...Old man Pendray was known to loose a few cows every year to the quicksand (mud actually) at the edge of the lake...

Do cows stuck in quicksand still produce methane? Maybe two global problems can be solved at once here.

Ha! I’m going to go with none.

The green area at the bottom of your picture was the original Pendray Farm that produced and sold milk. (since relocated out by the airport)

Old man Pendray was known to loose a few cows every year to the quicksand (mud actually) at the edge of the lake. He saved a few by pulling them out with his tractor.

My grandparents lived two blocks away from Swan Lk for over 40 years; I heard the Pendray 'cow story' but no one was sure it wasn't an urban legend...I guess it wasn't! To keep us kids in line when we were small we were also told the lake was the result of glaciation and that it was over 900 feet deep. Which naturally we believed. Imagine my disappointment later to find out its maximum depth is actually only about 20 feet. Bummer.

Actually it really was a full blown 'proper' lake up until the mid-70's when massive algae blooms resulted from decades of pesticide and especially fertilizer runoff going directly into it from local farms as far away as the Blenkinsop Valley, as well as runoff from at least two wineries which discharged thousands of kilograms of sludge from the wine fermentation process directly into the lake; in addition to periodic sewer discharges from a Saanich treatment plant at McKenzie and Quadra. All those nutrients being introduced into the ecosystem resulted in the wetland-overgrowth we see today.

Yet even today in its significantly reduced state its winter flood plain almost quadruples the water surface area to close to 80 acres according to the Swan Lake Nature sanctuary. Fifty years ago (yes I'm old) I remember as a very young yard ape the lake being closer to that latter size virtually all year round.