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     “Jim Johnson, and his wife, Harriet, have known about the mysterious hole in their back yard since March 1973. Johnson says he finally has had enough mystery in his life, and plans to unload the house -- without advertising the hole.

     "’I'm selling the house,’ he said flatly, ‘I haven't told the people looking at the house about the hole and I'm not planning to.

     "’You know, there were three previous owners to me... Hey, I'm an honest man. But none of them told me about that hole when they sold that house.’ Seven years ago this month, Johnson, a mechanic, discovered the hole when his Saint Bernard sniffed around the yard and started to bark at a one-inch hole.

     “His wife stuck a broom handle into it and couldn't reach bottom. Johnson stuck some longer sticks in and also couldn't reach bottom.

    “By this time, the hole was a foot wide.

    “The city sent out an engineer, who dropped a measuring line into the hole. The line stopped at 31 feet.

     “In July of 1973, the Johnson’s widened the top of the hole to four feet and threw in 162 tires weighing a total of 21 tons. They covered the tires with dirt and covered it with some wooden planks donated by the city of Tacoma.

     “In May, 1974, Johnson's curiosity got the better of him. He took off the planks and found out, to his shock, that the tires had sunk down 17 feet.

     “Afterward, some cave explorers came to look at the hole. Johnson and the explorers took the tires out and two of the visitors went down.

     "’The only thing they saw in there was three little cone-shaped things.’ Johnson said. ‘They were either cement or rock, they couldn’t explain it.’

    “Today, he says, nothing has changed with the hole. But he built a 25-foot deck over it and, just to be safe, put the foundation five feet away.