The following might fall under the category of urban legend and has not exactly been heavily researched. Nevertheless, the story, according to Jody Bossert (who is not a local historian) goes that in the area of Bothell now known as Canyon Park, there was once a psychiatric hospital.

In 1923, by coincidence around Halloween, as a form of therapy, inmates were allowed to dress up as clowns and put on a carnival for the town. Then a little girl went missing, last seen in the area of the carnival. The locals were a bit annoyed and quickly blamed the hospital inmates, surrounding their circus tent.

That tent was burned to the ground, those inside lost to the flames. Not incidentally, the little girl was found a short time later, unharmed, having gotten lost in some nearby woods. The fire was covered up, officially written off as an accident and the incident largely forgotten.

Recently, however, workers in what is now a major business park, have, Bossert asserts, been documenting odd events: hearing calliope music and clown horns, spotting balloons floating off into the distance. Perhaps in honor of (or perhaps in cooperation with?) the spirit of those long-deceased clowns, Bossert has launched Bothell’s first haunted house in Canyon Park, the “Clown Cemetery.”

A 3D attraction that provides visitors with the appropriate 3D glasses, the house opened Oct. 14 and runs through Halloween at 22310 20th Ave. S.E., adjacent to Jump Planet, an indoor inflatable amusement park for children. But Bossert quickly notes even though the haunted house sits next to Jump Planet, except for a special event on Halloween, no one under 10 will be admitted without a parent.

Obviously a dedicated Halloween enthusiast, for 12 years, Bossert has operated Haunted Night, throwing large-scale Halloween events around the Seattle area. Last year, he launched “Beers and Fears” at Woodinville’s Red Hook Brewery. Somehow appropriately for his 13th year, he decided to get into the full-scale haunting business, launching his own attraction.

“It all fell together kind of last minute,” Bossert admitted. Just a day before opening, some of the attraction still was being put together.

“That definitely has been our biggest challenge to the project: time,” Bossert said. “But if an opportunity falls in your lap, you’ve got to go for it.”

In Bossert’s case, the opportunity hit him in August. He said the location, the walls and perhaps most importantly, many of the props, came his way in a matter of weeks.

But if the “Clown Cemetery became” a bit of a rush job, Bossert insisted that won’t show in the final product. Bossert can claim plenty of experience with haunted happenings himself. But he also received help in planning and designing the house from those connected with long-established, Seattle-area haunted attractions.

“The haunted house community is pretty small… Everybody helps each other out,” Bossert said.

Indeed, if something looks unfinished, a tour of the house prior to its opening revealed plenty of planning, though the 3D effect created by paint and black lights might be the house’s biggest novelty. Bossert put together one of the displays inside the house himself, a grisly sort of Jack-in-the-Box scene that ends the attraction. Bossert’s day job is running his own Mill Creek marketing firm. So what is it that draws him to scares and Halloween?

“It’s not so much that I’m a dark person,” he said. “I’m really more of a Disney person.” But Bossert added he loves the theatricality, the production challenges, of Halloween events.

Bossert said haunted attractions are a lot more plentiful in the eastern portions of the country than locally. He hopes with the addition of the “Clown Cemetery,” as well as a new attraction at Totem Lake in Kirkland, the idea of haunted houses might be catching on more strongly in Seattle.

A portion of proceeds from the “Clown Cemetery” will go to support Autism Service Dogs of America. Volunteers are still needed for the house. The attraction is open from 8-11 p.m., until midnight on weekends, Wednesday through Sunday, now through Halloween. On Halloween, the house will be toned down for the benefit of those 12 and younger, who also can visit Jump Planet.

For more information on the “Clown Cemetery” or other haunted attractions in the Seattle area, go to www.clowncemetery.com or visit www.hauntednight.com.