Lake debate pits city against nature lovers.(The Dallas Morning News)

UNCERTAIN, Texas _ Holley Noon threads her canoe through a labyrinth of cypress knees, nutria nests and beaver lodges. The boat edges from the twilight murk into dazzling open water, and ducks startled by the splash of paddles rise by the hundreds in an incandescent whir.

Modern-day Texas is only a few miles away. But on the hidden backwater of Caddo Lake known as the Eagles Nest, the distance feels like centuries.

"Every time I go around one of these bends, looking out through the cypress and the Spanish moss, I can almost see the Indians still paddling their canoes up in here," she said. "Somehow, the time just stops at Caddo."

The semi-retired teacher from Longview, Texas, fell for Caddo Lake more than 50 years ago, and she and her husband now rarely miss a weekend there. For Noon, Caddo is like a beloved old family friend, an eccentric and ever-changing character whose stories are passed down like heirlooms and whose secrets must be earned.

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"I like to say it's my favorite place of all the places I've ever been and all the places I've never been," she said. "There's just not any other place like it. You get to know it, to love it. You get to be very possessive and you don't want to have anybody doing anything to bother it or do anything to hurt it. I call it my lake. It is my lake."

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