The presentation on hoaxes reminded me of one of my favorite books as a child, Weird Washington: Your Travel Guide to Washington’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets.
While this book isn't necessarily centered around hoaxes, it does cover many urban legends in Washington State. Outside of that it covers hauntings, mysterious occurrences, and general oddities. While it was never stated as an influence, this book also reminds me of the Disney Channel show Gravity Falls which is set in Oregon.
For this post, I want to shed some light on some of my favorite lesser known "legends" based in WA.
J. Z. Knight is a spiritual leader known for claiming to channel a 35,000-year-old warrior spirit named Ramtha. She founded the Ramtha School of Enlightenment in Yelm, Washington, which teaches followers about consciousness and creating reality through thought. Critics have called her teachings pseudoscientific and the organization a cult. Supporters, on the other hand, praise it as a path to personal empowerment. This path to empowerment comes at the fair price of thousands of dollars and a yearly retreat to Yelm. Knight appeared on The Merv Griffin Show in the 1980s, bringing “Ramtha” into mainstream pop culture.
Maury Island incident - Wikipedia
The Maury Island Incident happened in 1947, when two men near Tacoma, Washington, claimed to have seen six flying saucers and recovered strange metal debris. They reported the event to the Air Force, but it was quickly dismissed as a hoax after investigators found inconsistencies and the "interstellar debris" turned out to be industrial waste. The case gained new life when “men in black” allegedly visited the witnesses, one of the first times that concept appeared in UFO lore. It’s now seen as one of the earliest examples of UFO conspiracy myths blending mystery with fabrication.
Pacific Northwest tree octopus - Wikipedia
Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus may be one of my favorite internet hoaxes. It is a famous internet hoax created in 1998 by Lyle Zapato, describing a fictional amphibious octopus living in the rainforests near Mount Rainier. The site detailed the “endangered” creature’s habits and threats from logging and climate change, citing photoshopped pictures. It became a viral tool for teaching digital literacy as many students believed it was real until learning it was satire. The site still runs today, and teachers use it to demonstrate the importance of verifying online sources.
like D.B Cooper.
I accessed this book via: Weird Washington : your travel guide to Washington's local legends and best kept secrets : Davis, Jeff, 1962- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive if you would like to read it you can make an account and borrow the book for free. I highly recommend doing so!
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