Convict Lake

Convict Lake is a lake located in Mono County, California, United States, situated in the Sherwin Range of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is known for its turquoise-blue water, the dramatic mountains that surround it, the trout fishing it affords, and its unusual history. The lake, known to the Paiute as Wit-sa-nap, was renamed by settlers after an incident on September 23, 1871, in which a group of convicts escaped from prison in Carson City, Nevada, and took refuge near the lake. They were pursued by a posse, and after it caught up to the convicts, a shootout followed, in which a number of both posse members and convicts were killed or wounded. The remaining convicts who survived initially escaped but were eventually captured to be taken back to prison but were lynched instead.