From Chelsea High School Art Teacher to Viral Tik Tok Sensation: Spooky Lake Month with Geo Rutherford

Former Chelsea teacher Geo Rutherford combines art, science, and spooky lake tales to captivate millions on TikTok.

Photo courtesy of Geo Rutherford

Umm yes hello, it’s Spooky Lake Month! For avid Tik Tok users, this catchphrase might ring a bell; former Chelsea High School art teacher, Geo Rutherford, has coined this as the opening to each of her videos during the month of October.

Her Tik Tok account has amassed more than 1.7 million followers, and for the 31 days of October, Geo highlights a different national or international lake and its more haunting and morbid qualities– which she refers to as “haunted hydrology”. What started as a passion project and a way to fill time in 2020, has quickly grown into a viral phenomenon, and as of this year, a published book as well.

After parting ways with the Chelsea School District in 2019, Geo pursued higher education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee for the second part of her graduate degree in art. Geo credits her thesis topic with really driving home her passion for limnology, the study of inland waters.

She explained, “My whole 75-page thesis was about going to the beaches and collecting material and spending time on the shores, and how that collection ended being evidence to what was going on with the Great Lakes.”

She posted videos about this project, and it was actually what first went viral on her Tik Tok account. She continued, “It’s all kind of full circle; I started Tik Tok because of the Great Lakes, I started sharing educational content because of the Great Lakes, and then I just sort of snuck into other lakes by accident.”

As a result of her early Tik Tok success, and the increased free-time in 2020, Geo made the somewhat impulsive decision to post a video every day in October about haunted hydrology. She chuckles at this first installation of Spooky Lake Month saying, “I didn’t have a plan. Those videos are so embarrassing because they are very chaotic; which I think was a product of 2020, and also a 35-year-old trying to figure out what to do on the Internet.” Regardless, Spooky Lake has only grown in quality and reach since this first year.

According to Geo, “2021 was kind of the first banger, successful year for Spooky Lake Month.” It was in the aftermath of this installation that Geo received interest for publishing a book. She explained, “I had multiple literary agents reach out to me, so I was kind of guided through the process. I had to make a proposal that I then handed over to a group of publishers, who essentially fought over it.”

After deciding to partner with Abrams Books, Geo began the official book writing and illustrating process; it took around two-years to complete the book from start to finish. True to her artistic passion, Geo explained “the writing aspect was so hard for me, so the painting ended up being a creative relief after all of the procrastinating and writing.” As of September 2024, the official “Spooky Lakes” book is available for purchase online and in stores, along with stickers (artwork done by Geo) and other Spooky Lake merchandise.

Spooky Lake Month has opened countless doors for Geo and her artwork. When asked about her favorite part of finding social media success, Geo explained, “I like that I was weirdly able to do this thing in my life where I combined the things that I think are the most fun: art, science, education, lakes, and horror. It was like a weird marriage of all of my favorite things.”

Most importantly, she credits her rise to social media success with providing her the opportunity to be “a working artist.” She is also very proud that her success has afforded her the ability to give back; “I’m super excited this year because we are donating all of the funds (around $7,000) from my creator fund to the Hurricane Helene efforts.”

In the end, Geo celebrates “how people can use the Internet in a positive way” and intends to continue to spread her passion alongside this positivity. The fifth installation of Spooky Lake Month is more than half over, but the “Spooky Lakes” book and merchandise can be purchased year-round.

Dive into the haunted histories of the Great Lakes and other international inland bodies of water– the mysteries lurking beneath the surfaces (like the acidic qualities of Lake Natron and the alien-like extremophiles of Lake Vostok) are sure to make your hair stand up.

Also, be sure to check out Geo on Tik Tok or Instagram @geodesaurus!