North Idaho Urban Legends, Underground Rivers

Is there really an underground river between Lake Coeur d'Alene and Hayden Lake?  Or is it between Hayden and Pend O'reille?  Or is it just a really great old story?  Decades ago the story was heard a lot.  Perhaps science has quelled the mystery, bummer.

If you were a kid growing up in the 50's or 60's you knew the tale.  Or at least one version of it.  Yes, it was lore and legend of how the body of a man who drown in Lake Coeur d'Alene was discovered in Hayden Lake.  Or drown in Hayden and found in Pend O'reille?  Or any combination of these. Sometimes Priest Lake was even thrown into a version.

Now it s true that these lakes are connected in a way.  It's called the Rathdrum Aquifer.  Doubtful a body could move from one lake to another, but, the water itself is a different story.  There has to be H2O molecules that have seeped from Hayden into the aquifer.  Perhaps that same molecule is picked up by a City of Coeur d'Alene water pump.  And that same little molecule comes out a hose to wash a car.  Then that water flows down the gutter and into the storm drain where it eventualy ends up in Lake Coeur d'Alene or the Spokane River.

It could happen.