Black Canyon City Greyhound Park Mystery

About 40 miles north of Phoenix, AZ there is a town named Black Canyon City. There is an old, abandoned Greyhound Race Track there that closed in 1982. I've often driven past it and wonder what the story was behind it. Today, I did a little research and what I found left me astonished and more curious than ever.

It seems that nearly a thousand people were poisoned and died there one day in July, 1982. Over a thousand more were hospitalized. I was in college at that time but never heard any media reports about it.

The only information I can find on the 'net describes the whole event in some detail. Is any of it true? The writing seems plausible but I find it hard to believe that a story like this wouldn't have made a major media impact.

It's a very compelling story with players that include organized crime and the (then) Governor of Arizona.

It wasn’t until around 12:40pm that people started to get sick. Only a handful at first but within an hour over half the people in the grandstands were vomiting where they sat, most not able to make it to the bathrooms, which had shockingly long lines. Several began to seizure and by 2pm the first person had died.

It spread like wildfire, and soon the entire grandstand was vomiting and seizuring all over each other. Local authorities, who had been called after the first death, were slow to respond and by 4:30pm over 650 people were dead and a thousand more were hospitalized. Tents were set up in the parking lot and medical staff called in from every town within a 200 mile radius. Of those that were hospitalized, another 305 people died.

Has anyone else ever heard anything about this?

Read the story here.

The story is complete and utter BS.

source

Wow! You would think that would be right up there on the tragedy and disaster shows. As to having any personal memory, I wouldn't know. I was only in 2nd or 3rd grade at that time. But it sounds like something Jonestown-esque.

originally posted by: ketsuko
Wow! You would think that would be right up there on the tragedy and disaster shows.

It would, if the story were true.

That area has an arsenic issue

Black Canyon City, in common with such other Yavapai county communities as Camp Verde, Cornville, Rimrock and Village of Oak Creek, has well water exceeding the current maximum limit of 10 ppb arsenic. Two thirds of the Black Canyon City residents and most of the businesses are served by a water District. The remaining residents are served by a private water company. Both water systems have invested heavily in arsenic treatment facilities and the water in Black Canyon City fully meets all federal standards. Both are continuously monitored by ADEQ for compliance.

Wiki

Cool Story thanks.

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

The story is complete and utter BS.

Hmmm ... and you were able to read the entire story, perhaps look at the many pictures, do your own research, come to a concise conclusion and draft a response in four minutes? You, sir, are a better man than me.

Living in AZ during the time period discussed, I, too, can say, without even checking, that this is utter bovine excrement.

Or untrue, wrong, not factual, fallacious, negatively truthful, fantastic, utterly incorrect, etc., etc.

But don't worry... most of us have been taken in by something we read on the net at some point or other... part of being curious. Live and learn.

eta: and I want to make it clear that I meant it was wrong about any incident where so many people died... THAT "mass death" aspect did NOT happen as there would've been many news reports, local lore... not to mention a zillion local punk bands named "Dog Track Death" "Greyhound 650" etc. ... and there are/where not.

The track exists.. .the "mysterious deaths" are the BS.

Been here since the early 80's and I've never heard of this. Baghdad, Prescott, Jerome, Humboldt.......I've heard a lot of the lore and this was never part of it.

Black Canyon City was pious and religous? That's funny.

They had to build the track 40 miles north of Phoenix? They had horse racing and another dog track here at that point. They were both well established. Gamblers had no reason to leave town for pokunkville where they supposedly weren't welcome.

There are many other holes I could poke in this.........but time. I don't have it.

Cool story, but that's all it is.........a story.

I found the exact same article on Reddit (word for word) and it was flagged as Best Single-Part Story of 2014.

So maybe it is a work of fiction, but the commenters there seem to believe it really happened.

a reply to: Shadoefax

That's one of the things with /r/nosleep. It's all fiction, but posted from an in-character perspective as if it's real. Sort of a really stupid roleplay thing.

originally posted by: ShadeWolf

That's one of the things with /r/nosleep. It's all fiction, but posted from an in-character perspective as if it's real.

Well, hats off to the author. He/she really did their homework because all the characters in the story are real-life people with definite ties to the racetrack (e.g., the Funk family, Charlotte and Monte Kobey and others). And the time-frame works too. The track really did close in the summer of 1982.