Urban folklore is fluid, Richardson said, and there’s rarely one definitive incarnation of a legend. But when he brings up the topic of Hummel with his students, he typically hears a few common themes.

The park, they say, is home to a family, or colony, of albino farmers who venture out only at night. It’s also a hotbed of satanic activity, they say, citing images of spray-painted pentagrams on park property. It’s home to the Morphing Stairs, which are cursed, they say, because no one going up will count the same number of steps going down. Some have said the trees in the park are forever bowed in solitude from lynchings.

Historians tell a far more grounded story: In 1930, the N.P. Dodge family donated 202 acres of land to the city in honor of Joseph B. Hummel, a longtime superintendent of Omaha parks.

According to the Douglas County Historical Society, there is no evidence lynchings ever took place at the park. The staircase is difficult to count because the steps are irregular. And, for good measure, “there has never been an albino farm at Hummel Park,” the historical society clarified.

But like many Omahans, when Jeremy Morong was young, he used to wonder about the place.