Fargher Lake has more than just a hint on mint. In late summer, when the annual mint crop is being harvested and processed, the smell of peppermint lies heavy on the air.

But don't expect to take a refeshing dip in the lake when you visit the community some eight miles north of Battle Ground. The water was drained from it more than 50 years ago, leaving a flat, circular lake bottom nearly a mile in diameter.

The black, rich soil from the bottom of the old lake is just right for the growing of mint, onions, daffodils and other bulbs and is all under cultivation.

According to Eban H. Drum, who compiled a history of the Fargher Lake community during the 1930s as a federal writing project, the area was settled by brothers Fred and Horatio Farghuar, later spelled Fargher. The brothers were natives of the Isle of Wight in the english Channel who came to Clark County in the 1860s.

The brothers took up adjoining homesteads, including the lake, then known as Hard Hack Swamp. This shallow lake had been a nesting place for ducks, geese and swans. Hundreds of Indian arrowheads were found on the lake bottom, indicating that the Indians ahd hunted it extensively.

Picture postcards from the days before the lake was drained show a beautiful pond of water, surrounded by graceful trees.

In 1894, the county commissioners came to the aid of the settlers by agreeing to drain the lake into Rock Creek, which runs into the Lewis River. However, on May 23 of that year, the state ditch drainage law was declared unconstitutional, and the county suspended work on the ditch.

On May 22, 1895, the Vancouver newpaper reported a number of men were at work clearing the right of way for the Fargher Lake drainage ditch as a private project. "Fargher Lake is soon to be one vast field of grain and hay,: the newspaper predicted.

On Dec. 11, 1918, the county established a Fargher Lake drainage district, and the draining of the old lake was completed.