HISTORYLINK
To celebrate April Fools’ Day, http://www.HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history, takes a look at some of the more notorious hoaxes that “have rocked the region over the years.”
- HistoryLink begins with a “curiously inscribed stone that was discovered in 1942 at Whitworth College in Spokane. Bearing the date 1703 beneath a message that appeared to be chiseled in “olde English,” the inscription seemed to indicate that European explorers might have visited the inland Northwest much earlier than was thought. Just as the Smithsonian was about to be contacted, three students came forward and admitted to the mischievous prank. A good laugh was had by some, and the rock hoax has since become part of Whitworth lore.
- “Much smaller rocks played a key role in the Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic, which was less of a hoax and more along the lines of mass delusion. On April 15, 1954, residents of Puget Sound were in a tizzy over mysterious “pits” that appeared in their automobile windshields, ostensibly out of nowhere. Theories on the cause multiplied: cosmic rays, meteorites, nuclear fallout, or a strange secret weapon. Finally, after President Eisenhower was alerted to this mysterious threat, some panic-pooper pointed out that the pits had always been there as the result of gravel and pebble impacts during normal driving. Oops. Before the truth came out, some thought that the windshield dings were caused by UFOs, which is not surprising, considering that the first modern-day sighting of “flying saucers” occurred over Mount Rainier in 1947. Two days after that noteworthy event, two timber salvagers reported that six large doughnut-shaped flying objects had spewed chunks of debris over their boat near Maury Island. The debris turned out to be nothing but scrap and beach rocks, and both men later confessed to fabricating their story.
- “And finally, on April 1, 1989, KING-TVs comedy show Almost Live! opened with a “special report” announcing that the Space Needle had collapsed. Even though the two doctored pictures of the debris included captions dated as April Fool’s Day, KING and the city’s 911 line were swamped with calls from people who fell for the prank.”
(The preceding information and April Fool’s graphic is courtesy of historylink.org).
MOSSBACK’S NORTHWEST
Mossback’s Northwest, KCTS 9’s exploration of Northwest history hosted by Knute Berger, also explored some notable Northwest hoaxes. Their exploration included the Almost Live!space needle hoax and added some additional hoaxes:
- Mossback’s Northwest recalls a 1992 article that appeared in the New York Times about Seattle’s famous Grunge scene. A reporter was assigned to create a list of what grunge kids said, “their secret counter-culture language.” The reporter called Seattle’s Sub Pop records and talked with then-receptionist, Megan Jasper. On the spur of the moment, she decided to make things up and the New York Times published her list. Months later the list was revealed as a hoax. Megan Jasper, the prankster, is now Sub Pop’s CEO.
- Another Mossback story describes a hoax related to Ivar Haglund, a well-known local celebrity and prankster. By the time of this hoax, however, Ivar Haglund, who died in 1985, was long gone. Knute recalls a 2009 Seattle Times article reporting that in the 1950s, Ivar had placed some underwater billboards in Elliott Bay anticipating the time people would be traveling by personal submarine. “An expedition was launched to recover one of these signs which was then hauled out of Elliott Bay and put on display,” says Knute. “Finding the billboard was the equivalent of finding the King Tut’s tomb of tomfoolery, a kind of buried treasure that was both ridiculous and classically Ivar,” he adds. Alas, it was too good to be true. The prank was part of a promotional campaign for Ivars, helped along by Seattle Times’ columnist Paul Dorpat who fooled another Times’ writer to cover the story. The promotional campaign worked, and sales of Ivar’s clam chowder soared. “Sometimes fake news pays,” concludes Knute.
You can watch Mossback’s Northwest story on hoaxes here: Mossback’s Northwest: The Northwest’s most notable hoaxes | KCTS 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: I was fooled several years ago on April 1st when KUOW.org — the local public radio station known for high quality news reporting – aired a story that had me outraged. The report discussed plans to move around some of the smaller San Juan Islands to more usable locations. It took me a moment to realize… oh, this is April 1st. They really had me going for a minute.
