Wallowa Lake is awash in mystery and folklore.

Stories of Wally, the serpent-like Wallowa Lake Monster, date back to the 1800s, as do tales of a subterranean river flowing to Lake Erie and an elk herd that fell through the ice one winter and now roams the area in ghostly fashion.Today, a new story is emerging, a fun, colorful and totally fictitious tale that ironically is helping children learn the scientific truth about Wallowa Lake.

The tale is told in a new book, “Wallowa Lake – The REAL Story,” a children’s picture book written by Joan Gilbert of Enterprise and illustrated by Enterprise Elementary School’s sixth-grade class of 2011-12. The book tells the story of two hungry deer, old Chief and little Joseph. The deer climb a pine tree and knock a low-lying crescent moon, which looks like a banana at the top of the tree, from the sky. The moon crashes to earth, creating a crescent-shaped basin that is quickly filled with water.

Little Joseph, clearly shaken by seeing a piece of the of the sky crash to earth, then repeats over and over, “W-w-wow-a-lake,” giving rise to the name of the crescent-shaped lake.

The true story of Wallowa Lake’s creation is less cataclysmic and is spelled out in the book’s back pages in a piece by Ellen Morris Bishop of Wallowa County, a geologist and book author. Bishop explains how Wallowa Lake was formed by slow-moving glaciers about 17,000 years ago.

Gilbert said that the

intent of having factual work in the back of the book was to help older children and even their parents develop an understanding of the science behind the lake’s formation.

“Wallowa Lake – The REAL Story” is just hitting the shelves of local bookstores, but its roots date back four years ago to an animation project created and produced by students in Colby Knifong’s 2011-12 sixth-grade class at Enterprise Elementary. The students created storyboards, built sets, provided character voices, wrote the lyrics of a theme song, played instrumentals for the soundtrack and more, under Gilbert’s direction.

The students worked an average of two hours a week on the project for five months. Their animated movie was six minutes long and used 2,070 still photos.

“Seven hours of work for every minute of the movie,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert did an excellent job bringing out the best in these students while helping them have fun, Knifong said.

“She knows how to help children develop their creativity,” the Enterprise Elementary School teacher said.

The six-minute video was released in 2012, and the local response was so strong that Gilbert determined

another step needed to be taken.

“It was decided that this story needed to be told as a children’s picture book,” Gilbert said.

The talented author and illustrator then put her poetic skills to good use, turning the animation script to rhyme.

Gilbert said creating rhyme for the script was one of the biggest challenges she faced.

“It is hard to write good rhyme that does not feel forced,” Gilbert said.

She found the lines she was looking for, but they often came to her at odd times.

“Sometimes it happened in the middle of the night,” she said.

The challenge of writing rhymes was one she relished.

“It is so much fun. I have always liked writing in rhyme,” said Gilbert. “It was definitely a labor of love.”

Gilbert, who grew up in La Grande, is a professional graphic designer and illustrator. She also volunteers her time at local schools and summer camps, engaging children in art and animation projects.

This is Gilbert’s third book. Her first, which came out in 2009, was “Twas the Night Before Round-Up.” The children’s book about the Pendleton Round-Up was illustrated by Gilbert and written by Nancy Garhan Attebury. Her second book was “Little Prince Spaghetti,” which Gilbert wrote and illustrated.

Gilbert’s latest book sells for $10 and all proceeds will go to the Enterprise Education Foundation.