Lately I have been watching some old episodes of Mythbusters in the evenings. That has got me wondering about Lincoln's biggest myths. Which myths dog Lincoln and Lincolnites?
I propose that one of the most prominent myths is the notion that City government and LPS are somehow related. The myth comes in various forms, but the gist is that City leaders -- the Mayor, the City Council -- have some control over what LPS does or how it spends its money. In fact, the City of Lincoln and LPS are two entirely different animals. LPS is by far the biggest user of local property tax dollars and the City has zero say over that.
What other local myths can you think of? Are there any things that are perceived as myths but which are, in fact, true?
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I don’t know if it’s a myth or not, but are there really “powers that be” in this community that somehow can truly shape how public money is spent? I see that phrase (“powers that be”) all the time from many elderly people and always wondered…
Perhaps a little more basic, but I remember from elementary school stories of Supernintendo Phil Schoo was from Alaska, and that’s why he never cancelled school for snow, or that he had a heated driveway/front lawn, and that’s why he never cancelled school, and so forth…
Shortly after moving to Lincoln 5 years ago I started hearing stories about Robber’s Cave.
They say it was used to smuggle slaves on the underground railroad, it used by Jesse James as a hideout, it was a brewery and best of all it was haunted by Pawnee Indians.
Some say you can still find a secret entrance by the grain elevators.
Myth or Fact to any or all?
That there are tunnels connecting several homes in the Country Club neighborhood. Myth was that the tunnels were created as a result of fears from the Charles Lindberg baby abduction.
The entrance to the cave has been sealed for many years now. I can’t say whether or not Jesse James used it, but I can say Robbers Cave made a damn nice birthday party location back in the day.
Hmm, I’ve never heard that one.
All you Country Club residents: report in at once!
Robbers Cave was an interesting place 😊 I went right before it was shut down.
Did you know that there is a tunnel under Capital Parkway that connect Lincoln High School to the maintenance building?
I don’t know about tunnels but I can confirm there are bomb shelters under many of those homes below the basement level.
Grade school folklore (c. 1980’s) 60 miles or so up the Interstate claimed that Lincoln had the second highest population, per capita, of a particular demographic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it certaintly can’t be true.
An astute reader, which I am not, will note that this has been covered quite recently. My apologies.
No tunnels around my CC house.
I really wish there was a way to make some money off Robbers’ Cave so we could get that thing reopened, I never went in it as a kid.
Any Hobbitsville myths still floating around?
The house over on Sheridan?
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/14532756/S-10th-St-and-High-St-Lincoln-NE/
Note that “Building or parking on top of the cave is cost prohibitive.”
I believe it was just off of Sheridan and South streets. I heard that one when I first moved to Lincoln way back in 1969. No telling how long it has been floating around.
I think that the Jesse James story was proven to be fiction. As for the Brewery, from my understanding it was used as a storage facility for that purpose and NOT an actual brewery operation. This was due to the cool conditions that are there.
Never did understand the one about the “secret” entrance.
I’ve come up with a couple different versions of this story, both citing a house near Sheridan & Park:
One: “The ghost of a little girl who drowned in a pool here is said to haunt the backyard. There is now a concrete fence around the yard to keep other children away from the pool, and some say it also keeps the ghost from leaving.”
Two: “Hobbitsville is well known amongst highschool kids as an urban legend about a witch that buried her sons in the backyard under “hobbit-like” statues.”
forgot about the third one…..that’s the one about how the small statues, on certain nights, come alive and wander the property. That’s the supposed reason for the stone wall and iron gates…...
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