Somewhere in the Skies - Spaceman: The Mysterious Disappearance of Granger Taylor

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

On episode 406, Ryan is joined by journalist, Tyler Hooper from VICE news. He walks us through the mysterious case of Granger Taylor, and the subsequent documentary that followed. Taylor was a master mechanic who built a spaceship. One rainy day in November, he left a note for his family saying that he was going into space on an interstellar voyage. He then mysteriously vanished off the face of the earth.  Special Thanks to Micah Hanks for his voice talents in this episode. Visit him at: http://www.MicahHanks.com Please take a moment to rate and review us on Spotify and Apple. Book Ryan on CAMEO at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DO Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/somewhereskies ByMeACoffee: http://www.buymeacoffee.com/UFxzyzHOaQ PayPal: [e-mail] Discord: https://discord.gg/NTkmuwyB4F Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ryansprague.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomewhereSkies Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somewhereskiespod/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryansprague51 Order Ryan’s new book: https://a.co/d/4KNQnM4 Order Ryan’s older book: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Store: http://tee.pub/lic/ULZAy7IY12U Read Ryan’s articles at: https://medium.com/@ryan-sprague51 Opening Theme Song by Septembryo Copyright © 2025 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Thank you again. And now let's get to this week's episode. Dear mother and father, I've gone away to walk aboard an alien spaceship, his reoccurring dreams assured a 42-month interstellar voyage to explore the vans. universe, then return. I'm leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help. Love, Granger.

You are now Somewhere in the Skies with your host, Ryan Spray. Welcome to Somewhere in the Skies. I'm your host, Ryan Sprague. And the letter that you heard read at the top of this episode was left for the parents of Granger Taylor. Granger was 32 years old and still lived with his parents. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade, but he was a mechanical genius. He found an abandoned locomotive in the forest and restored it to its former glory. The province of British Columbia purchased the steam engine for tour and display. He also purchased and restored a vintage Kitty Hawk Warplane, which sold for over $20,000 in 1981. Granger eventually grew bored of earthly engines

and shifted his focus to UFOs. He built a flying saucer replica from scrap metal and spent hours in the ship, obsessing over the mechanics of interstellar travel. He read hundreds of books and papers on UFO encounters and space travel. Granger came to believe that he'd been contacted telepathically by extraterrestrials. He talked frequently with his friends and family about these communications,

even explaining he'd been invited to go on an interstellar voyage at the end of the month. His friends later said they thought he was talking about a series of dreams he had had. But on the evening of November 28, 1980, Hurricane Force winds ripped through the future. Vancouver Island. Granger and his 1972 pickup truck were gone the following morning. All that remained was the letter he'd left for his parents, along with all his possessions and life savings. Despite many searches, he's never been found. Did he drive into the wilderness and commit suicide? Was he swept away in his truck by the horrible storm that night? Or, Did he leave on an interstellar voyage?

Today, I talk with Tyler Hooper. Hooper is a freelance reporter and journalist. His article on the Granger-Taylor case inspired a documentary titled Spaceman. Hooper runs us through the entire string of events that led to Granger's disappearance, who Granger was through the eyes and hearts of his friends and family, and the truths we tell ourselves in the midst of the heart. harder truths right in front of our eyes. Here's our conversation with Tyler Hooper.

Tyler, thank you so much for joining me today on Somewhere in the Skies. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Absolutely, man. So I recently watched a documentary called Spaceman because I literally consume anything having to do with UFOs, you know, alien contact. And I came across a documentary that you were in being one of the lead reporters on the case we're going to talk about today. And we're going to be talking about Granger Taylor and what happened to him. But before we kind of get to that, could you maybe tell us a little about yourself? Like what kind of work you do, where you're located, and yeah, why we're going to be talking to you today, man.

Yeah. So my name is Tyler and I'm located in beautiful British Columbia up in Canada on the west coast. I'm actually on Vancouver Island, not far from Seattle to give your U.S. audience a little bit of a reference point in a in a decently sized smaller city called Victoria, BC, kind of at the southern point of Vancouver Island. Granger Taylor actually only lived about an hour away, so that's kind of how

I found out about the story. But yeah, I'm a freelance writer and journalist. I have a day job in government, but as much as I can I try and write about stories that interest me. I like to write feature stories and really sink my teeth into something. So I've written about six or seven features for Vice Canada and Vice U.S.

now. I've done a little bit of work with the CBC, as you mentioned in the introduction, and a few other outlets. So I guess that probably succinctly describes my side hustle. Yeah, absolutely. We all have the side hustle. And, you know, yours ultimately led to this awesome documentary. So I guess my question for you is with Granger Taylor. Now, growing up in proximity to him, had you heard about this story before you really started digging into it? What prompted you to want to write about it before we, uh, we really started to be able to. get into what it is. Yeah, absolutely. So I guess I should have done a better job of my introduction. I'm actually regionally from Ontario, which isn't actually that far from New York. I moved up to the West Coast about

five years ago. So I had no idea, you know, about Granger or really Vancouver Island or anything that was going on out here until I moved out here about four years ago to Vancouver Island. And honestly, it's a really weird story how I found out about Granger. I was literally working at a TV company at the time. And it was a really slow, rainy day. Nothing going on. And I was literally sitting at my computer just kind of sneakily looking for my next side project, like just browsing Google and trying to find, you know, if there's any cool messers on Vancouver Island.

So I was literally just doing like Google searches of, you know, mysterious people on Vancouver Island and things of that nature. And I stumbled across this blog called Mysterious Universe. And it had this story about this guy named Granger Taylor and how he may have gone to space and, you know, all of the all of the kind of color around his disappearance. and I was blown away. At first I thought this isn't real. Like this has to be made up or this is some sort of folklore.

And I decided to look into it. And I eventually ended up getting in touch with some of his family and friends and found out that this was actually real. And then from there, I was just, I was just hooked. You know, now it's been almost, I'm going to say it's almost been four years that I've been in and out of Granger's story and his life to some degree. So, yeah, it kind of pulls you in once you find out about Granger. And it hadn't really been covered before. So I was really excited to try and bring some levity to the story. Absolutely.

I mean, when I saw the documentary and then eventually found your work, I mean, it was very hard to find anything else about all of this. Maybe some, you know, really obscure UFO websites back in the angel fire days or whatnot. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, when I saw that you'd written for Vice and for the CBC as well, I was like, all right, this is. is this is legit. Like this isn't some folkloric UFO tale. It was serious. And that's when, when I found out about the documentary, the CBC actually did a documentary about this. So before we get to the story of Granger, Taylor, how did the documentary come about, if I can ask? Yeah, of course. So yeah, I guess I should have ended that last answer with saying, yeah, I did it, ended up pitching

the Granger's story of vice. And it was my second feature that I was doing for them. So I was still pretty green as a writer as well. So, you know, it was really exciting to find what I thought at the time was such a big story. Anyways, I pitched the device. They said absolutely, like, you know, if you can actually pull that off, that'd be amazing. So I spent about six months or so, maybe a little less interviewing family and friends. The vice article came out, I believe, I want to say it was June of 2016. Yeah, June 30th of 2016.

And, yeah, and then for a while after the article came out, I got some very general feedback, and a lot of people seemed really happy with the story. And it kind of disappeared off my radar for a while, and I went off and did a few other pieces. for advice that were kind of unrelated. And then slowly over time, I kept having people contact me about Granger and his story. And there was a few other things that almost panned out before the CBC doc, but they kind of fell apart or I never really heard back from the people. So honestly, when CBC, it actually wasn't CBC who got in touch with me.

It was a production company based out of Toronto who said they were pitching the Granger story to CBC, but they were going to produce it. And again, I was pretty skeptical at first, only because it had happened a couple times before. and had completely fallen through. So this was probably March of last year, I believe. Yeah, I wouldn't have been March of last year, 2018. Yeah, and then surprisingly pretty quickly,

I stayed in touch with these people at a production company in Toronto, and they eventually just brought me on board, and we started shooting it for 10 days in, I think it was early September, and then they did the second block on October, and it came out in February. So it all happened very quick. I'd never been apart. Yeah, I'd never been apart.

of such a project. So it was amazing. Like all the prep work they did from March until August was, was really, really impressive. But yeah, I just kind of happened out of the blue. I got an email and then a few Skype calls with people. And then before I knew it, I was, you know, booking time off to go and travel with these people to Duncan to shoot this thing.

Wow. Yeah, I mean, I can relate, man. I just had a TV special air not too long ago on the Roswell UFO incident. And it all happened within like a month. And it was a whirlwind. I'm sitting here today being like, wait, did that actually happen? Like, where did I, where did my mind and body go for those last five days? So I know it moves very quick and it's clear that they did their research and they used a lot of what,

what you had brought to the table. So I got to ask you, kind of as the, I would say, the lead reporter on this, what is the story of Granger Taylor? If you could maybe give us kind of the brief summary of who this guy was, what happened? happened and yeah, yeah, I'll let you paint that picture for us. Absolutely. While at surface, Granger Taylor is the story of a master mechanic in my eyes. He went missing on the evening of November 29th, 1980, leaving a very mysterious note to his parents, basically saying that he was going on this 42-month interstellar voyage and that he would be

back at some point, but he no longer needed his possessions. And please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help. Very bizarre sort of note. He goes missing. He's last seen that night around, I think it's Bob's Grill or some sort of diner in Duncan. And then his pink pepto-bismol truck in him disappear. Six months later, or sorry, not six months, six years later in 1986, a logging crew finds his truck blown up on a nearby mountain. There's some debate over whether it's Mount Sick or Mount Provo, but they're very close to each other.

So it's somewhere in that region, not very far out. actually from his family home. And they're able to confirm that the VIN number match Granger's truck, but everything else they find at the scene is kind of circumstantial. They do find some bones, but there was no DNA testing back in 1986, or if there was, it was only being started to use in bigger markets like London and New York. It hadn't reached a little Vancouver Island yet, as far as I know. And those bone fragments have since disappeared,

or they're sitting in a storage locker, evidence locker somewhere that no one, Seems to know where. But it's basically, that's the surface of the story. You know, as I mentioned, he was a master mechanic who dragged a locomotive out of the woods and restore it to, to it actually working and him driving it up and down his property on railroad tracks. He basically took this like P.E was like a P90 or P40 Kitty Hawk airplane World War II fighter. And like, I think basically with just a fuselage built the whole thing almost to scale. actually, allegedly, was able to fly a little bit. And then obviously his kind of, I guess what a lot of people consider his masterpiece or his last big project was the spaceship he built in the backyard of his parents' house or I guess the front yard technically.

Basically just using two big radio or satellite dishes and welding them together to create this spherical spaceship. You can see pictures of it, I believe in the CBC documentary as well as in my vice article. but really impressive, eccentric kind of guy, really quiet and shy, you know, not really particularly crazily outgoing. But I think in short, the story really lies in its disappearance. But I think as I started to dig beneath the surface of the story, I started to see this picture of this really potentially troubled and interesting character. Yeah, and I definitely want to touch on that, you know, the troubled aspect, you know.

I mean, we can't really understand, unfortunately, Granger at this point and his mental health state, because he's gone. But that being said, like, you guys were able to speak to a lot of family members and friends, one of his really close friends as well. And it's funny, the images of the flying saucer or the spacecraft that he created, I've seen those around for years and years, and I never knew. who made it, what it was connected to, and then when I finally found out that this was the case it was connected to, it just made it all that more interesting to me. So, okay, so November 29, 1980, this is the night when Granger was said to have disappeared. And you said that's kind of like the big part of all this. So can you paint us a picture of what happened on the night of November 29th? So there's a lot of, a lot of what I will say is conjecture to a lot of people because there are

little, there are some facts that we can kind of attribute and say maybe, you know, 90 to 95% they happen. But there's a lot of conflicting testimony from friends and family on what happened that night. But from what we, from what I know, and I'm pretty sure it's certain, is that at some point, around 6, 536, dinner timeish, he, he went to this diner and hung out with some people and people saw him there, Bob's Grill, and then he kind of took off. Some claim that night that there was a really violent storm happening. Some people swear by it that it's ingrained in their

brain because of how violent it was. Some of the weather reports I've looked at have suggested otherwise, but it's really hard to know exactly what was going on that night. Other people say that Granger went and visited some family and friends and said some really mysterious things that he was leaving on an interstellar

voyage and, you know, here look after my stuff. I said his goodbyes to some people and then just kind of fled. No one really knew, where he was going or what he was doing. I don't think everyone took him that seriously because Granger was always kind of up to some bizarre stuff, right? Like someone who's going to go into the woods and pull a train out and do all this sort of

stuff. Like he was always being a little eccentric in that way. So I don't think too many people thought much of it until I believe it was that night or the following morning that his parents became concerned and they started searching for Granger. And once they couldn't find his bright pink truck, became really worried. And then I believe at some point over those next few days or those next few hours, they filed a police report in the RCMP, the Royal Canadian Mouthed Police got involved in a search for him.

But from the police reports, which is almost illegible because it's all handwritten. But from what you can gather from it, it doesn't sound like they're really sure what Granger was doing that night. He visited some places, met with some people, but really nothing was out of the ordinary other than potentially one visit he had with one of his friends where he kind of told him that he was saying goodbye.

But again, you know, that's one person's memory. And I can't confirm it happened as they say it did. But it sounds like it's pretty probable that he was saying his goodbyes. One of the stranger things, though, leading up to that night is that, like, when I first started looking at the story and you just hear what I just kind of said, you're like, oh, this sounds very spur of the moment. Like, you kind of maybe decided to do this that day. But the weird part is, is when you go back and look at what he wrote his will and when

he crossed out the word, I think it was like dead and he wrote Departed or something like that, it was like six months previous. So that tells me that Granger had. I've been thinking about leaving in one way or another for a little while. And I don't know why he decided to pick that night, but he did. And no one ever, well, no one has ever publicly said they've seen him again. Interesting. So this all was probably planned then in a way.

I think so. I find a hard time now. When I first wrote the advice article, you know, I did an okay job of digging into the story, but it wasn't until the CBC doc started happening. and I really kind of got back into it, that I really started to change a lot of my thoughts on what happened to Granger. And I think he did plan it. And that is kind of when I personally felt and saw this underlying layer in Granger that was maybe a little troubled or maybe a little bit of a misfit.

I got a tinge of that the first time around, but I was really focused kind of on the UFO alien aspect because, you know, I think that's what my readers wanted to read. That was the most interesting part of the story. but as I kind of went around the second time with Granger and was really looking into his story, there was this sense that he was planning this maybe and that he was just looking for the right time.

One of his good friends, Robert Keller, who's in the documentary, who's great, who really, really knew Granger, who was really close to him. He says, and he's told me both, I think he said this on camera as well, but Granger was talking about, you know, having communication with these extraterrestrials,

and taking off months before it actually happened. So for him, it wasn't really all that surprising. I mean, it was sad and it crushed him, but I think Robert kind of expected it to happen at some point. So that to me also says that, you know, he was telling people about this long before it happened. And I think most people dismissed it as just Granger being as eccentric self. But I think people like Robert understood that, you know,

maybe Granger was planning something and maybe he did think he was going on an actual voyage. Yeah. And I mean, you know, Keller even said, you know, oh, I want to go with you, man. Such a good friend. Yeah, exactly. And he wasn't able to, unfortunately. You know, Granger tells him, you know, this is something I got to do myself.

So it's very interesting, you know, it's heartbreaking in a way, his best friend in this, having to relive this through the documentary and maybe find some truths that he didn't want to believe either. But like you said, the more you dug into this, the more troubled, it seems that that Granger may have been. And, you know, we learned that maybe he had some problems with maybe depression or drugs or any stuff like that. Did you come across any of that in your own research? Yeah, absolutely. And it's very controversial. The family is obviously very sensitive about the whole drug angle.

but from someone who was outside of that and emotionally kind of detached from that and was more looking at the evidence. It looks like, well, to start with the mental health aspect, the family that I talked to seem to agree that like Granger's family did suffer with certainly depression at times. I think it's pretty fair to say that Granger behaved in a pretty depressive way at times, just given friends of accounts of some of the interactions they had. Beyond that, like I don't think, you know, I never heard of Granger having a temper or, or anything like that, but it did sound like he could be pretty withdrawn and pretty melancholy. To the drugs angle, it sounds like it's pretty certain, I think, that he smoked a lot of pot. I mean, Robert Keller talks openly about him and Granger getting in that spaceship and basically hotboxing it and just like watching, you know, just watching movies in there or reading books

and magazines and talking about space and, you know, just doing what people did before the internet, you know, actually hanging out and, you know, just talking about stuff and, you know, hanging out. Like, that's what people did. It's also alleged that he was maybe taking acid. There is a letter actually that was written by, I think it was Granger's cousin, that kind of says, you know, Granger and a bunch of friends were dropping acid last summer. No bad trips, but, you know, they did do it quite a bit or something to that extent. So that's, you know, to me that was like a primary document, you know, that, you know, documents Granger allegedly doing acid.

There was rumors that he was doing other drugs as well, but I don't know. Like that stuff is, I don't really want to go into it too much just because, you know, I don't think it holds a lot of weight. And I think, I think if anything, given the circumstances, like Granger telling his neighbors that he was getting, you know, interstellar communications with somebody else in another galaxy, that sounds to me like maybe a psychedelic experience or interpretation of his reality, maybe mixed with a mental health episode. You know, it's hard to really say because, like you said, we can't sit Granger down today and ask him about it because no one knows where he is. It's all conjecture, but at the same time, too, I think it is important to bring those subjects up when talking about his disappearance, because I think both, if not one of them, certainly played a factor in his belief that he thought he could go to outer space. Greetings everyone, Ryan Sprague here, host of Summer in the Skies. For over seven years and more than 400 episodes, the Summer in the Skies podcast has always been free to listen to, but it's not free to create.

So we offer several ways to help support our efforts and get rewards in return. If you listen to the podcast on Apple, you can click the subscribe button at the top of your somewhere in the sky's feed to become a premium Apple subscriber. Or you can join our Patreon campaign with several tiers available. Both of these options give you the same benefits and rewards, add free episodes, early access to the main show, and bonus episodes and content. Help keep the lights on at the Summer in the Skies HQ and help us continue to grow by becoming a Patreon subscriber at patreon.com slash somewhere skies. Or by clicking the subscribe button at the top of your Apple feed. Thank you for your continued support. And keep looking up.

You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost! or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your ocean front room. Just steps from the water.

The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay. We run across this a lot in the quote unquote UFO field, the whole abduction phenomenon and contacti phenomenon

is these individuals who claim, to get messages from ET or to have made contact with them. And it's always this message of, oh, well, I have a purpose. I have this sense of meaning to these beings. And that's why they're communicating with me. So you have to wonder someone like Granger who seemed like, unfortunately, kind of a lonely dude. And was this his way of coping with that loneliness? You have to wonder.

I think, yeah, I think there is something to that. I also think the more I dug into it, I think Granger also was just like kind of an obsessive person in that, you know, like, I think you have to be. Like, if you're going to, if you're going to commit to hauling a locomotive out of the woods, like literally finding an old logging train that is not working and like basically welding of this big truck together so you can even pull this locomotive out of the woods. Like, that's an obsessive project. Like, there's no way you're going to get that done unless you obsess about it. And I think he certainly did that with the train, even his first single-cylinder car that he built when he was younger, when he was a teenager, and then the kiddie-hawk, and then the spaceship. So I think it was just part of Grange's personality to get a little obsessive. And I think with the spaceship, I think that was the beginning of this obsession, or it was kind of even the climax of his obsession with UFOs and aliens.

And you've got to remember, too, and I'm sure your listeners know this because they're big fans of this stuff. But in the 60s and 70s, when Granger was in his formative years, you know, this stuff was huge in pop culture, right? Movies are coming out, close encounters of the third kind, Star Wars, Star Trek, all of these, you know, the Roswell, you know, the famous Roswell incident happens around that time and all these other sightings and alleged abductions. So, you know, without the internet, I think it would have been really exciting to see this stuff in magazines and on TV. And, you know, if you're a smoking pot and hanging out with your buddies, like, that's the stuff. That's one way to kind of, I think, really get into that world. And then, like I said, I don't know. I think something switched in Granger, you know, with this whole notion of him being

able to communicate with another galaxy, whether that was drugs, mental health, or maybe it was just, he just thought he really could. I mean, that's another option, right? Like, maybe he just really thought that he could cope or he could talk to someone in another galaxy. And maybe that was part of coping with his loneliness, right? Having that output. So that's totally a possibility.

well and I think it is kind of sad I also think I think Granger like going back to like the fitting in thing I don't think he really did fit in I mean he did he certainly had friends and he had people come over and people were always envious of the projects he was working on neighbors in the community and he was definitely a character in his community so it wasn't like he was a complete hermit even though when he was working on his projects he certainly would basically just hold up at his parents house they have a beautiful huge property that's still there to this day that has tons of space to work on these massive projects and you know what I think he was a bit of an oddball you know he painted his truck

pepped all Bismal pink and drove it around town and you know people would you know kind of make comments and make fun of them sometimes and I think I think there was a feeling uh for Granger that he didn't quite fit in and I mean this is a really working class town at the time too um that you know probably wouldn't have been all that um forgiving or not forgiving but all that accepting of someone really really different not to not to stereotype too much but I think it's fair to say that, you know, not everyone would have been a fan of Granger's eccentricities, essentially. Right. And, you know, it's interesting in the documentary, at least, you get a sense of that from the locals in the town, you know, asking them, what did you think of Granger in these stories? And it really ran the gamut. Some people thought he was nuts. Some people were like, oh, I totally believe he probably went out into space. Like, if anyone was to be chosen to do that, this would be the guy. He was an engineering genius, as it were. So, Yeah, it is interesting.

This kind of mythos he maybe didn't even purposefully try to do this mythos he created around himself in the town. And maybe the more the deeper he got, the more pressure he felt to like do something completely, you know, paradigm shifting. Who knows really? Absolutely. I agree. I think, you know, like you said, the interviews and the documentary with those local people really kind of summarize the, the poll. kind of the bipolarity that come with Granger's story and that like some people think he was a mechanical genius and other people thought he was absolutely nuts. And I'm sure there's some people who

think he was somewhere in between and I'm kind of on that boat as well. So yeah, it's really, really fascinating. The polarity surrounding his, just his mythos, like you said, it is really fascinating. So, I mean, in terms of, okay, the theories on what happened to him, what were some of the, like, the big ones you came across, Tyler? The biggest theories that I came across that are kind of worth discussing in detail. I think the first one that gets you hooked on the story is this idea that he did go to space. And, you know, I kind of in my CBC piece, which is not a, as the comments would have it, it is not an investigative piece.

It's just a blog post that I was asked to write as kind of a, like, what were my thoughts on, you know, Granger Taylor after having done all this work with on him. And basically, I kind of summarized it being as like, you know, it could have been, you know, it could have been probably suicide. Like I think the note to his parents can be interpreted as a suicide note. Just in the way it's worded, if you read it a few times, there's this sense that he's not coming back, but he's trying to give, leave hope that he might. And then you could, you know, you could split that theory into two branches, one saying he knew what he was doing. And, you know, he decided that enough was enough and that he was going to maybe try to go to space in his own ways to find a better reality.

or maybe he was in some mental health crisis mixed with some drug some drug psychosis that made him really believe that he was going to go and blow his truck up and go on this interstellar voyage but but killing himself in the in the process so those are two predominant theories i mean especially given the the truck i mean the night that he went missing a bunch of dynamite was missing from the family property and it's not it wasn't unusual for the family to have dynamite because back then um in a really rural setting that's how you would blow up tree stumps and that's how you would clear really difficult areas for you know farming or whatever and granger granger uses stuff all the time and apparently he was very

good with it so he knew how to handle it knew how to use it um you know it wasn't like he he would have taken a much of dynamite i mean it could have accidentally gone off i mean he did go up on a really rough logging road on a night that was allegedly really stormy so i mean uh wet dynamite is really unstable so uh you know that could have happened but from the sounds of it the way the truck was found and where it was found in such a remote area. It sounds like the blast was probably triggered. Um, and it pretty much demolished the car. Like there was basically all the truck, sorry, the pickup truck. Um, there was basically hardly anything but the engine block and a few scraps of metal to really identify the, uh, the truck with. So I think that's a pretty prominent

theory. I think the going to space one, um, is really interesting and that I think if anyone could do it, um, after having studied Granger, it probably could have been him. I mean, I, I, I, I, I'll admit I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to that sort of thing. But I mean, who knows, right? No one knows. I mean, that's why there are so many books and movies and podcasts about the stuff because we don't really have an answer. So I think it's definitely possible.

I think other theories that are a little less credible, but are still interesting. One is that apparently he has a friend who was a pilot and they used to go flying all the time. And they actually got in a really bad plane crash in the States. They both actually survived. miraculously. But this friend of Granger's had like what I believe, and I'm not an aviation expert, but I believe it was like just a little Cessna. And they would often go to like metal and trade shows down in the U.S. where Granger would find

you know, weird stuff that he could work on or, you know, bring back to the property and, and him in a storm fly around and do this. And, you know, there are rumors that maybe he took off, you know, with someone or by himself to South America or, you know, somewhere south. You know, I don't think Granger was a pilot, so I don't know how he would have done that on his own. and his friend that I've talked to has never admitted to to helping Crenger leave the country in any way. But people have talked about that. I mean, there are even, like, crazier theories that he was recruited by the government to work on some special projects because of his mechanical genius.

You know, I've seen zero evidence to support that. But I guess if the government was going to recruit you, they wouldn't leave any breadcrumbs for a secret project, right? So, I mean, it just depends on how far you want to go down the rabbit hole. I mean, for me, and maybe this is, like, my more pragmatic. and maybe slightly darker nature, but I think it's probably more likely that to some extent Granger committed suicide on that mountain, whether he knew what he was doing or not based on his state of mind.

No one will ever know, but it's pretty certain to me that the likelihood of that being the number one scenario is pretty likely, I think. Not to dismiss all the other ones, but just having spent so much time with the evidence and looking at the police reports and everything else in the coroner's inquest, that it's pretty hard to come up with any other solid theories based on facts, I guess.

I want to come away from this kind of feeling the same way, too, Tyler. But, I mean, it's hard. There's so much mystery still wrapped around it. And, you know, he was an enigmatic guy, and we may never know what happened until he possibly comes back, if that were the case. Absolutely. But that being said, too, I mean, kind of the way the documentary ends with, you know, family members, kind of giving their final thoughts on what they think happened. You are left thinking, unfortunately, that this guy either accidentally took his own life or purposefully did it.

But like you said, we just don't know. And the whole alien aspect behind all of it or contact or going to space, it leaves us with promise. And I think even one of the people in the film says that, like, this note he left for his parents was just, There was so much promise in it, but I can't go with that. So it's heartbreaking in so many ways. It is heartbreaking. And it's also like for me and, you know, one of the hardest things about doing the documentary was the family's reaction because the family was very split even on wanting to do the documentary. There were people that didn't even are in it because they just didn't want to do it, which is, which is, you know, totally understandable.

It's a painful topic. You know, to someone like myself or you who's an outsider, it's more of an interest in. story but um you know for these people this was a relative this was a sibling this was a son or whatever right so it's it was a lot more difficult to see the family like i think some of them want to just believe that he is at rest and he is gone while others are hanging on to the to the notion that um he may still come back i mean the family property is still in the family and i think the person who has it is kind of hoping that one day like maybe he will show up um you know and i that's really sad on its own way it's own right so yeah it is it is really it is really it is really

It is really, really heartbreaking. I think you're right, though, I think hanging on to that idea of, you know, because to me, and I tried to do this in my CBC blog post, but it was really, really, I was really burnt out when they, when they wanted me to write this. It was like a week before the release of the documentary, so I didn't really have as much time as I would have liked to flush out my actual thoughts on Granger. But, you know, I was really trying to wrestle with the idea of space being an open concept of, like, maybe Granger didn't see it so black and white like some of us do, where it's, like,

spaces like where, you know, black holes and planets are and maybe extraterrestrials, but more, maybe to him it was some sort of new beginning. You know, maybe he had this sense that wherever he was going, there might be more purpose in his life or there might be some greater good that he could do. I don't know. I mean, it's a really abstract concept space to begin with when you go beyond just the scientific kind of approach of, you know, what it is. But because we don't know a lot about it and we don't know a lot about the afterlife,

if E.3 is one, it's really hard. to say, you know, what Granger was thinking and why. But I do believe in Granger's mind, there was some philosophical thinking going on around that. Just given how eccentric and smart this guy was, I can't see him being so black and white about it. But I mean, maybe that's just me holding on to hope, you know, because we all wrestle with that question. You know, what is the meaning and purpose of our lives? And I think that's maybe, maybe I've gone too far into the Granger story where I'm starting to believe that that's how Deep Granger was. And really, maybe it was a lot simpler for him.

I don't know. But I guess that's kind of where I hold on to hope is that maybe he was really wrestling with the question of, you know, what is the purpose of life? And, you know, whatever he chose to do was what he thought was his purpose and his, I don't know, the way that he wanted to end or start something anew. I mean, I don't know. It's really difficult to, because again, it's just total conjecture. But that's kind of what I wrestle with, I guess, with the Granger story.

is that why did he do it? And that's constantly what I think about. Yeah, absolutely, man. And I mean, one of my good colleagues, a podcaster named Jim Harold always says, you know, not everyone in their life is going to see a UFO or a spirit is going to visit them or, you know, they're going to see Bigfoot. But everyone dies. Everyone dies.

We all have that in common. And it's what you do in that time and what meaning you give your life. and what you think might come next. So I have to agree with you that that abstract concept of what might be next and how will that affect what I'm doing right now. That we can all relate to that. So I totally get it. And whatever Granger was thinking or feeling, he probably was.

He's probably wondering, you know, am I actually going to go into space or what is that? Yeah, exactly. It's fascinating. It really is. I mean, he's taught us so much. in this. At least that's what I took from the film is, you know, what does come next?

And how can we, what can we take positive from this unfortunate story? Yeah, and I think I really glad that you found that deeper layer to the story because I think for a lot of people, and this is not a judgment, because I mean, it is a story that on a surface level is just very intriguing on its own, right? Like the whole Granger saga is just from the disappearance

to the projects, the spaceship. Like, all of that is just fascinating on. own, but when you do peel away the first kind of surface layer, which only kind of happened to me with the process of doing the CBC doc, was this whole other layer that kind of was a lot deeper and more nuanced in philosophy, or I thought anyway. And it's nice that someone like yourself who has just seen the documentary is taking that away as well, because that's really what, you know, that's really where the crux of the story is for me. You know, I really grappled with the idea of even writing a book about this, but I think the problem with that from my perspective is that

it's a real person, you know, it's not, this isn't an abstract idea or a fictional story where, you know, you can use allegory or certain sort of literary styles to, uh, to, to talk about your philosophy. It's like, this was a real person. And I wouldn't ever want to do a disservice to the family by, um, you know, doing something that's going to, to hurt them or, or, you know, in their eyes, tarnished the, the, the, the memory they have of Granger. So I think at this point, I'm pretty much, you know, just going to move on to something else and, uh, you know, let that live, but it's still, I come back to it all the time. I guess that's what I'm trying to say is that there's constantly that philosophical draw to, to, you know, Granger's thoughts about life and,

you know, the actions that he took and what he did. So, yeah, it's a rabbit hole. It's right. It's layer after layer, really, it is. It's one of those stories. So I'm glad you took that away when you saw the documentary. It was a great film. I highly suggest people check it out, check out your vice article that really did catapult all of this. So, um, where, Where can we find your work, Tyler? And what do you do in these days, man, besides reliving the Granger Taylor mystery? You can find my work. Well, you can just go to Vice and Tyler Hooper.

You can search and all my articles will come up. I have a website at Tyler HooperW.com. I'm on Twitter at Ty Hooper 8, so you can find a lot stuff there. If you're in the U.S., I'm not sure how you can see the documentary yet. I think it is coming out to the U.S. at some point, but it's available in Canada. on the CBC POV docs website. But like I said, I think they are planning to do a U.S. release at some point. So I'll keep you dated on that.

But yeah, I'm kind of, I'm in a weird spot. I mean, it was really strange for me. I started a new government job right after the documentary, the CBC doc. And that's been taking up a lot of my time. And then I've been working on a few, I've been doing interviews about the Granger story, which has been great because it's kept it fresh and alive in my mind. And then I'm kind of working on something a little,

different now. I've been of a history buff. I've been over the last few years researching the ship wreck off the west coast of Vancouver Island that's got some really weird folklore and mythology. You know, people claim it's a ghost ship now. Yeah, and it's kind of, it's very interesting in a lot of ways. So I'm kind of playing with that and I think actually I might, I might actually try doing a podcast on it and then maybe try running a book or something of that nature. But yeah, I'm kind of in that transitionary period, I think any creative person or anyone who needs outputs on the side, you go through those phases where, you know, you're kind of looking for the next thing to get sucked into you.

So, and like the Granger, you know, the Granger shoot was really intense. I mean, it was basically 10 days straight almost of shooting and long days and very, very emotional and very challenging at times. So it did drain a lot out of me. And then, you know, just going through a lot of personal life changes as well. I mean, it's, it's been a lot in the last few months. So I think I'm going on vacation this Friday. So I think once I get back from that, I'll have a better answer as to what's next.

But I'm still kind of got the pokers in the fire, sort of speak, and I'm going to see which one is the brightest or the hottest and, you know, kind of go from there. But, yeah, I mean, that's essentially it. I mean, I would love to find another story like Granger someday. I think the human interest pieces are some of the most fascinating ones. And I think, you know, when you write about someone who's so unique, I think a lot of people, you know, they don't maybe know it, but they can identify with that person in a strange way. And it can really lead to some interesting internal dialogue with yourself.

And that's what I really enjoy. So hopefully I'll, you know, I'll find someone else to maybe study a little bit at some point. Absolutely, man. Well, a vacation well deserved. And I can't wait to see what you come up with next, whether it is the shipwreck or something else. These stories have so much mystery and, you know, they're very alluring. But at the end of the day, when you strip it away, we're all humans searching for meaning. And I think that's what this story really taught us.

So I got to thank you for really digging into this and for coming on today and talking with us about this. No, I really appreciate it and I really enjoyed it. So thank you, Ryan, for having me on. And yeah, I'd love to do it another time with something else. So, you know, maybe I'll try and keep it in the UFO alien theme. themed corner so that I can come back on and talk to your listeners about that. So thanks again. Absolutely, man.

Hey, I'm always willing to stretch my muscles too. So whatever comes next, this will not be the last time you're on somewhere in the skies. So thank you again. Well, thank you. That's it for this week's episode. A very special thank you goes out to Micah Hanks. For his voiceover talents at the top of the episode, check out all of his work over at

micahanks.com. Spaceman is available to stream in Canada at cbc.ca.ca. Please take a few moments to subscribe, rate, and review Somewhere in the Skies on Apple Podcasts, or from whatever format you use to listen to the show. It helps us gain visibility and find new listeners. We're on Twitter at Summer Skies and Instagram at SomewhereSkies pod. Check out the merch store at tpublic.com and search for the Somewhere in the Skies store. That's T-EEEPublic.com.

All past episodes, articles, news, and contact information can be found at the website, Somewhere in the skies.com. I'll see you here next week, and remember, keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching for Granger, somewhere in the skies. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals, because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for citizens back.

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