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Transcript

Something-in-the-forest-stole-his-TEETH · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today's story is about a rugged eighty six year old
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: man who decides to head off into the wilderness to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: try to do something that nobody else before him had
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: ever been able to do.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: In fact, some had even died trying.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: But before we get into that story, if you're a
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
• 0:18
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• 0:20
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  Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: an early morning in August of nineteen thirty one, an
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: eighty six year old man carrying a massive backpack limped
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: into a supply store in the tiny town of Alvin,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: British Columbia, Canada. This man's name was Robert Brown, but
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  Speaker 1: everyone knew him as Volcanic because decades earlier he had
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: discovered a gold mine in Volcanic City, Canada. Volcanic had
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: actually made his living as a gold prospector, and he
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: had been so good at it that he had been
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: able to retire early. And so these days, as an
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  Speaker 1: eighty six year old man, he pretty much got to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. And so inside
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of this supply store, the young man at the cash
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  Speaker 1: register smiled at Volcanic and offered to let him keep
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: his backpack at the front of the store while Volcanic shopped,
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  Speaker 1: and Volcanic kind of scowled back at him.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I mean he took offense to this. He knew how
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: he must look to this clerk. I mean, Volcanic was old.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Short, super skinny, and he dragged his left foot when
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: he walked, and so he figured, you know, this kid
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: must think he's weak. And Volcanic hated that he did
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: not think he was weak, and so he said to
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the guy, no, I can carry my bag myself, thank
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you very much. Then, to show the clerk there was
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: more to him than met the eye, Volcanic flashed this
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  Speaker 1: big grin, revealing this gaudy, enormous set of gold teeth
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  Speaker 1: that he had bought when he had struck it rich
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in Volcanic City. And after seeing these ridiculous gold teeth.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: The clerk looked very taken aback, which was exactly what
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Volcanic wanted. Satisfied, Volcanic limped past the cash register and
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the clerk towards the back of the store, where he
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: picked up some cooking supplies, ammo for a shotgun, and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a pen to write in his journal, and then he
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: took everything up front to check out. Volcanic watched as
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the clerk furrowed his brow as he rang up the items,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: clearly trying to make sense of what Volcanic was up to.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: He asked Volcanic if he was going camping by the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Pit River that ran through town, but Volcanic said no,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: he was going to the Pit River first, but he
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: was going to hike all the way along the Pitt River,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: go through the mountains to another body of water called
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Stave Lake, And before the clerk could ask any questions,
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  Speaker 1: Volcanic said he was going there because there was a
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: hidden gold mine he was going to explore, and at
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: this Volcanic watched with delight as the clerk's eyes got wide.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Volcanic knew most people, especially in this area, thought this
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: gold mine was a total myth, and sure enough, when
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the clerk recovered from his surprise. He said to Volcanic, like, hey,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: you really ought to reconsider going there. The clerk said
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: he had seen plenty of people come through his shop
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: on the way out to go try to find this mine,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: but nobody ever came back saying they had found it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: In fact, he said that some of these people didn't
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: come back at all. At least two people had died
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: because the hike to Stave Lake was miles and miles
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: through extremely dangerous terrain. Volcanic waited until the clerk was
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: done lecturing him, and then he leaned over the counter
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and he whispered to the kid that he was different.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: He had a secret that would allow him and only him,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to find that mine successfully, and when he did, he
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  Speaker 1: would come back to the store and he would lay
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the gold down right on the counter, just to prove
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: it to him. Then Volcanic left a handful of cash
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: on the counter, He gathered up his supplies, flashed one
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  Speaker 1: more gold tooth smile, and then made his way out
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the door. A few hours later, Volcanic hiked uphill along
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  Speaker 1: the rocky banks of the Pit River. He'd only covered
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  Speaker 1: about five mile so far, because after all He was
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: eighty six with a bomb left foot, and so he.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Moved pretty slowly these days.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But even still only five miles into the journey, he
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: already felt totally cut off from civilization. The pit River
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  Speaker 1: was about a thousand feet across, and it was surrounded
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  Speaker 1: on either side by a thick forest. Volcanic was hiking
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  Speaker 1: parallel with the river, with the water on his right
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  Speaker 1: and the trees on his left. It was a stark
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  Speaker 1: and isolated setting that would make most people feel small
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  Speaker 1: and vulnerable, but after so many years working as a
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  Speaker 1: gold prospector, Volcanic was very accustomed to being out in
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness all by himself, so this felt normal now.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Of course, decades had passed since the last time Volcanic
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  Speaker 1: was a gold prospector, but even now, at his old age,
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  Speaker 1: he still felt like he was the skilled outdoorsman he
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  Speaker 1: once was. Volcanic kept on hiking uphill, staying close to
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  Speaker 1: the shor's edge, until the sun began to set, and
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  Speaker 1: by that point the trees on the left had begun
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  Speaker 1: to thin out, and Volcanic was finally able to see
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  Speaker 1: kind of far out beyond in the direction he was going,
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  Speaker 1: and he saw off in the distance, there were all
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the these mountains, and as soon as he could see
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: these mountains, he pulled out his journal and he flipped
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  Speaker 1: the last page, and he studied the page and then
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: looked at the mountains, and he smiled. It was going
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to take weeks to reach the gold mine, but he
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: knew he was going the right way because on that
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: last page of his journal was a map. This map
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: was the secret that Volcanic had told the store clerk about.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: It was the thing that was going to allow Volcanic
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  Speaker 1: to reach that gold mine where so many others had not.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Volcanic had actually drawn the map himself several years ago.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Back then he'd been panning for gold in northern British
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  Speaker 1: Columbia when he had run into this indigenous woman in
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  Speaker 1: the forest, and this woman was deathly ill, and so
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: out of the kindness of his heart, Volcanic had given
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: this woman some healing herbs and then stayed with her
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  Speaker 1: for days until she was nurse back to health. And
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  Speaker 1: this woman had been so grateful to Volcanic that she
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: had told him a secret. She told him that the
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: legendary gold mine out near Stave Lake was absolutely real,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and she said she knew this because her father was
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: friends with the guy who discovered it. The man's name
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: was Slumac, and she said he would go into the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: wilderness for days at a time, and then when he
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: came back home, he'd come bearing these huge gold nuggets,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: as big as chicken eggs. And not only did this
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  Speaker 1: woman tell Volcanic about this mine, she gave him directions
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  Speaker 1: to it, and so as she did, Volcanic took notes
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: in his journal and then used those directions to construct
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the map. However, before Volcanic parted ways with this woman,
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  Speaker 1: she gave him a warning. Right before he died. She said,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Slumac put a curse on the mine, and so now
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: if anybody tried to reach the mine, the forest itself
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: would stop them. Before I became a professional, strange, dark
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and mysterious storyteller, I served in the military, and during
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: my time in the military, I had some pretty wild experiences.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: But what I remember most about my time in service
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: was not my own stories, but rather the.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Stories I heard from other service members.
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  Speaker 1: Keep in mind, service members are sent to some of
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the most isolated and treacherous places in the world that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: very few people go to, and so some of the
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  Speaker 1: stories that come out of those places are totally creepy
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and weird. And even more than that, a lot of
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: these stories sort of stay in house. They stay in
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the military just because it's kind of a cultural thing.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: People don't necessarily want to go out and tell the
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: world about the totally unsettling and inexplicable thing they saw
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: while they were deployed.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: It's like people might think they were crazy. But there's
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: lots of stories like that.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: And so if hearing some of those crazy military stories
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: appeals to you, well, boy, do I have a podcast
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: for you. It's called Wartime Stories, and it's hosted by
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Luke Lahmanna, who himself is a veteran.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: He was a reconnaissance marine, which I can tell you
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: is kind of a big deal.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: And so because he has access in placement, he's been
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: able to extract some of these stories from the military
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and he shares them on the show. And if you
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: wanted to kind of generalize the types of stories you're
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: going to hear on this podcast, it's like the strange,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: dark and mysterious meets the battlefield and beyond. The Wartime
• 7:59
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• 8:03
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• 8:05
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• 8:08
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• 8:12
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• 8:14
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• 8:15
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• 8:18
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• 8:20
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• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Brand new weekly show.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: And so, now standing in a clearing beside the pit River,
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  Speaker 1: Volcanic thought back to that warning. He wasn't afraid of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: what she said, but just to be safe, he figured
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: he would spend as little time as possible in the forest,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and anytime he needed to pitch his tent along this
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  Speaker 1: journey to the mine, he would do so as far
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: away from the tree line as he could. This was
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  Speaker 1: actually Volcanic's second attempt at trying to reach this gold mine.
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  Speaker 1: Five years earlier, he had attempted this exact same hike.
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  Speaker 1: On that attempt, to the spite, Volcanic reaching the shores
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of Stave Lake, which apparently was right near the entrance
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  Speaker 1: to this gold mine, he had to stop because he
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: got a severe case of frostbite on his left foot.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: That frostbite had caused three of his toes to die
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and rot, and so Volcanic had to amputate all three
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  Speaker 1: of them with his pocket knife, right there out in
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  Speaker 1: the wild.
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  Speaker 2: No anesthetic, nothing, And.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: So this is why Volcanic had to turn around on
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: that attempt, and it's why he now.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Walked with a limp.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: And Volcanic had to admit that the fact that he
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: had been forced to literally cut off his own toes
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: did make it seem like he had become a victim
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: of Slumac's curse, but he also knew that it didn't
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: take a curse to make the Canadian wilderness dangerous.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: He just should have worn thicker socks.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Just then, Volcanic heard a twig snap somewhere outside of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: his campsite in the darkness, and so instinctively he shot up.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: He grabbed a shotgun, and he turned towards the sound,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: half expecting a bear to come charging out of the woods.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: But after standing there for several.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Minutes, nothing came out of the forest, and eventually all
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Volcanic could hear was the gentle sound of his spire
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and the river.
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  Speaker 2: The forest was totally still.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: As his heartbeat slowed down, Volcanic told himself that, you know,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the sound he heard must have just been a rabbit
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: running through the forest, you know, nothing to worry about.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: And so he lowered his gun and steadied his.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Breathing, and he looked at his spire, and he gave
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: half a thought to just leaving his campfire burning, you know,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: just in case he heard something else, he'd have some
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: light to go out and see what it was.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: But he thought he was being.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Kind of paranoid, and so he grabbed some water and
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: put out the fire, engulfing him in darkness, and then
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: he climbed into his tent and fell asleep. The next morning,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Volcanic got up at sunrise, packed up his tent in
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: his camping gear, and then hiked all day long. And
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: he did this day in and day out, dragging his
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: left foot behind him for over a month. Volcanic knew
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: he was moving much slower than a younger, healthier man would.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Some days he could barely travel a mile before feeling
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: so exhausted that he would have to stop. But despite
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: becoming skinnier and more ragged by the day, Volcanic kept
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: on hiking, and eventually, after going all the way down
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the pit river and crossing through the mountains, he finally
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: arrived at the shore of Stave Lake, the same place
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: he'd been when he'd had to amputate his own toes,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: But this time he was able to keep on going.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Volcanic hiked all the way to the opposite side of
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Stave Lake, and he came to a stop to take
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: in the view.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Surrounding the lake were all these huge rolling.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Mountains, and in one spot, Volcanic noticed the mountains dipped
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: down and formed a natural bowl in the earth that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: was filled with this gorgeous.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Bluish white ice.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Now, even though Volcanic had never been to this place before,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: he knew instinctively that that had to be Stave Glacier.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: And this glacier meant everything to Volcanic because it was
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the last major landmark on his map on the way
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to this mine. According to his map, the entrance to
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the gold mine was located on the side of a
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: mountain not far from the glacier. Now, Volcanic wanted to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: keep pushing forward and try to get to this entrance
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: as soon as possible. I mean, he was excited, but
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the sun was starting to go down, and he knew
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: if he kept on going at night, the.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Risk of injury was quite high.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: He could slip and fall, and remember, it had taken
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Volcanic over a month to hike into this location.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: He is way away.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: From civilization, and so if he gets hurt, nobody's coming
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: to help him.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: And so he decided he would stop and make camp
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: that night. He pitched his tent well away from the
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: tree line.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: He ate some beef, jerky and biscuits, and then he
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: crawled into his sleeping bag to try to go to sleep,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: but he couldn't. He was too excited about this mine.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: He was so close, and so he laid there restlessly
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: for hours, listening to the sound of the wind pick
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: up outside. Now, normally the sound of the wind would
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: help Volcanic fall asleep, but tonight it was not helping.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: It was actually making him feel really uneasy. The wind
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: was loud and fast, howling across the lake, and that's
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: when Volcanic noticed that, despite all the noise outside, when
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: he looked at the fabric.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Of his tent, it wasn't moving with the wind. It
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: was totally stationary.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: And so Volcanic sat up and he opened up the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: flap of his tent and looked outside, and the second
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: he did, it got even louder, you know, the howling wind,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: but he couldn't feel any wind blowing. We struck a
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: match and he held it out in front of his tent,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and the flame didn't even flicker again despite all this
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: crazy howling sounds.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And that's when he realized there.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Was no wind, and so, feeling totally unsettled, Volcanic closed
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the flap of his tent, got back in his sleeping bag,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: clutching his gun, you know, listening to this horrifying sound
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: outside that he couldn't make any sense of. And then
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: by the morning, when the sun came up, the sound
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: just went away. By this point, Volcanic was so anxious
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: just to leave and go to this mine that he
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: didn't eat any breakfast. He just grabbed his journal, tore
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the map out of the last page, tucked it in
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: his back pocket, and he started hiking. He still felt
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: very uneasy about the phantom wind he had heard all
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: night long, but now his sole focus was on this mine.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: He knew that if he could find it, he would
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: not only have infinite riches, but he would also go
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: down in history as like the greatest gold prospector ever,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and on top of that, on the way back out again,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: he could stop at that supply store and drop some
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: gold on the counter and rub it in that clerk's face,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just like he said he would. Volcanic made his way
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: first towards the glacier and then up the side.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Of a mountain.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: He dodged tree limbs and climbed over boulders, all the
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: while dragging his left foot on the ground. And then finally,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: up ahead, he saw this dark hole on the side
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of a mountain, and it looked like the entrance to
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: a cave. Now, Volcanic could not see very far into
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: that cave, but he was certain the gold mine had
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to be inside it there, and so with a rush
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: of excitement, he made his way up to the dark entryway,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and he stepped inside. Two months later, on November two,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, that store clerk back in Alvin looked
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: out the front window of his store and watched the
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: snow begin to fall. A blizzard was coming in, and
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: all this clerk could think about was that strange old
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: man with the gold teeth who had wandered off into
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: the wilderness three months earlier. Now, the old man had
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: told the clerk that he would stop by the store
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: on his way out to prove he had found the gold. However,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the man had not returned, and so the clerk wasn't
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: sure if that was because, you know, he was too
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: embarrassed because he hadn't found the mine, or if maybe
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: he had gotten stuck out the wilderness. But either way,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the clerk just had a bad feeling that, you know,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: something bad could have happened to that guy, and so
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: just to play it safe, the clerk grabbed his jacket,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: he left the store, and he went to go find
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the local game warden to tell him what was going on.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Three weeks later, that same game warden trudged through knee high.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Snow at the edge of Stave Lake.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Even though he and his search party were much younger
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and healthier than Volcanic, and it had still taken them
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: weeks to arrive here, mostly because of the blizzard.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: But in all the.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Time it took hiking to this location, they had not
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: found a single trace of volcanic.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: The warden was beginning to wonder.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: If this was pointless, if they should just turn around
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and head back, and that's when he looked up and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: he noticed the glacier on the far end of the lake,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and in the snow near that glacier was this little
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: pop of color. The warden pointed it out to his
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: men and they all began running towards it, and as
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: they got closer they realized what this thing was was
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a tent that had collapsed under the snow. And then
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: once they actually reached the tent, they shoveled off all
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the snow and sort of popped it back up, and
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: they looked inside, but Volcanic was not in there. Instead,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: they found an empty sleeping bag. They found some cooking supplies,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: a shotgun, some ammo, and a journal that's last page
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: was missing. But there was also one more thing that
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: was inside of this tent. On the floor, right near
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the opening flap of this tent was a glass jar.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: The warden picked it up and he looked inside and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: he gasped. Volcanic Brown was never seen again, and no
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: explanation for what happened to him was ever uncovered. His
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: body was never found, and there were no signs of
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: struggle anywhere in or near his campsite. But the contents
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: of that glass jar that was found inside of the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: tent proved that either Slumax gold Mine or Sluma's.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Curse was real.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: There are two slightly different versions of what people believe
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: was found inside of that jar. The first is that
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the jar was filled with huge nuggets of raw gold.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: If this is true, it means the gold mine did
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: exist and Volcanic must have found it before he disappeared.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: But the second version of what people say was found
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: in that jar has a much darker meaning.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: In that version, when the.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Warden held up that jar, he did see gold inside,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: but it was not gold from the mine. Instead, it
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: was Volcanic's solid gold teeth. Almost one hundred years have
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: passed since Volcanic went missing, and still to this day,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: no one has ever successfully found the mine and lived to.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Tell the tale.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: But to this day people still keep looking for it,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and so far at least thirty three people have either
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: died or disappeared in search of it. And now a
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: clip from the newest episode of Wartime Stories.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Enjoy.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Terrified for his own life, young Jose Korea fled from
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: the area, remembering what Diego Moreno had said about his
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: terrible dream. For some twenty five years, Jose resisted the
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: urge to return to find the buried treasure himself. The
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: passage of time, however, eventually dissipated Correa's fear. After a
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: long and wearisome career as a police officer, he would
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: do anything to secure an early retirement, and the temptation
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: was too much to resist. After learning from Major Bell
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: that only one parcel had been uncovered by the Basque shepherd,
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: who had then returned home to Spain unharmed, Correa reasoned
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: that he could safely return to the location and find
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: the remaining five. The Fresno tree had long since been
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: cut down, but Correa suggested that he and his friend
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Major Bell go out and acquire a lease for the
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: land where the tree once stood, under the pretense of farming.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: They could then plow the area and turn up the
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: remaining parcels without arousing any curiosity. At first, Bell said
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: he wholeheartedly agreed to the idea. However, their plans would
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: quickly go awry.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: So that's going to do it.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: If you want more strange, dark and mysterious content, remember
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: we have a whole slew of podcast under the Ballin
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Studios umbrella. They are the Mister Ballin Podcast, Mister Ballin's
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Medical mysteries, run full bedtime stories and wartime stories.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: All of them are free.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: There are loads of episodes and they are all of
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the strange, dark and mysterious variety. All you have to
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: do is go to any podcast platform, look up Ballin
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Studios and boom there are all of our podcasts for
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you to go Binch, thank you very much until next time,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: see you