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