Latest / Crime and Horror / He stood up to the government and became a LEGEND - MrBallen

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He stood up to the government and became a LEGEND - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today's stories are about how sometimes doing what you think
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Speaker 1: is the right thing can actually be the most dangerous
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Speaker 1: get into today's stories. On a Saturday afternoon in February
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Speaker 1: of 2011, 18-year-old Michael Peary was 1,000 feet underground, crouched
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Speaker 1: inside of a dark cave in Lafayette, Georgia, along with
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Speaker 1: four of his friends. As Michael looked around, his headlamp
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Speaker 1: beam bounced off all the low-hanging rocks and underground waterfalls
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Speaker 1: and deep crevices, and it all just kind of felt
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Speaker 1: like some kind of dark and otherworldly planet down here.
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Speaker 1: So this cave that they were in was a famous
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Speaker 1: cave called Ellison. and Michael and his friends had driven
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Speaker 1: over 400 miles from their college town in Gainesville to
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Speaker 1: see it. Ellison was almost 12 miles of tunnels and
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Speaker 1: shafts and crevices, and thousands of cavers went through it
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Speaker 1: every year. It was very popular. Now, to be clear,
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Speaker 1: caving as an activity was not really Michael's thing. He
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Speaker 1: was a marketing major at the University of Florida, and
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Speaker 1: he mostly considered himself to be a pretty quiet person
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Speaker 1: and liked studying or playing in his school band, or
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Speaker 1: volunteering with his church youth group. And so crawling through
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Speaker 1: a tiny, pitch-black, very claustrophobic hole hundreds of feet underground
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Speaker 1: was not really his first choice for fun. But Michael
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Speaker 1: was not there today for fun. He was there because
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Speaker 1: his close friend, a guy named Grant Lockenbach, had suggested it.
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Speaker 1: So he had said, okay, I'll go with you. Just now,
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Speaker 1: Michael looked over to where Grant was sitting with his girlfriend,
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Speaker 1: whose name was Carrie, and also they were sitting with
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Speaker 1: two of their other friends. And the group of them
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Speaker 1: were all looking through a backpack and sort of taking
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Speaker 1: stock of the various pieces of gear that they had
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Speaker 1: brought along with them. Now, they'd only entered Ellison just
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Speaker 1: a few minutes ago, but already the group had stopped
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Speaker 1: because there was something in this area that Grant really
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Speaker 1: wanted to see. And when Grant wanted to do something,
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Speaker 1: it usually happened. Hence why Michael capitulated and wound up
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Speaker 1: in this cave, because Grant wanted him to. And so,
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Speaker 1: you know, like normal, he went along with it. So Grant,
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Speaker 1: he was the president of their school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes,
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Speaker 1: which Michael, Kerry, and the other two friends were also
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Speaker 1: members of. And when Michael had joined the fellowship, Grant
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Speaker 1: had sort of taken him under his wing and told
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Speaker 1: Michael that he had tons of potential. In fact, he
3:05
Speaker 1: said Michael had enough potential to be the next president
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Speaker 1: of the fellowship. And this had given Michael a ton
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Speaker 1: of confidence because he really looked up to Grant. I mean,
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Speaker 1: a lot of people did. Grant was just cool. He
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Speaker 1: was a few years older than Michael and was basically
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Speaker 1: like a six-foot-tall ball of positive energy who was always
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Speaker 1: looking for some adventure to go off and do. Grant
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Speaker 1: had been exploring caves as a hobby for the last
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Speaker 1: three years, and he was actually really the only member
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Speaker 1: of their group with any real caving experience. And it
3:34
Speaker 1: was actually this lack of experience amongst the other people
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Speaker 1: that were with Grant, including Michael, that was the reason
3:40
Speaker 1: they were going through an easier tunnel within Allison that
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Speaker 1: was basically a straight shot through the mountain and did
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Speaker 1: not require much gear like rope or climbing equipment. It
3:50
Speaker 1: was like very beginner. But despite that, despite the low
3:54
Speaker 1: level of difficulty of the caving route they had chosen,
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Speaker 1: they'd brought that stuff anyway, all that extra equipment, because
4:00
Speaker 1: along this easier route at the place where they were
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Speaker 1: now stopped was the entrance to a vertical shaft that
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Speaker 1: Grant specifically wanted to climb down, even if he went alone.
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Speaker 1: This shaft was 125 feet deep. So think of like
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Speaker 1: a 10-story building. That is how deep this pit went.
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Speaker 1: But it was actually called the warm-up pit because compared
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Speaker 1: to the other, you know, deep pits in Ellison, it
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Speaker 1: was nothing. Some were way deeper, like over 500 feet.
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Speaker 1: So this was definitely not beginner. This was an advanced
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Speaker 1: thing to be doing. So Grant was going to do it.
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Speaker 1: But again, it's sort of a novice level, more advanced
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Speaker 1: thing to be doing in this cave. Now, Michael watched
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Speaker 1: Grant take the backpack with all the equipment in it
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Speaker 1: over to this pit's entrance, which was basically just a
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Speaker 1: very large hole in the ground that was over near
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Speaker 1: this waterfall, and it was only about a few feet
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Speaker 1: away from Michael. And so Michael walked over to Grant
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Speaker 1: to help set him up, which involved attaching a climbing
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Speaker 1: rope to the rocks that Grant could then use to
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Speaker 1: lower himself into this pit with. This process is called rigging,
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Speaker 1: and it took them a while, since really Michael had
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Speaker 1: to wait for Grant to instruct him on every step,
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Speaker 1: because Michael, again, is not an experienced caver at all.
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Speaker 1: But as Michael worked with Grant to get him all
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Speaker 1: rigged up, he found himself peering into the pitch black hole,
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Speaker 1: and as he looked down into what just felt like
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Speaker 1: this bottomless abyss, he felt his stomach kind of flip.
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Speaker 1: He was glad he had not promised Grant that he
5:24
Speaker 1: would go into the pit too, because, you know, seeing
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Speaker 1: it now up close in person, I mean, this was terrifying.
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Speaker 1: He did not want to go into this thing, but
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Speaker 1: Grant clearly did. He was excited. And so Michael and
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Speaker 1: Grant continued to get Grant all set up, and then eventually, finally,
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Speaker 1: When Grant was rigged, Michael heard the sound of something
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Speaker 1: pretty heavy sliding off of a rock. And then moments later,
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Speaker 1: there was this loud, echoing thud from deep inside of
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Speaker 1: this hole, the warm-up pit. For a moment, Michael was
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Speaker 1: just confused. He didn't know what the sound was. You know,
5:54
Speaker 1: maybe it was a rock falling into the pit. But
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Speaker 1: he looked over at Grant, and Grant had a very
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Speaker 1: unhappy expression. And he was looking at the ground right
6:02
Speaker 1: next to the pit hole. And that was where their
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Speaker 1: backpack had been with all the equipment inside of it,
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Speaker 1: at least the equipment that they weren't using. And the
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Speaker 1: backpack was not there anymore. The backpack had just fallen
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Speaker 1: 125 feet down into this pit. Now, obviously, this was
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Speaker 1: not good. They did not want their backpack in this hole.
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Speaker 1: But it was actually worse than just losing their equipment, potentially,
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Speaker 1: because in that bag was their only cell phone that
6:27
Speaker 1: they had brought with them. And it was also where
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Speaker 1: they'd put all their ropes and other climbing gear. They'd
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Speaker 1: taken some stuff out, you know, to get Grant rigged
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Speaker 1: up here. But still, losing this bag felt really bad.
6:37
Speaker 1: Without its contents, they could easily get stranded or trapped
6:40
Speaker 1: inside of this cave. And they wouldn't be able to
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Speaker 1: call or text anybody. They'd be stuck. And so Michael
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Speaker 1: could actually feel himself starting to panic. But then Grant
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Speaker 1: cut in and played it cool as always. And he said, look,
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Speaker 1: it's no big deal. he would just go down there
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Speaker 1: and he would get it. I mean, he was going
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Speaker 1: into the hole anyway, and he was rigged up after all.
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Speaker 1: So he would just go down and retrieve the bag.
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Speaker 1: It would be fine. And then before Michael or, you know,
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Speaker 1: Grant's girlfriend or the other friends could say anything, Grant just,
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Speaker 1: you know, strapped on his harness and a pair of ascenders,
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Speaker 1: which were climbing tools that would help him move down
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Speaker 1: the rope in a controlled way. And he began sort
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Speaker 1: of positioning himself to go down into this pit. And
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Speaker 1: Michael just watched Grant in complete awe. I mean, Grant
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Speaker 1: was so confident that that he was able to basically
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Speaker 1: make everybody else around him feel calm too. And I mean,
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Speaker 1: Michael felt himself calming down just watching Grant. And this
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Speaker 1: was not the only time that Grant had projected calm
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Speaker 1: in the face of danger. During Grant's freshman year, he'd
7:36
Speaker 1: casually climbed up the exterior of one of their school's
7:39
Speaker 1: dormitories just to see if he could do it. And
7:42
Speaker 1: he did do it. And he also had joined the
7:44
Speaker 1: school's ROTC, which is a military reserve training program, and
7:47
Speaker 1: learned how to jump out of planes. So he had skydived,
7:50
Speaker 1: you know, sort of a thrill-seeking activity. And so this
7:53
Speaker 1: moment in the cave seemed like yet another example of
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Speaker 1: why Grant was really such an incredible leader. And Michael
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Speaker 1: found himself hoping that by the time he potentially took
8:02
Speaker 1: over as president of the fellowship, that he could be
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Speaker 1: just as fearless as Grant. But for now, Michael watched
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Speaker 1: as Grant very calmly lowered himself into the hole and
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Speaker 1: then disappeared into the abyss below. And for the next
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Speaker 1: few minutes, it was very quiet. All Michael could hear
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Speaker 1: was the sound of the waterfall. So he and Carrie
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Speaker 1: and the others just sort of talked amongst themselves and
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Speaker 1: waited for Grant to call back up that he was
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Speaker 1: down there and had successfully grabbed the backpack. And finally,
8:27
Speaker 1: they did hear Grant, and he did call out from
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Speaker 1: somewhere down in the hole. But Michael couldn't really understand
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Speaker 1: what Grant was saying because the waterfall that was kind
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Speaker 1: of blasting nearby was really loud, and also Grant's voice
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Speaker 1: echoed around the cave, which made it hard to tell
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Speaker 1: what he was saying. So at this point, Michael and
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Speaker 1: Carrie and the others were not worried. They figured that
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Speaker 1: this was just an acoustics problem, not a safety problem.
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Speaker 1: So Michael just walked over to the edge of this
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Speaker 1: pit and kind of leaned over and just looked down. But,
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Speaker 1: you know, he couldn't see Grant. He was too far
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Speaker 1: down and it was too dark. And so Michael called out,
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Speaker 1: asking Grant to repeat himself because they couldn't understand what
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Speaker 1: he was saying. And Grant did yell back. He clearly
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Speaker 1: replied to Michael, but Michael still couldn't really make out
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Speaker 1: what he was saying. However, this time... there was something
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Speaker 1: really different about the way Grant sounded. Again, even though
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Speaker 1: he doesn't know what Grant's saying, one thing was definitely clear.
9:19
Speaker 1: Grant no longer sounded like the calm, cool, and collected
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Speaker 1: fearless leader that he normally was. He was talking really fast.
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Speaker 1: He was repeating himself. He was saying something really, really quickly,
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Speaker 1: very urgently. And even though, again, it wasn't clear what
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Speaker 1: it was, the tone was very clear. Grant was scared.
9:37
Speaker 1: There was a problem. Now, obviously, problems arise when you
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Speaker 1: are rappelling into a 125-foot hole underground in this cave.
9:51
Speaker 1: Problems can happen. But for Michael and the others, when
9:54
Speaker 1: they sort of realized that something was wrong for Grant,
9:57
Speaker 1: it was really shocking. I mean, Grant is the guy
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Speaker 1: that got other people out of problems. He was the
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Speaker 1: calm guy, nothing rattled him. And so just to hear
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Speaker 1: him basically panicking, it was really unsettling for those at
10:10
Speaker 1: the surface. And so Michael and the others, I mean,
10:12
Speaker 1: they're kind of hit with this sudden realization that One,
10:15
Speaker 1: it's very unsettling to hear Grant sounding this way. But worse, too,
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Speaker 1: is they're not cavers. They can't go into this pit
10:24
Speaker 1: and save Grant if he needs saving. Not only because
10:27
Speaker 1: they lacked experience, but also all the caving, all the
10:31
Speaker 1: climbing equipment was in that backpack that fell into the
10:34
Speaker 1: pit that's down there with Grant. So there's no way
10:37
Speaker 1: they can realistically help him if he is in any
10:40
Speaker 1: sort of trouble down there. And also, their one cell
10:43
Speaker 1: phone is down in that backpack in the pit. And
10:46
Speaker 1: so unless Grant can figure out whatever problem he's got
10:48
Speaker 1: and get back up here on his own, Michael and
10:51
Speaker 1: the others, without even saying it, knew. Like, they were
10:53
Speaker 1: kind of helpless. And so as this realization is setting
10:56
Speaker 1: in for Michael and the others, Grant goes from trying
11:00
Speaker 1: to talk to them, even though, again, they can't tell
11:02
Speaker 1: what he's saying, he just sounds sort of panicked, just
11:04
Speaker 1: straight up screaming. He's screaming for them. Something is horribly wrong.
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Speaker 1: And so Michael and Carrie, I mean, they start yelling
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Speaker 1: down to Grant, trying to get him to clarify what's
11:14
Speaker 1: going on. But you have this waterfall that's causing all
11:16
Speaker 1: this noise and splashing everywhere. It's dark. And Grant clearly
11:21
Speaker 1: is so panicked that he's not even listening to them.
11:23
Speaker 1: And so it's chaos. It's madness. And so Michael and Carrie,
11:27
Speaker 1: they turn to the other two friends and And they say, look,
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Speaker 1: we're going to stay here at this hole and wait
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Speaker 1: for Grant. You two leave the cave, go get help.
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Speaker 1: And so the other two, they rushed off to do
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Speaker 1: just that. While Michael and Carrie just sat there listening
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Speaker 1: to Grant getting more and more hysterical by the second,
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Speaker 1: you know, somewhere down in this hole. They still have
11:47
Speaker 1: no idea what's wrong, but clearly there is an emergency here.
11:50
Speaker 1: And so for a little while after the friends have
11:52
Speaker 1: gone off, Michael and Carrie, even though they're not really
11:55
Speaker 1: talking to Grant because he's just kind of rambling and
11:58
Speaker 1: yelling and screaming. They can't understand him. They're just kind
12:01
Speaker 1: of shouting down into the hole that everything's going to
12:03
Speaker 1: be okay. We've sent to get help. It's going to
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Speaker 1: be okay. You're going to get out of here soon.
12:07
Speaker 1: They have no idea if he can hear them or
12:08
Speaker 1: understand them. I mean, they're assuming that the acoustics are
12:11
Speaker 1: bad down there too. Again, the sound of that waterfall
12:14
Speaker 1: is so loud. It's so dark. And so they're just
12:17
Speaker 1: like having this, this awful moment, but then what cut
12:20
Speaker 1: through all this chaos is, was at some point, Michael
12:24
Speaker 1: heard Grant say something that he really did understand. Grant,
12:29
Speaker 1: at some point, in a very high-pitched, almost screaming voice,
12:33
Speaker 1: yelled out Michael's name. Like he was directly yelling to Michael, like,
12:38
Speaker 1: I need you, Michael, to help me. Now, at this point, obviously,
12:42
Speaker 1: the situation has escalated dramatically, and already, like, things are bad.
12:46
Speaker 1: And for Michael... This felt like a big deal. I mean,
12:49
Speaker 1: before that, all the yelling and screaming was obviously bad.
12:53
Speaker 1: But Michael, you know, he kind of views himself as,
12:56
Speaker 1: you know, Grant's successor, potentially. He's going to be the next,
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Speaker 1: you know, president of this fellowship. And he looked up
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Speaker 1: to Grant so much, primarily because Grant was like this
13:04
Speaker 1: fearless leader. And so Michael sort of felt like when
13:07
Speaker 1: he heard his name called out, that Grant was specifically
13:10
Speaker 1: sort of challenging him, like, you, Michael, I need you.
13:14
Speaker 1: Michael took on that responsibility. And he felt like, I
13:17
Speaker 1: can't just sit here. I can't just wait. Something needs
13:19
Speaker 1: to be done and I need to do it. I
13:21
Speaker 1: need to save Grant. And so Michael, he jumped up
13:24
Speaker 1: and he grabbed the extra harness they still had and
13:26
Speaker 1: he put it on. And as he was doing that,
13:28
Speaker 1: he could hear Carrie who, you know, she's seeing what's
13:30
Speaker 1: happening and she's telling him, don't do it. You don't
13:33
Speaker 1: know what you're doing. You don't know how to go
13:34
Speaker 1: down this thing. Like this is dangerous or what are
13:36
Speaker 1: you doing? Don't go. And Michael, he just looked at
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Speaker 1: her and he said, I have to do this. I
13:42
Speaker 1: know Grant would do this for me. I'm doing it
13:44
Speaker 1: for him. He needs me. I'm going down. And Michael,
13:47
Speaker 1: you know, he's listening to Carrie, still trying to tell
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Speaker 1: him not to go, but he just said to her,
13:51
Speaker 1: please pray for me. And then he walked over and
13:53
Speaker 1: he attached his harness to the same rope that Grant
13:56
Speaker 1: presumably was still attached to down at the bottom, but
13:58
Speaker 1: stuck for some reason and into the pit he went.
14:02
Speaker 1: As soon as Michael disappeared into this hole, Carrie knelt
14:05
Speaker 1: down beside the pit. She put her hands together and
14:08
Speaker 1: she prayed as hard as she could for Michael and
14:10
Speaker 1: Grant to be okay. And after a few minutes, she
14:13
Speaker 1: heard Michael call out from somewhere in the hole and
14:16
Speaker 1: And for some reason, she could actually understand what Michael
14:19
Speaker 1: was saying, which was basically that he and Grant were okay,
14:22
Speaker 1: he was with Grant, you know, but they were just very,
14:25
Speaker 1: very cold. Relief flooded over Carrie, and as she exhaled,
14:29
Speaker 1: all the tension she'd been holding in, and as the
14:31
Speaker 1: adrenaline kind of began to leave her body, because now
14:34
Speaker 1: she's thinking everything's okay, she also realized that she too
14:37
Speaker 1: was very cold. She just hadn't been thinking about it.
14:39
Speaker 1: She was so fixated on the safety of her boyfriend
14:42
Speaker 1: and also Michael. You know, after all, she was only
14:44
Speaker 1: wearing a t-shirt and the The cave was very damp
14:47
Speaker 1: and there's this waterfall kind of spraying water everywhere. It
14:49
Speaker 1: was cold. It was a damp environment. And so she's,
14:51
Speaker 1: you know, her teeth are chattering too. She's cold. And
14:53
Speaker 1: so Carrie naturally yelled down into this hole. You know,
14:56
Speaker 1: she can't see them, of course. She's just yelling into
14:59
Speaker 1: the darkness. You know, what's going on? What's wrong? You know,
15:01
Speaker 1: is Grant okay? But Michael just shouted back to her,
15:04
Speaker 1: I'm fine. I'm fine. But didn't answer her question about Grant.
15:09
Speaker 1: And at this, you know, Carrie could tell clearly there's
15:12
Speaker 1: something really wrong down there. And it probably has to
15:14
Speaker 1: do with Grant. And so she stood up, she began
15:17
Speaker 1: pacing back and forth, you know, her stomachs and knots,
15:19
Speaker 1: and she's periodically yelling down into the hole to Michael, like,
15:22
Speaker 1: what's going on? Is Grant okay? Are you okay? But Michael,
15:26
Speaker 1: all he would say back to her is, I'm fine.
15:29
Speaker 1: I'm fine. He would just say that back to her,
15:32
Speaker 1: but his response time began to slow down. He wasn't
15:35
Speaker 1: responding to each and every one of her calls. He
15:37
Speaker 1: would just, you know, yell out, I'm fine. I'm fine.
15:40
Speaker 1: I'm fine. But it just It began to become more
15:42
Speaker 1: and more spaced out as Carrie began to ramp up
15:44
Speaker 1: her questioning, asking more and more what's going on, until
15:48
Speaker 1: finally Michael just stopped answering altogether. There were no more
15:51
Speaker 1: voices coming out of the hole. And so the minutes
15:53
Speaker 1: ticked by, and Carrie, she continued to pace around, yelling
15:57
Speaker 1: out to Michael and Grant, but the only reply she
15:59
Speaker 1: got was the sound of the water from the waterfall
16:02
Speaker 1: lapping up against the cave walls. About an hour and
16:05
Speaker 1: a half later, just before 4 p.m., a man named
16:08
Speaker 1: Ann Marmerza, along with two other men, ran into the
16:11
Speaker 1: Ellison Cave with a bag of climbing equipment and medical supplies. Now,
16:15
Speaker 1: there was a bigger team of rescue workers on their
16:17
Speaker 1: way up the mountain behind them that had more gear
16:19
Speaker 1: and more personnel, but that group was moving slowly because
16:22
Speaker 1: it took time to respond to a cave accident. Because typically,
16:25
Speaker 1: there were a lot of people and a lot of equipment,
16:27
Speaker 1: specialized equipment that was required, and also usually the victims
16:31
Speaker 1: were trapped in, you know, pretty remote and difficult to
16:34
Speaker 1: access places, you know, like tunnels and shafts deep inside
16:37
Speaker 1: of these caves. So Anmar and his team were the
16:39
Speaker 1: initial smaller group that went ahead of the larger one
16:43
Speaker 1: to just kind of get the rescue started. A few
16:45
Speaker 1: minutes after entering the cave, Anmar saw a headlamp beam
16:48
Speaker 1: up ahead in the darkness kind of bobbing around. And
16:51
Speaker 1: as soon as he reached the origin of this light,
16:54
Speaker 1: he found a young woman who was sitting by a
16:56
Speaker 1: large hole and she was shaking and terrified. She explained
16:59
Speaker 1: that her name was Carrie and and that her boyfriend,
17:02
Speaker 1: whose name was Grant, along with one of his friends,
17:04
Speaker 1: whose name was Michael, were down in this hole, and
17:07
Speaker 1: that Grant had gone in, there had been some issue,
17:10
Speaker 1: Michael had gone in after him, and now, when she
17:12
Speaker 1: called out for them, neither of them were responding. After
17:16
Speaker 1: hearing this, Anmar directed one of his team members to
17:18
Speaker 1: take Carrie and bring her out of the cave, and
17:21
Speaker 1: then once they had left, Anmar put on his climbing gear,
17:24
Speaker 1: and as soon as he was ready, he began to
17:26
Speaker 1: rappel down into this pit. As Anmar rappelled, he's looking
17:29
Speaker 1: straight down into this dark shaft, and at first he
17:32
Speaker 1: can't see anything. But after a little while, he began
17:35
Speaker 1: to see somewhere down below were what appeared to be
17:38
Speaker 1: two lights towards the bottom of this pit, which he
17:41
Speaker 1: assumed belonged to the two men. But before he could
17:44
Speaker 1: actually reach them, he felt something wet and freezing cold
17:48
Speaker 1: splash his cheek. Then he saw something emerge out of
17:51
Speaker 1: the darkness right below him. It would turn out, when
17:54
Speaker 1: Grant rappelled down into this warm-up pit... he had made
17:57
Speaker 1: a terrible, terrible mistake. He had attached his rig to
18:01
Speaker 1: a section of rock that was directly in the path
18:04
Speaker 1: of a freezing cold waterfall. Now, this alone could have
18:08
Speaker 1: been okay. You can rappel effectively through a waterfall if
18:12
Speaker 1: you're careful. Except what happened with Grant is as he
18:15
Speaker 1: was rappelling literally through the water, like the water is
18:19
Speaker 1: coming off this waterfall, it's hitting him. He got stuck.
18:22
Speaker 1: His rope got tangled. And where he got stuck was
18:25
Speaker 1: literally in the path of the waterfall. So he's stuck
18:29
Speaker 1: in the cave. He can't go up. He can't go down.
18:32
Speaker 1: And he's just getting pounded by freezing cold water. Now,
18:36
Speaker 1: at first, what Grant likely did is kind of flail
18:39
Speaker 1: around to try to get out of the path of
18:41
Speaker 1: this water. But there was nowhere to go. He's in
18:43
Speaker 1: this shaft. There's nowhere to go. And he's just dangling there.
18:46
Speaker 1: And he began trying to stream out for help. But
18:49
Speaker 1: that was why his words were muffled, because the water
18:52
Speaker 1: was hitting him in the face so he He couldn't
18:54
Speaker 1: speak clearly. And then also, as he's just dangling there
18:57
Speaker 1: very quickly, having that icy water hitting him nonstop would
19:01
Speaker 1: have actually sent his body into shock. And it's like
19:04
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have been able to speak or think anymore.
19:06
Speaker 1: I mean, he was becoming hypothermic. And then, in what
19:09
Speaker 1: was possibly one of his final moments of clarity, he
19:12
Speaker 1: managed to belt out Michael's name. And he said it
19:15
Speaker 1: really clearly, kind of managed to get his face out
19:18
Speaker 1: of the water for a second. And Michael, who trusted
19:21
Speaker 1: Grant completely when he heard his name being called, it
19:25
Speaker 1: felt like it was his calling. He needed to go
19:26
Speaker 1: in there and save Grant himself. And so into the
19:29
Speaker 1: hole he went, and he hooked his rope up into
19:31
Speaker 1: the same exact spot that Grant had, and down he went.
19:35
Speaker 1: And Michael, you know, he did an incredibly brave thing
19:37
Speaker 1: by doing this. And it was something that Grant very
19:40
Speaker 1: likely would have done for him too. But again, Michael
19:42
Speaker 1: really had no idea what he was doing. He was
19:44
Speaker 1: basically just going in blind. However, unfortunately, because he just
19:49
Speaker 1: kind of Follow me. Grant's lead and went down there
19:51
Speaker 1: without a plan, well, in the darkness as he went down,
19:55
Speaker 1: he eventually reached where Grant was, but got stuck as well,
19:59
Speaker 1: also in the path of the waterfall. Granted, he was
20:02
Speaker 1: not nearly as exposed to the water as Grant was,
20:05
Speaker 1: like his face was not getting blasted by water, so
20:08
Speaker 1: he was able to call out and be heard by Kerry,
20:11
Speaker 1: but he also got tangled at the same spot, couldn't move,
20:14
Speaker 1: his body's getting hit by this icy water, and so
20:16
Speaker 1: even though the rescuers did eventually get down to Michael
20:20
Speaker 1: and Grant, by the time they did, it was too late.
20:23
Speaker 1: The two men had froze to death. They basically dangled
20:27
Speaker 1: inside of this hole, getting hit by this water for
20:29
Speaker 1: about two hours before their bodies just shut down. In 2013,
20:34
Speaker 1: two years after both Michael and Grant died inside of
20:36
Speaker 1: that cave, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission gave Michael a
20:40
Speaker 1: posthumous medal for risking his life to save Grant's. On
21:03
Speaker 1: a Friday night in late March of 1980, an 83-year-old
21:06
Speaker 1: man named Harry R. Truman sat on his couch in
21:09
Speaker 1: his Washington State Lodge with a whiskey and Coke and
21:12
Speaker 1: turned on his battery-operated radio to listen to the news.
21:15
Speaker 1: And just a second or two later, he found himself
21:17
Speaker 1: having to jack up the volume of the radio because
21:20
Speaker 1: he couldn't hear it anymore because a couple of his
21:22
Speaker 1: cats in the other room were fighting and yowling and
21:24
Speaker 1: it was causing a whole commotion. Harry had lost track
21:27
Speaker 1: of how many cats he actually had, but it was
21:29
Speaker 1: a lot, maybe a dozen. And even though at this
21:32
Speaker 1: moment he yelled and cursed at them and told them
21:34
Speaker 1: to knock it off, he was actually glad they were
21:36
Speaker 1: out there with him because he liked their company. Five
21:39
Speaker 1: years earlier, Harry's wife, Edna, had died. And since then,
21:43
Speaker 1: he had lived alone, minus all these cats. And he
21:45
Speaker 1: also didn't have a lot of neighbors either. So for
21:48
Speaker 1: the most part, he had been fairly isolated the last
21:50
Speaker 1: few years. Also, Spirit Lake, the lake that his lodge
21:53
Speaker 1: was on, was four hours south of the major city
21:56
Speaker 1: of Seattle and pretty far into the wilderness. The lake
21:59
Speaker 1: did get busy in the summer with tourists, but at
22:02
Speaker 1: this time in March, there were only about 60 people
22:04
Speaker 1: that lived there, and they were very spread out. But
22:06
Speaker 1: Harry didn't really mind the solitude. He missed Edna a lot,
22:09
Speaker 1: but he had his cats, and he had his radio,
22:12
Speaker 1: and the jaw-dropping mountain scenery and lake, and he had
22:15
Speaker 1: his whiskey and cokes. So overall, even though he was
22:18
Speaker 1: sort of a gruff guy, he was actually quite happy
22:21
Speaker 1: with his life. But just then, there was a loud
22:23
Speaker 1: knock on Harry's door. And Harry was not surprised by this.
22:27
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, he lives way out in the middle
22:29
Speaker 1: of nowhere, and he did not expect visitors, but in
22:32
Speaker 1: this case... he knew who it was. And as soon
22:34
Speaker 1: as he thought about that, his face contorted into a scowl.
22:38
Speaker 1: He was really annoyed. At this point in Harry's life,
22:41
Speaker 1: he really had only one problem. And it was a
22:44
Speaker 1: major problem, at least to him. And that was the government.
22:48
Speaker 1: And for the last few days, government agents, like almost
22:51
Speaker 1: certainly the ones that were knocking on his door, had
22:54
Speaker 1: been harassing him, trying to get him to leave his
22:56
Speaker 1: lodge in the wilderness that he loved so much. because
22:59
Speaker 1: they needed to conduct some kind of federal operation and
23:02
Speaker 1: they wanted everybody to clear out. Now, Harry loved his
23:05
Speaker 1: country and he'd even fought for it during the First
23:07
Speaker 1: World War, but he really did not like authority and
23:11
Speaker 1: he could not tolerate being told what to do. During Prohibition,
23:14
Speaker 1: for example, which was a period of time in the
23:16
Speaker 1: 1920s when alcohol was illegal in America, Harry had simply
23:20
Speaker 1: ignored the law and made his own booze like he
23:22
Speaker 1: just didn't care. So, over these last few days that
23:25
Speaker 1: these federal agents had come to his house trying to
23:28
Speaker 1: get him to leave, Harry had not been intimidated. He
23:31
Speaker 1: had simply stood his ground. And he figured it was
23:33
Speaker 1: really only a matter of time before the federal government
23:36
Speaker 1: sent a local police officer over in hopes that Harry
23:38
Speaker 1: would be more cooperative with somebody that he likely already knew.
23:42
Speaker 1: But what they didn't know about Harry is that Harry
23:45
Speaker 1: really didn't cooperate with anybody. Not with the government, certainly.
23:49
Speaker 1: Not with local police. Not with his own family. Not
23:51
Speaker 1: with his friends or Not with the two ex-wives he'd
23:54
Speaker 1: been with before finding Edna. He was just somebody who
23:58
Speaker 1: marched to the beat of his own drum. So now,
24:00
Speaker 1: Harry did not get up to answer the knock at
24:02
Speaker 1: his door. Instead, he just waited until the person out there,
24:06
Speaker 1: the visitor, yelled through the door and announced who they were.
24:09
Speaker 1: And not really to Harry's surprise, it was the local
24:12
Speaker 1: deputy that Harry did know. You know, clearly being sent
24:15
Speaker 1: here by the federal agents to try to get Harry
24:17
Speaker 1: to leave. And when Harry still didn't answer the door
24:20
Speaker 1: when the deputy clearly had announced themselves, knowing Harry would
24:23
Speaker 1: know who they were, when Harry still didn't get up,
24:26
Speaker 1: didn't answer the door, the deputy finally just sort of
24:28
Speaker 1: frustrated called out, Harry, are you sure you don't want
24:32
Speaker 1: to go? Now, even though this deputy was being a
24:35
Speaker 1: whole lot more amicable than the government agents had been,
24:38
Speaker 1: they had been really forceful, basically telling him you got
24:40
Speaker 1: to leave. The deputy here was at least kind of
24:42
Speaker 1: giving Harry a chance to make a decision. Despite that,
24:46
Speaker 1: the question the deputy had asked just made Harry really mad.
24:50
Speaker 1: Because leaving his house was just not something he would
24:53
Speaker 1: ever consider doing. Harry had lived in this lodge for
24:57
Speaker 1: 54 years, and 37 of those years were spent running
25:01
Speaker 1: this lodge as an inn, as a business, with his
25:04
Speaker 1: late wife Edna, who was the love of his life. Now,
25:06
Speaker 1: he'd let the lodge go a little after she had died,
25:08
Speaker 1: so truthfully it was kind of falling apart, and it
25:11
Speaker 1: smelled terrible, you know, because of all the cats. But
25:14
Speaker 1: it had been theirs, and now it was his, and
25:17
Speaker 1: He would never give it up. And not only that,
25:19
Speaker 1: but just outside his doorstep was Spirit Lake, which Harry
25:22
Speaker 1: believed was the most beautiful, perfect place in the entire world.
25:26
Speaker 1: It was quiet and serene and situated right at the
25:30
Speaker 1: base of some of the most breathtaking mountains he had
25:32
Speaker 1: ever seen in his whole life. And so to say
25:35
Speaker 1: Harry loved it here was a complete understatement. His lodge
25:39
Speaker 1: and Spirit Lake were basically his whole identity. Harry didn't
25:42
Speaker 1: know if he believed in God, but He did believe
25:44
Speaker 1: in the trees and the lake and the birds that
25:46
Speaker 1: screeched at him at all hours of the day. It
25:49
Speaker 1: was like his home, this area, was his religion. And
25:52
Speaker 1: he certainly was not about to give it up just
25:54
Speaker 1: because some federal authority or government agent or whoever told
25:59
Speaker 1: him to. So all Harry said to the deputy waiting
26:02
Speaker 1: outside was a very firm good night, which Harry was
26:06
Speaker 1: actually quite proud of himself for because he had a
26:08
Speaker 1: really hard time not swearing. So this seemed pretty mild.
26:12
Speaker 1: After that, Harry waited to see if the deputy would
26:15
Speaker 1: challenge him or say anything else, but he didn't. And
26:18
Speaker 1: moments later, Harry heard the deputy's footsteps crunching down the
26:21
Speaker 1: gravel driveway and heading back towards his cruiser. After that,
26:24
Speaker 1: Harry leaned back into his couch and smiled to himself
26:27
Speaker 1: and picked up his drink, kind of toasting himself for
26:30
Speaker 1: standing his ground. And at the same time, sort of
26:32
Speaker 1: hoping that maybe now, finally, officials would understand that he
26:37
Speaker 1: was not going to change his mind. But that's not
26:40
Speaker 1: what happened. A little more than a week later, on
26:42
Speaker 1: the morning of April 5th, Harry sat in a folding
26:45
Speaker 1: chair in a clearing by his house with his binoculars
26:48
Speaker 1: pressed to his eyes and a glass of whiskey in
26:51
Speaker 1: the cup holder of his chair. This was an area
26:53
Speaker 1: of the woods near his house he called his cocktail lounge,
26:56
Speaker 1: where he'd often go to relax with a drink. It
26:59
Speaker 1: was covered by a thick canopy of evergreens, but it
27:02
Speaker 1: also had a great view of the mountains and also
27:04
Speaker 1: the lake. But Harry was not here to relax. He
27:07
Speaker 1: was actually on very high alert because the woods were
27:10
Speaker 1: absolutely crawling with federal agents and local law enforcement officers.
27:14
Speaker 1: Harry could literally see them right now through his binoculars,
27:18
Speaker 1: walking around the various camps they had set up all
27:20
Speaker 1: over the mountainside and also near the lake. And there
27:23
Speaker 1: was nobody to stop them because everybody else who lived
27:26
Speaker 1: in this forest had bowed to the pressure and left
27:30
Speaker 1: when told to, which meant Harry was quite literally dead.
27:33
Speaker 1: the last resident still fighting the good fight. Now, so far,
27:38
Speaker 1: officials had not physically attempted to force him out. But
27:41
Speaker 1: now that Harry saw them assembling all over the mountainside,
27:44
Speaker 1: he had to wonder how long he had before they
27:46
Speaker 1: did try. But at the same time, he also knew
27:49
Speaker 1: that he had one piece of very important and very
27:52
Speaker 1: surprising leverage over the authorities. And that was that over
27:56
Speaker 1: the past couple of days... Harry's refusal to leave his
27:59
Speaker 1: wilderness home just because the government told him to had
28:02
Speaker 1: turned him into a media attraction. Reporters had heard about
28:06
Speaker 1: what was going on, and they'd started coming to his house. Now, usually,
28:10
Speaker 1: Harry just did not like the press, even though he
28:14
Speaker 1: clearly listened to the news himself. He still thought of
28:17
Speaker 1: the press, thought of the media like they were vultures,
28:20
Speaker 1: always looking for dead meat and chaos. But Harry also
28:23
Speaker 1: really liked to talk, and he had A lot of
28:26
Speaker 1: very strong opinions. And now, seeing his beautiful lake inundated
28:30
Speaker 1: by outsiders, Harry realized he had to take full advantage
28:34
Speaker 1: of this media interest in him if he wanted to
28:37
Speaker 1: stay in his home. Because the way he saw it was,
28:40
Speaker 1: the government could really not make him do anything against
28:43
Speaker 1: his will if the whole world was watching. So over
28:46
Speaker 1: the next month, Harry gave a lot of interviews. And
28:50
Speaker 1: pretty quickly, he became kind of an international celebrity. He
28:54
Speaker 1: was this single older man standing up to something way
28:57
Speaker 1: bigger and way more powerful, which was sort of admirable,
29:00
Speaker 1: although people didn't really understand it. But it was still
29:03
Speaker 1: a big story. It was very interesting. But more than that,
29:06
Speaker 1: it seemed like the public just sort of liked Harry.
29:09
Speaker 1: In his interviews, Harry would swear and yell and rant
29:12
Speaker 1: and rave and tell reporters about how no authority figure
29:15
Speaker 1: would dare try to get him out of his house.
29:17
Speaker 2: No, I'm not going to leave.
29:19
Speaker 1: You're damn right I'm not going to leave.
29:21
Speaker 2: I'm going to stay here. And he'd also talk about
29:31
Speaker 2: his life, just telling these crazy stories that had nothing
29:34
Speaker 2: to do with the wilderness, like about the whiskey that
29:37
Speaker 2: he'd bottled and distilled during his prohibition days, which he
29:40
Speaker 2: called panther pee, and about his relationship with his late
29:43
Speaker 2: wife and how they used to dance together at the
29:45
Speaker 2: edge of the lake, or his war stories.
29:47
Speaker 1: From World War I. I mean, this guy was just
29:49
Speaker 1: really quite fascinating. And so by the time May rolled
29:51
Speaker 1: around that year, Harry went from being bombarded by the
29:54
Speaker 1: government to being bombarded by the media. Today, this would
29:58
Speaker 1: be like going crazy viral, where everybody's seeing you on
30:02
Speaker 1: their feed. But this is 1980, and so people got
30:04
Speaker 1: their news from newspapers and the television and the radio.
30:08
Speaker 1: But those mediums were all full of Harry, and people
30:11
Speaker 1: were kind of obsessed. Everybody from average citizens to school
30:15
Speaker 1: kids sent Harry fan mail, and reporters and news crews
30:19
Speaker 1: came to Harry's in droves, and some even took helicopters
30:22
Speaker 1: just to get there more quickly. And Harry, if he
30:25
Speaker 1: was being honest, he sort of relished all the attention.
30:28
Speaker 1: A few months earlier, he'd been happy with his quiet life,
30:31
Speaker 1: you know, no phone, and he just had his a
30:33
Speaker 1: thousand cats for company. But now, it's like the whole
30:36
Speaker 1: world cared about him, and it was pretty cool. A
30:40
Speaker 1: few weeks later, though, everything changed. On Sunday, May 18th,
30:45
Speaker 1: the sun came up on Harry's lodge, and the woods
30:48
Speaker 1: around it were totally quiet for the first time in weeks,
30:52
Speaker 1: because Harry, in some ways, had won. He had kept
30:54
Speaker 1: his word, and he'd stayed strong, and refused to give
30:57
Speaker 1: in to the government's demands to leave, and finally the
31:00
Speaker 1: government had backed down. And the sheriff had even come
31:03
Speaker 1: by the day before to tell Harry that, okay, you know,
31:06
Speaker 1: no one's going to come by and ask you to
31:07
Speaker 1: leave anymore. It's on you. And so now, on May 18th,
31:11
Speaker 1: as Harry was getting up, it was just him, the lake,
31:15
Speaker 1: the trees, and the big beautiful mountain. And then, at 8.32 a.m.
31:18
Speaker 1: that morning, deafening boom shook the earth. It would turn
31:24
Speaker 1: out the media was not totally finished with the story
31:27
Speaker 1: of Harry R. Truman. In fact, what happened on the
31:29
Speaker 1: morning of May 18, 1980, would in many ways make
31:33
Speaker 1: Harry even more famous than he already was. Because Harry
31:37
Speaker 1: didn't live at the base of just any old mountain.
31:39
Speaker 1: His lodge was situated directly at the foot of Mount St. Helens,
31:44
Speaker 1: which was an active volcano. The government operation that the
31:48
Speaker 1: federal agents and local law enforcement were trying to run
31:51
Speaker 1: here was an evacuation. They were not trying to impede
31:55
Speaker 1: on Harry's rights. They were trying to save him. But
31:59
Speaker 1: Harry was so convinced that the land he loved so much,
32:03
Speaker 1: that he had lived on for nearly 60 years, would
32:07
Speaker 1: not hurt him. And so he ignored the authorities' repeated warnings.
32:11
Speaker 1: But Harry's decision was the wrong one. And on May 18th,
32:15
Speaker 1: he paid for his mistake. Because that morning, Mount St.
32:18
Speaker 1: Helens erupted, sending an avalanche of searing lava and mud
32:23
Speaker 1: directly onto Spirit Lake and Harry's lodge, killing him and
32:28
Speaker 1: his cats instantly. His remains were never found. 57 people
32:32
Speaker 1: died during this eruption, including Harry. Today, in that area,
32:36
Speaker 1: Harry has both a trail and a ridge that are
32:38
Speaker 1: named after him. So in a way, he remains a
32:41
Speaker 1: part of the mountain that he loved so much. Thank
32:48
Speaker 1: you so much for watching today's episode. Let me know
32:50
Speaker 1: what you thought of it in the comments below. And remember,
32:53
Speaker 1: we have a whole playlist of Places You Can't Go
32:56
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now. So go
32:59
Speaker 1: ahead and click here and give them a watch. All right,
33:02
Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.