Weird Idaho

In the 1950s, parachuting beavers rained down from the skies of Idaho. Beavers play a crucial role in the management of flowing freshwater.  By creating pools and ponds the beavers hold water on site, leading to lusher habitats and fewer droughts.  In an attempt to redistribute beaver populations and rehabilitate the waters, the Idaho Fish and Game Department devised a program in which beavers were trapped from overcrowded locations and relocated by airplane. In this recently recovered footage from the department we can see the beavers parachuting, as well as vintage footage of Payette Lake in McCall, where Sharlie the water dragon is rumored to reside.

Outside the North Idaho town of Grangeville hides a fascinating phenomenon known to the locals as Gravity Hill. Alternately called 'Magnetic Hills' or 'Mystery Spots', gravity hills are strange locations where objects start to roll uphill.  Everything from car tires to bouncy balls are effected, and a car placed in neutral on Gravity Hill will begin to ascend, picking up speed as it goes. Perhaps strangest of all is that this is not Idaho's only gravity hill.  Post Falls boasts its own mystery spot, with very similar effect.

In Boise, Idaho the Egyptian Theater is a unique and beautiful landmark, and one with a eerie secret.  A former projectionist is said to roam the building, frightening employees and filmgoers alike. When it opened in 1927 after the discovery of King Tut's tomb it was a beautiful movie palace of Egyptian Revival design, one of the few remaining buildings from this brief architectural period.  It is still an operational theater and is beautifully maintained, with its detailing and original pipe organ intact. The ghost of the Egyptian Theater is suspected to be a man named Joe, a projectionist who worked at the theater from nearly its opening to his death in 1954, when he suffered a heart attack climbing the steps to the projection booth.  His spirit is said to stay on, and visitors and employees of the theater report him operating doors and light switches in the empty building, and the occasional disembodied voice and icy touch. Professional investigato...

Good News, everyone; the Center of the Universe has been discovered, and it's a manhole cover in Wallace, Idaho. The lovely town of Wallace, Idaho boasts a modest population of 780, but in 2004 their mayor made the following proclamation: “I, Ron Garitone, Mayor of Wallace, Idaho, and all of its subjects, and being of sound body and mind, do hereby solemnly declare and proclaim Wallace to be the Center of the Universe.” Shauna Hillman, one of the people behind this manhole cover, responded to questioning with "Prove it isn't." The manhole cover was placed in response to an EPA ruling that the town's mining industry had polluted the sol and water, but claimed that it was impossible to prove the lead was not naturally occurring, leading to 1,500 square miles of land being devalued, including the town. 

In the beautiful Owyhee Mountains of southern Idaho are rumored to live the Nirumbees, a terrifying race of tiny people who inhabit the mountain caves and eat human flesh.  First reported by the Crow and Shoshone tribes, the Nirumbee are eighteen inches tall with long pointed tails they curl around themselves for protection.  They are reported to be extremely strong and to shoot poison tipped arrows so fine they cannot be seen.  The Nrumbee possess many fairy like traits, and are thought to kidnap and eat children, replacing the missing child with one of their own, who will slowly drain the mother of life as it nurses.  They are thought to eat the hearts of wild stallions.  Generally assumed to be an native american legend, Nirumbees have nontheless been sighted within this century, and have been implicated in animal mutilations.

In March, 2017 a Tensed woman driving south on Highway 95 struck a deer near Potlach, Idaho.  When Benewah County Sheriff responded to the scene the woman had a strange story to tell. She claimed that as she was driving she caught sight of a Sasquatch chasing deer along the side of the road, and had to take a second look in the rearview mirror to confirm it.  As her eyes were off the road the deer ran in front of her car.  The woman was fortunately unhurt, and the sheriff reports no sign of Bigfoot.  The blogger's personal theory is that of a deerhunter wearing a ghillie suit.  What do you think?

Drawing of a UFO sighted by a young man from the streets of Moscow, Idaho in October of 2017.  He claims the craft appeared overhead low and in total silence, and moved over the sleeping town below the cloud cover before disappearing to the west.  The drawing is in the bloggers private collection.