Fact or fiction: Exploring Seattle's urban lore and legends

Okay, okay: So you understand "Jesus Christ made Seattle under protest," and you know to avoid Interstate 5 at all costs. But do you know why Jimi Hendrix didn't graduate from Garfield High School?

How about what rests just off of Magnuson's boat launch? Or that there is a nuclear bomb shelter hidden in Ravenna?

Maybe it's the city's gloomy gray, overcast skies, but mysteries and myths seem to thrive in the Emerald City. But did these stories really happen, or are they urban legends?

Keep reading to examine the veracity of some of Seattle's most famous local lore.

Is there a gun range under Seattle Center?

Yes. The Seattle Center House building opened in April 1939 as a National Guard Armory. In the basement — an area now used for storage — there was a gun range. The slanted wall where the targets were located still sports hundreds of bullet marks. The armory, which was built for $1.25 million, was converted for the 1962 World's Fair.

Is there really a tunnel under Queen Anne?

Yes, but it might not be the movie-style tunnel you're imagining. The tunnel was for the counterbalance trolley on Queen Anne Avenue North. Trolley cars started there in the 1890s and electric cars were introduced in 1901. Those lasted until Aug. 1940 when trackless trolleys and buses took over. The counterbalance tunnel, which isn't open to the public, is roughly 3-feet tall in most places, though some areas are large enough for people to stand.

Does Seattle buy more sunglasses than anywhere else?

Nope, this is a myth. KUOW reported that the Vision Council, an organization for eye doctors and people who concern themselves with eyewear, tracks sales regionally, and says the South buys more sunglasses than the West.

Were there actually strippers at Seattle World's Fair? 

Yep. You could find them at "Show Street" which was billed as "naughty but nice" and featured models posing revealing space-age costumes (in keeping with the fair's aesthetic). Fairgoers could rent cameras to take pictures.

From the book "The Future Remembered" on the World's Fair: "The Seattle Censor Board ordered the show closed at one point. Among its complaints: excessive shimmying and shaking by bare-breasted 'space girls.'"

Is there a nuclear fallout shelter below Interstate 5?

Yes! If you've ever walked by a nondescript gate on Weedin Place in the Ravenna neighborhood, you might have thought it was just another storage facility. But inside, you'll find the only fallout shelter built into a highway anywhere in the nation. Built in 1962, the fallout shelter is a product of fears of nuclear attacks during the Cold War and could fit up to 200 people.

As a secondary use, the fallout shelter operated as a Department of Licensing office from 1963 to 1977.

Did President John F. Kennedy have prostitutes in Seattle?

A Secret Service agent said he did after his 1961 speech at the University of Washington. Kennedy stayed at The Olympic Hotel and the women were brought to the presidential suite. Kennedy aide Dave Powers took them inside, and the women were allegedly told to keep quiet about what happened if they didn't want to end up in the state mental hospital, according to an interview with Secret Service agent Larry Newman in a 1997 book.

Did Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame really craft his secret recipe in Seattle?

He probably didn't create it here, but it's been reported that Harland Sanders worked at Twin Teepees restaurant on Aurora Avenue North. According to KFC, Sanders developed the secret recipe in the 1930s when he operated the Sanders Court and Cafe restaurant and motel in Kentucky. But in a biography of Sanders, his second wife recalled the two of them and another young woman driving to Seattle in fall 1942 for jobs at one of the Clark's Restaurants, which were big here at the time.

Local legend says that Sanders worked on his chicken recipe at the Twin Teepees, but it appears he already had the recipe developed and was only lured there for the promise of a job in Seattle's booming wartime economy.

Is there a patrol bomber wrecked in Lake Washington?

Yes, there is actually a World War II bomber sunken in the lake off of Magnuson. The plane was doing a routine training flight from the Sand Point Naval Air Station that sent the bomber crashing shortly after takeoff into Lake Washington. The crew was safely recovered, but after lugging the plane up from about 175 feet of water a shackle pin broke and the plane sank back to the depths. Further salvage efforts were abandoned, and the plane still rests just off the Magnuson's boat ramp under about 155 feet of water.

The Beatles caught fish from their room at the Edgewater Hotel, right?

They fished from Room 272, but didn't catch anything. They told reporters they didn't get a fish at the press conference just before their show here on Aug. 21, 1964. "Someone on the other side of the lake kept shouting, 'There's no fish in here!'" drummer Ringo Star said.

Led Zeppelin also famously fished out the windows of the Edgewater, and their angling attempts led to some serious debauchery involving a fish.

Was Jimi Hendrix kicked out of Garfield High School for ______?

Nope. Depending on when you came up and where you were, you might've heard that Hendrix got kicked out of either having sex in the hallway or having sex in the stairwell — suffice it to say it was not for either of these.

Hendrix actually dropped out of Garfield when he was 16 to work. He returned seven years later to pick up an honorary diploma from the high school though, spending the years in between in the army and then launching a major music career.

Is there a tunnel under North Aurora? 

Yep, though it's really a pedestrian underpass that has been closed for years. It was located at the intersection of Aurora and North 79th Street on the north side. It was created in the early 1930s for easier pedestrian travel but closed after problems with crime in the area. According to the Seattle Times, students at Daniel Bagley Elementary School also used it to cross the road safely.

Was there really a duck-eating sturgeon in Lake Washington?

Well, no. For seemingly decades there was talk of a giant sturgeon running around the area preying on ducks. Sturgeon don't eat ducks, but there has been many sturgeon pulled out of Lake Washington that look like the 640 pound, 11-foot sturgeon above. This one was found on Nov. 6, 1987 near Kirkland, but an 8-foot one turned up as recently in 2013.

Did alligators shut down Green Lake for a summer?

Close — they were actually caimans. In 1986, the city parks department received reports of people seeing three alligators in Green Lake, prompting people to stop swimming in the lake for the summer. Game staff later found two caimans about 3 feet long. Both needed emergency care at Woodland Park Zoo as they were emaciated and malnourished. It's believed that the third died from the cold water, as caimans usually live in swamps and rivers.

But how exactly did they get there? That’s still a mystery.

Did a Seattle police officer really help smuggle booze during prohibition, get caught, go to jail, and become a bootlegger king upon release?

Oh yeah! Roy Olmstead learned the bootlegging trade from his involvement in raids and arrests as a Seattle Police Lieutenant. His arrest in 1920 was pretty scandalous, considering that up to that point he had been considered the department's golden boy. He was fined $500 and lost his job but he managed to find new work: devoting himself full-time to being "King of the Puget Sound Bootleggers."

His operation dwarfed any other liquor operations in Seattle, legal or no. His eventual arrest for rum-running, for which he served 35 months in federal prison, eventually made it to the Supreme Court for a major ruling about the wire-tapping efforts feds used to catch him.

Was a dead horse actually found in Ballard's water reservoir?

The facts on this urban legend are a little murky. Before it was annexed by Seattle in 1907, the city of Ballard inked a deal with to buy water for its residents from Seattle. But the cost only added to the mounting debt of the local government, making annexation seem the best option for many residents.

Supposedly, a dead horse was found floating in the Ballard reservoir, perhaps put there by agents of Seattle to push annexation. But a recent investigation by KUOW into city documents found no mention of the supposed dead horse, casting skepticism on this bizarre local myth.

Were the first "flying saucers" spotted near Mount Rainier?

Maybe? The story goes that Kenneth Arnold was flying in his private airplane near Mt. Rainier on June 24, 1947 when he saw nine circular gleaming objects "flying like a saucer would." The story made national headlines days later and it is generally considered the first report of a UFO. The truth is out there, somewhere.

Was there a skate park on Green Lake's Duck Island?

Absolutely, and the city ended up suing the skate shop that illegally constructed it as part of a Nike-commissioned contest. Go big or go home, as they say.