A friend brought this to my attention the other day. Odd neighborhoods appear all the time. I used to work in the City Clerk's Office and helped create some online resources to the Neighborhood Atlas. Seattle doesn't have an official neighborhood map. The online atlas was created based on the appearance of names in legislation. This is a highly personal topic as one would expect - especially around the idea of real estate. Do you want a Ballard address or a Loyal Heights address or a Crown Hill address? Example: Loyal Heights was named by a real estate agent/developer. Loyal was his daughter's name and Heights...well, it is at the top of the hill. Metum, on the other hand, is an odd one.

My guess is someone got confused with the nautical navigational name, "Meadow point" which is the name of point at Golden Gardens.

I have a map that I believe I purchased a while ago from a gas station or something to that effect. It labels the north corner of Golden Gardens as "Metum". I can't imagine that it has to do with Google. The maps are different.

It seems like Google Maps puts a lot of neighborhoods that no one refers to in real life such as "Foy" on Aurora & 145th. Luckily they've updated the neighborhoods it seems so they have mostly neighborhoods that people actually refer to, but Metum remains.

It also appears that way on the Map application on the iPhone.

I noticed it a few months back, and near as I can tell, it's just made up. The History Examiner article, for example, only mentions Metum in reference to Flickr maps, and from my googling around, the most likely origin for Metum was indeed some random Flickr user's creative geotagging.

I notified NAVTEQ, one of the companies that Google and MS get their data from, that they have a fake place-name on their maps, but I saw no result beyond the automated "your report has been recieved" message.

It's kind of disappointing how apparently easy it is for folks to put fake placenames on maps that people rely on for navigation, and how hard it is to get them removed.

Yeah, when I heard the first bang, I thought gunshot, but then it was in such quick succession and I lost count after about 12 bangs that I thought, no way, it's gotta be a string of ladyfingers or something. I heard the siren, but I guess half asleep I figured some poor jerk blew his fingers off.
NP on the noisy confirmation, jules!
It is always good to know you're not crazy, right? :D

It was firecrackers, I looked on the City of Seattle's website under 911 real time there was an incident at 1:36am with 1 aid car at 3011 NW 75th St. If there was in fact someone shot you would have seen all sorts of activity on the 911 real time log.

I heard them. I'm almost positive they were firecrackers. One definitely lit up the sky much more then a gun shot would (unless the shot hit a car's gas tank and it blew it up :). Also they did not sound like any guns I've ever heard (although I've only gone shotting a dozen times in my life, so I'm no expert).

i'm not sure but i swear it sure sounded like it, let's hope not! thank you for confirming that you heard it too. the ambulance rushing past my house about 8 minutes after i heard the mystery noise is what kinda made me wonder if it was indeed gunshots. let's hope not! thanks, bella. have a great thursday today!

Now that you mention it, I heard something. I thought gunshots at first, but I heard more like 15 or 16 bangs and thought it MUST be firecrackers. I must have fallen back to sleep, because I did hear some sirens at some point after that, I don't know how long or what kind.
I'm at 85th and 23rd, essentially, in Olympic Manor.
I hope it wasn't gunshots, I really didn't think it sounded like it. But then, I guess different guns sound different??

weird question, however....did anyone else hear gunshots about 1:30 a.m. this morning? i heard about 8 solid gunshots from my house at 19th & 80th streets in ballard. i then saw & heard an ambulance but that was it! not a huge deal i hope but i was just curious if my roomate & i were the only peeps that heard it? a REALLY out of place noise for our neighborhood?? thanks and have a great day today all.

I think it's where 85th Metum 32nd.

WIN

Looks like Metum consists of Cafe' Fiore...uh, and that's about it.

Whaddaya know: apparently I live in Crown Hill and not Ballard after all
Those links (the original and Peaboy's) are really informative. Thanks!

I believe it is the name of a former Indian village site. Sorry, no source.

Google for Metum WA History

http://www.examiner.com/x-479-Seattle-History-E...