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Urban Legends in America Part 11: the Spuds Have it (Idaho)

From the land of the great potato, comes oral traditions and ghost stories that are as unique and eerie as they come. When these tales are taken collectively, Idaho becomes a place full of ghosts, gems, sea monsters, potatoes, evil cannibalistic dwarfs, a fish woman, murderous water sprites, and, apparently, mountains that were originally savage, child-eating ogres.


Specters of the Lewiston Civic Theater (Lewiston, ID)

Originally built in 1902 as a Methodist church, it became a theater in 1971. In the 1980's, two women and one young man all disappeared from the theater on the same night. Both women were found dead off the property, and the man was never found. Police believed an employee of the theater was responsible for murdering all three but never had enough to indict him.


Some believe the man’s body is buried beneath the theater, and that he still haunts the building. There have been numerous sightings of a female apparition fading up the stairs and many odd occurrences all throughout the theater. The chandelier spins on its own, the trap door flies open and slams shut, a ghost of a director has been seen in the balcony, and, apparently, a bride weaves herself through the seats.


In 1994, Meredith Johnson saw a red-headed man in his early 20s sitting at a picnic table at Trevitt Park, next to the theater. She returned inside, locked the door and turned toward the steps. When her feet hit the third step she saw the same man she had seen seconds before sitting on a couch in the dressing room. She walked past him and locked herself in the office. When she returned to the dressing room 10 minutes later, the man had vanished. Who wants to go to a movie?

Urban Legends in America Part 11: the Spuds Have it (Idaho)


Here there be dragons in Payette Lake (McCall, ID)

The first documented sighting by western settlers occurred in 1920 when workers cutting ties at the upper end of the lake thought they saw a log in the lake. The “log” began to move. In September 1946 the serpent was reportedly sighted by a group of twenty people. Dr. G.A. Taylor of Nampa, Idaho explained that “it appeared to be between 30 and 40 feet long and seemed to keep diving into the water. It left a wake about like a small motor boat would make.


Two years later, twenty people saw the beast diving into and popping back up out of the water. Later, in 1954, the editor of Star News held a contest challenging readers to come up with a name for this elusive creature. The winner was Le Isle Hennefer Tury of Springfield, VA, who came up with the name “Sharlie.” Sharlie continued to be spotted over the years, but she hasn't been seen since 2002.

Urban Legends in America Part 11: the Spuds Have it (Idaho)


Coyote And The Seven Devils

The Seven Devils form a portion of the Idaho-Oregon border, as well as line their most treasured river canyon: Hells Canyon. The Nez Perce in particular had origin stories for nearly every feature of Idaho's diverse landscape - and the story of the Seven Devils is a unique one.
Many years ago, there were seven child-eating giant brothers who lived in the horizon. The people were terrified of these giants. They sent word to Coyote to help them defeat the giants and save their children. Coyote knew he couldn't battle seven giants at once, so he dug seven massive holes in the earth and filled them with boiling liquid. As the giants were traveling east to snatch more children, they tripped into the holes and were trapped. As they struggled to free themselves, they scattered the hot liquid for as far as the eye could see. Coyote was then able to transform the giants into stone, and he opened up a canyon at their feet to keep them from ever reaching the villages again.

Urban Legends in America Part 11: the Spuds Have it (Idaho)


Spirit Lake ( Kootenai County)

Spirit lake has two distinct tales
1. According to Kootenay Indian legend, a young Kootenay maiden once fell in love with a Kootenay Brave, or warrior. However, the chieftain of a tribe hostile to the Kootenays threatened war if he was not allowed to marry the maiden, making it impossible for the young lovers to be together. Since the star-crossed maid and her Brave knew they could never be married, they made a suicide pact and tied their wrists together – symbolic of their eternal union – and leaped off Suicide Cliff into Spirit Lake.
Legend has it that their spirits live on, and you can hear their mournful cries floating up from the water. Some have even claimed that on moonlit nights, they can be seen gliding across the lake in a phantom canoe.


2, Pete Rhodebeck, the first settler of Spirit Lake told John R. Reavis, a New York journalist, another tale which was published in the Spokane Falls Review on May 16, 1889:
The legend is, that once upon a time a canoe containing seven braves was moving across its surface, when suddenly and without warning the canoe and all of its occupants were swallowed up and lost forever. The dire disaster was attributed to some evil spirit that was believed to rule over the surrounding country. From that moment the Indians have never hunted on its shores or fished in its waters.


Rhodebeck, who had long been the only resident of that region, said he has often seen Indians pass on the regular trail, but he never knew one to stop. They shook their heads ominously and passed on.

Urban Legends in America Part 11: the Spuds Have it (Idaho)
Urban Legends in America Part 11: the Spuds Have it (Idaho)
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