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    “Some thought it might be an old irrigation well that connects an underground river but, according to city records, there's no evidence of such a water system or even a storm drain.

    “The city sent out engineers and a geologist:

     "’They were very nice,, Crosby said, ‘but they don't know why this is happening. They said they were looking into it.’

     “From the original owners of the house, which was built 42 years ago, Crosby learned that the hole made four equally strange appearances during the late 1930's and early 1940's.

     "’They put old bedsprings in it and dumped truckloads of concrete chunks and all kinds of things down it, but the hole swallowed it up,’ she said she was told.

     "’Then they put steel beams across the top and topped it with twelve yards of cement, but even that’s gone now.’

     “She disconsolately pointed out a chunk of concrete -- the last remains of the 1940's fill -- slowly disappearing down, the hole.

     "’I sometimes wonder why this is happening to me,’ she said, as another carload of sightseers jumped out and looked down the hole.

    “They just stood there speechless and shook their heads.

     "’It's strange,’ one young man finally said..."

 

*******

 

#68 --- The following story, similar to the one above, appeared in the March 17, 1980 issue of a newspaper in Everett, Washington:

     “WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN BLACK HOLE? - IT'S A DEEP DEEP MYSTERY INDEED:

     “TACOMA (AP) -- For sale: One house in Tacoma with a ‘Black Hole.’