate her reels’
ecological essence.
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This year, Geo shared this with
lake-loving newcomers:
“It’s not about ghosts or ghouls
or haunted things. I’ve actually
co-opted the terminology so I
can talk about Mother Nature
being spooky all by herself and all
the terrifying ways that we
interact with her.”
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And so we leave you with a
teaser of a Great Midwestern
spooky lake mystery . . .
