This Paranormal Life - #203 Portlock - Alaska's Mysterious Abandoned Ghost Town

Episode Date: March 9, 2021

What caused the bustling town of Portlock to be completely abandoned in just one year? Rory and Kit dive back through time to discover the dark secrets behind the creepiest ghost town in Alaska.Patreonhttps://patreon.com/ThisParanormalLifeYouTubehttps://youtube.com/thisparanormallifeTwitterhttps://twitter.com/ThisParaLifeInstagramhttps://instagram.com/thisparanormallifeSecret Society Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/thisparanormallife/Edited by Kami Tomanhttps://tomanedits.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleIntro music: https://www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is grass just the dirt's hair? Why can't I stick my fork in the toaster? Are they afraid I'll get powers? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hey, welcome everyone, welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy paranormal podcast where every week myself and my accomplice, Kit Greer, investigate a brand new paranormal tale and come to a conclusion at the end as to whether or not it is truly paranormal. Welcome to the show. How are you doing today, Kit? Are you ready? I'm just, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm just still in the middle of eating here, eating some lunch here, but you couldn't have waited five minutes till I finished my lunch. You you knew that you knew that we were doing this i'm

i'm starving it's half i said half two you said you were gonna be fine yeah and i said i just need to i said sure i'll be fine after i eat this quick chili yeah but why did you take that out as you can see i've got quite a lot to get through so if you wouldn't mind there's no way you can eat all that chili this you know we could have a little food section they might enjoy hearing what you think of the chili is chili paranormal no no it's just if it's good or not welcome to this spicy life we come to a conclusion as to whether or not food is edible this week it's chili and i can see from here it's not because a lot of that looks like it's lego like you put lego in the bowl i ran out of croutons so i thought i need something crunchy to make do and sure i saw a couple pieces of lego yeah but i saw in the living room you'd been using the croutons to build a lego castle that's what

they are yes i was wondering why my hands were getting so oily and covered in crumbs you used croutons to build a lego ninjago castle i built f***ing hogwarts entirely out of salad there's no time for chili or croutons or even lego at the start of this podcast we're a paranormal podcast and we need to dive into today's story the year is 1912 and we're in a small picturesque coastal settlement at the tip of the Cannae Peninsula called Portlock. Though small and remote, it wasn't long before its population started to grow. In 1912, the town's first cannery was constructed, which I believe was just the business of canning foods. That was high-tech stuff back in the day as well.

Oh, hell yeah. This was borderline Silicon Valley of the 1912s. You're setting up a cannery? That's cutting edge. Before then, dirt was Tupperware. If you wanted to keep a portion of soup till the next day for lunch, you would just bury it and hope that some of it was still there. Oh, you like beans? How about having a can of beans?

It'll survive the nuclear winter. They don't even know what that is yet. They're like, we don't know what the nuclear winter is. Before canning, beans were a luxury set aside only for pharaohs and kings. Fresh beans were like caviar. So this was space age technology. They talk about, you know, the stone age, the bronze age, and then the can age. After the cannery was set up, the tiny remote town of Portlock was transformed into a bustling community. In 1915, they built a state-of-the-art cold storage plant. And by 1920, the town's population was so high, they even had to set up their own post office.

This is Silicon Valley. It honestly is this tiny little development just booming over a decade. Eight years later, they started construction on a brand new fish factory. And 10 years after, they built another even bigger factory. This place was turning into a little metropolis. Jesus. Life was good, but it wouldn't stay this way. In fact, in only a matter of years, Portlock would go from a bustling new settlement to a ghost town. Jesus. On account of ghosts? Well, we're gonna get to that in today's

episode, but I will say the term ghost town is not specifically linked to there being any ghosts. But you're not ruling out the chance that there might be some ghosts further on down. But I'm also saying don't get your hopes up. In 1920, a local man named Albert Pecta was out fishing in the beautiful crystal clear bay. He sat basking in the sun as his dogs ran up and down the beach, enjoying the fresh air. Enjoying a fresh can of beans, as was the custom. Everyone lived a very high protein diet in Portlock. But all of a sudden, they stopped barking and instead began to growl. Easy, boy, easy. Albert stood up, glancing behind him at the tree line. Hello? No one responded,

but he could hear something shifting around on the forest floor. In the shadows of the forest, Albert could see something moving, something huge, and it looked like it was heading straight towards him. A few moments later, a fellow resident was passing by when he heard some commotion. Looking across the field, he saw a now injured Albert. It's too late for me! Get out of here! Get out of here before it gets you too! Minutes later, Albert was dead. What? Yeah, that's right.

There's not enough beans in the world to bring this back to life. Jesus, man. That's horrible. Was this some kind of bear or something? Some sort of creature from the forest attacked him and his dogs. Before he passed away, he tried to explain what had happened. Something about a monster covered in brown hair that he called a bushman. Now his claims may be hard to believe, but this was just the first of a long string of disturbing incidents

that would rock the town of Portlock. Wow, right off the bat we have, I mean, so often in the cases where some sort of creature in the woods attacks people or scares people off. So much of it's in people's heads, but we have one casualty right off the bat yes starting with the casualty usually it's you know catching a glimpse in between the trees uh seeing a blurry image on a polaroid this guy got stabbed he got stabbed and robbed and murdered um to the point where when another witness comes along this guy's already dead yeah that's some pretty convincing evidence we're always not faking that we're always attacking our witnesses for wanting to gain something from their paranormal encounter he just died straight away yeah it's kind of um

i guess it's not good that that happened but at least you know if you're the witness who comes across um albert making these claims that a monster attacked him, you're not going to be like, really, Albert, a monster? You expect me to believe that? He's like, splurting blood out of his mouth. He's behind you. Really, Albert? I'm supposed to believe he's just behind me. He's eating a can of beans.

Really? You think I'm dumb enough to turn around? Flash forward 10 years it's the early 1930s and a team of lumberjacks were out working in the forest i mean at this stage this time has probably got a bullet train going to the nearest town it's got a starbucks it looks like blade runner 2047 uh no the contrary. This was even before chainsaws. So we're talking about these lumberjacks using axes and handsaws to take these trees down. It's a hard day's work.

Wow, that's why they're so strong. Well, it was getting to the end of the day and their work was nearly finished. Timber! Well, that's the last one for today. Let's head back to town and grab a beer. Where's Jared? He's downhill with the equipment. All right, let's go grab him and head home.

The men made their way down the forest to where Jared had been working. And they found him. Crumpled on the floor, motionless. Oh my God! Jared! What happened? Look at his head. Something hit him. Hit him hard. The men looked around to try and see what could have inflicted such a deep wound. Had he fallen

over? Had a tree come down on him? That's when they noticed blood on the logging equipment nearby. But the equipment was far too big for a person to lift by themselves. Even with three or four people, it would have been a struggle. Do you think he hit his head on that? How could he? equipment was far too big for a person to lift by themselves even with three or four people it would have been a struggle do you think he hit his head on that how could he it's 10 feet away but there's blood all over it despite investigation nobody ever got to the bottom of what happened even to this day the mystery remains unsolved wow what's going on here kit we're having men being attacked by daring to venture outside of the town it seems like some sort of creature living out in the woods around portlock is not too happy that people are moving in on its territory much like m night shamalan's

the village some kind of perimeter that you're not allowed to go outside of. Yeah. Of course, in that movie, spoilers. But it was, I don't know, the mayor or some shit in a beast costume. I don't think that's what's happening here because, as you're saying, it would require some kind of supernatural strength. Yes. To wield the equipment that was wielded here.

That's very, very true. It would have taken three or four mayors i believe to to lift this equipment mayor and his eight children i mean this is a problem that i think we're gonna see uh continue throughout this story is the problem with moving to a remote town is um as the population grows and business booms you need to start venturing out yes this is minecraft 101 folks you find a nice hilltop you build your little hut but all of a sudden you want a couple diamonds you get diamond thirst and and all of a sudden the fog is is clouded your judgment you don't remember how far you've got from your home. You're in the mines fighting spiders and skeleton men, just trying to get a crumb of diamond to bring home to your ungrateful Minecraft wife.

I'm not even talking about Minecraft anymore. And then the children don't appreciate you. You're working nine to five, commuting two hours a day. Sure, trying to play some Minecraft on the side. My Minecraft chores are actually preferable to my real life. I do like the idea that this town, which probably would look laughably small by modern standards, we're talking one post office, a cannery, and probably a pub. But to them, the real estate prices were through the roof.

They were having to move out into the forest just to make ends meet i mean that's all you need in life is a post office and an infinite supply of beans i've said that for years beans beer and packages from the post office um but but my point stands is that uh you know, as somewhere develops and it grows, eventually you need more resources. What happens then? You need to expand. You need to start cutting down the trees in the woodlands further out. And all of a sudden, as we're seeing in this story, you might start approaching on someone or something else's territory. Yeah. And to be fair, back then it wasn't such an alien concept i mean now

we have this very naive notion that we could kind of wander anywhere we want out in the wilderness and we'll be perfectly safe but back then it wasn't really the case i mean in countries even just like here in the uk there were wolves oh yeah big time these days it's a good thing to uh take the unbeaten path. Right, right, right. Back then, the path was very much beaten for a good reason, which was there were no wolves on the beaten path. Well, let's fast forward once again to 1949. Despite there being a number of strange and ominous events taking place in the town,

business is still booming. It's going to take more than a few mysterious deaths to stop this town from counting beans. If your loved one dies, they would probably just say, I'm sorry for your loss. Please accept this can of sympathy beans. And we'll see you on the factory floor tomorrow morning, 9am

sharp. They could probably can up your husband's remains for you. Really, really easy. Bashes. It's just another day. Another person killed in the wilderness. Well, anyway, in 1949, a new schoolhouse had opened up

and the teacher and his wife had been renting a room to some nearby hunters who'd been exploring in the woods. The men headed out early in the morning for a full day of hunting. But when night fell and they were expected back in town, they never turned up. In fact, they didn't come home at that night at all.

The next day, the worried townspeople formed a search party and headed out into the woods to see if the missing hunters could be found. And they were found. Or at least, what was left of them. The hunters were discovered all torn to shreds in the woods. Surrounding the bodies were a set of enormous footprints that were strangely human-looking. Except for the fact they were 18 inches long. Holy. I know we just throw around numbers willy-nilly on this podcast shakil o'neill

is stalking the woods killing hunters 18 inches okay so like two shakil o'neills that's a that's absurd and for them to look like human footprints that's that's terrifying it's terrifying the search team bravely followed the prints to try and discover what attacked these poor young men. And it wasn't long before they came across the scene of a struggle. The huge footprints intermingled with what looked like moose tracks. Dirt had been kicked up and the moose prints ended abruptly. And then there were only one set of tracks away from the scene. The giant feet.

This time leaving even deeper impressions and heading away up the mountain. Whatever this creature was, it fought, killed, and carried an entire moose. And then just for the hell of it, killed a troop of men. Yeah, for fun beforehand. Do you know how big mooses are? Meese? Mice? I don't know what the plural of

moose is either that or whatever this human beast is the moose is riding it like a horse just for fun yeah i just think there's questions that aren't being answered it's like all right so i i can see from the struggle that he obviously killed the beast threw it over his shoulder and made his way uh up the mountain what if the moose who let him in here him all right thank you michael thank you for that disprove it or else i refuse to leave everyone is asking whether the creature is real have you ever questioned whether the forest is real? All right, just send him back. It's real. Go back to the bean factory, man. He's the one at the bean factory that they just give a job that isn't like has nothing to do.

It's like your quality control, Michael. But someone's checking the quality before it even gets to Michael. Yeah, yeah. He doesn't have a real job. And he's trying to find issues that aren't even there. Yeah. These beans are on a regular side. Shut thek up get back to work have you seen a video of a moose just walking beside a car or beside a person i have it's like something from another

planet yeah there's two things canadians won't shut about. How cold it is and how big a meese are. Because anytime it's cold here in the rest of the world, a Canadian person jumps in the conversation and goes, oh, you think that's cold? You think that's cold? Motherfucker. It's like, yeah, we get it. It's cold in Canada. But also the size of the moose. If you put up a picture of your cat and say like, oh, Snuggles is getting so big these days. They grow up so fast.

And Canadians are like, you think Snuggles is big? Look at the size of this moose. They're like, you're scared of wolves? You're scared of wolves? I can't sleep at night because a moose is honking outside my bedroom. It sounds like a foghorn oh you can't pay your rent i can't afford guns to kill the moose they will not stop hounding my log cabin if there's so much snow it's so cold and there's so many meese get the hell out of here

you're not having a good time they're enormous they look like they should be in the background of a of a star wars scene yes there should be a moose in the cantina chilling in one of those booths i mean let's face it if you need to charge into battle what are you gonna do oh give me a horse so boring everyone has horses it's played out it's cliche imagine leading the charge into your enemy's front line riding a 20 foot moose and he's crazy too he's foaming at the mouth he's got wild eyes he took out a couple of your own men before the battle even started you're actually too many actually you're pretty light you actually might need to focus some of this counter attacks on the moose and if you beat

the opposite side, your trouble's only beginning because the war ain't over. You got the moose to calm down now. At the very least, we can make it the vehicle of choice for the paranormal communes infantry. Frontline infantry will be mooses.

And honestly, we've run out of petrol in the communes, so we're probably going to need some mousse just to carry around goods and supplies. We're also going to need some fresh water, which we call mousse juice, because without the water, the mousse do not actually function that well, as we've learned.

We really got to prioritize that the mousse gets the water and then we drink the mousse juice, which is mousse milk. Now, things unfortunately didn't get any better after this. Throughout the 1940s, at the height of World War II, residents began disappearing out of nowhere and never returning home. That's bad. Yeah, it's not great, is it? Other residents reported finding bodies in nearby rivers, lagoons, and trails. Something out there was killing locals. These bodies were found not even just dead, but shredded to bits.

Whoa! Yeah, pretty intense stuff. Good lord. So what did the residents of Portlock do? They pieced the f*** out. From 1949 to 1950, almost all of the residents just straight up evacuated the town. Wow, I did not... Even when you mentioned a ghost town at the top of the episode, I didn't expect that this was where it was going, that they would just leave. That happens so rarely. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty

crazy. We'll go on to talk about this, how insane it is that this town that was doing so well, that was so successful with the fishing factories and the cannery this booming industry to in the space of one year have almost all of its residents completely evacuated that shows you that there was at least the belief that there was a real threat that was coming for the people in this town it got to the point where the post office and all the other facilities were forced to close because simply nobody lived there anymore. Usually, as we said, when a ghost town gets abandoned, it's because their resources dry up or new highways are built that bypass the town. Like all the ghost towns in the deserts between L.A. and Vegas, those kind of western ones. But in this case, the residents ran screaming from a town while business was the best it's ever been. And from what? Well some people call it the hairy man, others call it the bushman,

but the truth is nobody really knows what it's called. Natives had lived in the Portlock region for centuries before the Royal Navy and the story goes that they had encountered the creature a number of times. There's at least 18 named Bigfoot-like creatures in Native American folklore, and they all have different abilities and characteristics. Yeah, we've kind of touched on that stuff before, right? You know, some of these things have wild paranormal abilities. Yeah, they're kind of like paranormal Pokemon that, you know, some of them have super strength. Yeah. Some of them have super stealth. Imagine if in the world of Pokemon, you would summon a Charizard and instead of attacking your rival's Pokemon, he shredded you.

Yeah. He shredded you to pieces. Yeah. yeah he shredded you to pieces yeah and stomped on your body and then flew away because you're keeping him in a tiny ball and you only take him out to get his shit rocked by water types imagine a pokemon so unpredictable and savage that everyone has to leave the kanto region professor oak evacuated pallet town because there's a bell sprout wrecking people i mean if this was the case in the pokemon world that's why i would probably be one of the little pieces of shit right at the start of the game who only has bugs i just have my pokemon are glorified

butterflies you know and and worms yeah people are like oh i'm showing up with a with a gyarados and that thing just eats them and then jumps into the ocean and swims away yeah you know who doesn't do that a butterfly my wheedle he's actually pretty chill and if he gets out of line i kill him he buries inside your ear and eats your brain oh no burst out of my skull as a butterfly. You're shredded to bits. I'm just summoning all my other bug Pokemon for one of them to try and help me, but they're just joining in. Now he's like, I know I'm cocooned upside down,

hanging from a tree. Some of these creatures that they talk about are said to have superhuman strength. Others can turn invisible. Some are just shy little forest guardians. There's even some very sweet stories about Bigfoot families living in harmony with the native Alaskans, exchanging gifts with them, with only the occasional kidnapping. So it's a pretty good life. Yeah. But many others believe this creature to be a bloodthirsty carnivore terrorizing locals that disturb its

territory people around portlock had even reported finding trees ripped out of the ground and shoved back in upside down oh wow that's called flexin people really think you know myself included they sometimes idealize life before civilization that people lived in peace much like the movie pocahontas lived in harmony with nature turns out people were pretty scared then too oh yeah and there was a lot less um science going around to explain some of these terrifying encounters although i would like i would dare a scientist to explain that one oh that's pretty weird a tree ripped out of the ground and put back in upside down. That doesn't even serve a purpose that I know of. That's just testing your strength.

Yeah. Showing off. I do have a picture of one of the trees that this had happened to. Really? Unfortunately, very low resolution. It was the best one that we could find, but yeah, Unfortunately, very low resolution. It was the best one that we could find. But yeah, have a little peek at this. Truly a terrifying sight. What the f***? That's very hard to believe.

What is going on here? And yet, there's the evidence. It is frustratingly low res. It's one of these things, it's like, if you saw that passing by in a car or something, you might just think, oh, that's just a tree where all the branches have been cut off. But actually, if you look close enough... But if you pass by on a moose, you've got ample time to realize how f***ing weird it is.

But yeah, if you look at it the right way up, I mean, that's a root system on top. So that's an upside down tree. I don't think... I wasn't expecting to ever see that in my life. It's pretty weird, isn't it? Now, I understand that these stories are a little dated. People back in the 1940s are probably spooked by their own shadows.

But a testimony from a paramedic named Ed in 1990 shows that whatever this creature was, it's still lurking in the forest. He said, In 1973, I went out camping with my buddies. A storm forced us to take shelter in Dogfish Bay Lagoon. He said, I listened, then I heard a step. A man was quietly walking outside our tent, taking very deliberate steps. The walking, or rather sneaking, continued until it half-circled our tent, and then all was quiet. The next day we didn't talk about what happened. Too embarrassed, I guess, to be scared by a black bear that sounded like a man. We were also embarrassed about being afraid of it the coming night. The next night, we had a flashlight and a rifle in the tent between

us, locked and loaded. I finally dozed off, but woke up when Dennis squeezed my leg again at 2.30am. Joe was already sitting up and had the rifle in hand. I heard the first step, sitting up and had the rifle in hand. I heard the first step, no more than about ten feet from the back of the tent, slowly, then another, and another. Whatever this was, it sounded like it was walking on two feet. It made the same semicircle around the tent. When we finally got enough courage to crawl out of the tent and turn the flashlight on. We saw nothing. No tracks, nothing. The third night we decided if it bothered us again we would come out of the tent shooting, but it never came back. The following day we had a break and the weather cleared up. We got the heck out of there. We never told anyone about the experience for several years

until about 1979 when i happened to be reading an old alaska sportsman magazine published in 1935 it said that there was a cannery in the region and that the workers up and left claiming that a hairy man was bothering and frightening them what are your thoughts kip you're trying to tell that guy that this isn't real. We're sitting here in our cozy studio. It's easy for us to pass this off and say, sure, those guys have spent a little too much time in the woods. Sure, they don't know what's real or what's not anymore.

Sure, they're huffing canned bean fumes. They're probably hallucinating at this point. But for them to experience that and think that there's a hairy man circling their tent and then to read corroborating evidence from decades previous, you've got to be shitting yourself if you're one of those guys. which I didn't include because it would have made it a little bit confusing. But the story came from a case in 1990 when he was talking to another local person who lived in the region who, when discussing the area, asked Ed the paramedic, Did it ever bother you? Wow. Out of context, out of nowhere. And that's what spurred on Ed to be like, yes, it did.

And then he tells his story of what happened all those years ago. Spooky stuff. That's really spooky stuff because it's so hard to argue that this is just totally fake. I mean, so many people around the world live in wooded areas and, you know, forested areas. Yeah. And relatively few of those claim that there is a night beast shredding humans and stalking your tent. Very true. And so drastically to the point where an entire population has to just vacate.

Yes. Instead of getting hunters to come in and just sweep the woods, they were like, he's immortal. He can turn invincible. You're basically fighting predator. We need to get out of here. Which I have to say i respect that sometimes you got to take the l sometimes it's not worth it yeah this is also why i don't camp all right because

these guys have a lot have a lot more restraint than i do night one i'm sleeping with the rifle in my sleeping bag fully loaded safety off chamber pointed right up the top and i'm zipped up so all i have to do is wiggle like a little pathetic worm and i can fire wildly at the entrance that's how i would do it zipped up the top barrel pointed into my chin so i can end it if i hear so much as a patter of a single uh forest creature and i don't like to camp i don't like hike. So I'm spending the whole trip in my tent in the scorching heat, sweating like a dog, zipped up in this thermal sleeping bag with an itchy trigger finger. If you so much as come in to say, hey, Rory, we're about to sing some songs around the

campfire. Do you want to join? You will unpin a grenade and you will take the whole campsite down with you. As soon as I hear the jingly jangle of the zips being opened on the other side of the tent, I'm using my chin to pull the trigger. Yeah. And it's like, I'm going to take down whatever beast has come for me. Last year, I think it was, I actually ended up severely injuring

the manager of a Burger King down the street. I was in the car park. You do that anytime you're, even if you're not in the woods, if you're just camping out to get like the new iphone from the apple store sleeping bag up rifle pointed as you can imagine i wasn't invited to many sleepovers as a child sleeping bag up nerf gun ready to go now look i know what you're saying this is a troubled town it's been through a lot it's not a safe place to live back then. And it surely probably isn't a safe place to live right now.

This is a perfect place for the paranormal commune. Things have been getting a little cramped. We've been offering new membership. And like the cannery of Portlock, business is booming in the paranormal commune. We're looking for a new location, a place to move to. And, you know, our community is already filled, I assume, with a lot of hairy men. So what's one more in the mix, right? We very, in the early days, ran out of real estate to keep chickens to create eggs.

And we think there is ample space for egg production. And beans. You're moving into a place where you pretty much, upon entering, inherit a lifetime of beans. Canned beans. What more do we need, folks? But I didn't want to just come down on a decision today on where we could

possibly be moving the paranormal commune. I wanted to keep our options open. So I've also brought with us today five different abandoned ghost towns that are also possible locations for where we could relocate the paranormal commune oh very exciting so think of me as uh sort of a real estate agent now i'm going to take you on a journey here through a couple different places and uh we'll see if there's anything that you would possibly be interested

in that you think would work for you, for me in the community. I'll tell you what, I bet none of these ghost towns are as hostile an environment as the Barcelona government. All right, well, don't give out the location. Don't give out the location. Okay, I won't. But I'll just say it's in a nice little sunny corner of Catalunya. All right, well, that's incredibly specific. There is going to be a paranormal revolution before long, okay?

Things in the paranormal commune recently have been no bueno. That's all I can say. My lips are tied. All right, let's run through some of these places. You tell me if there's any that you like, and hey, maybe our community can even get involved and vote for which location they would like to be the new home of the paranormal commune. I would love to see that. We could do a Twitter poll. All right, first off, let's start with a place I don't know how to pronounce located in argentina this is a sunny villa of epic when sounds great so far it was once a popular spa town beautiful place wow incredible architecture wow i am more than down for this uh how do you feel about seawater? In what context? Lots of it.

That's not really any more context. In the mid-1980s, it was swallowed by a flood. Okay. Completely. Okay. It remained lost until 2009. Okay. So, yeah, there are going to have to be some renovations.

But it's back? It's back, baby. Wow. A little salty.? It's back, baby. Wow. A little salty. A little wet. You know. You can eat salt. That's what people don't realize.

Yeah, I think they do. You can't drink seawater, but you can eat salt. I think it's primary use. And you can drink the water. If you're on board with salt water, this one could work then. That's its main problem, really, was that it was atlantis for 30 years and has only now resurfaced so i mean if you can make that work that's a possible location that's a strong uh suggestion wow i did not think you were going to be on board with that one that's that's that's good i'm desperate i will go anywhere uh next up is Hashima Island in Japan. This isolated Japanese island is amazing.

We've got a seawall surrounding it. A great undersea mine. Do you like undersea mines? What? Yeah, it's a mine leading under the actual water where you can, I don't know, mine for rocks, salt. You like salt, right? You said that after the first one that you're big into salt okay so uh hey it's pretty good and the best selling point of all time this island was used

as the villain's base in skyfall i do model myself somewhat on a james bond villain so very true okay okay i'm not saying no to this either i like the sea wall because we tend to piss off any local government we normally come across and marine life so a wall would be great also there's always a certain percentage of people who enter the commune who want to leave the commune exactly so a wall kind of works both more i mean you know what i mean yeah well i mean people can't get in but also people can't get out yeah not that anyone would want to get out i just want to specify that well like i mean... People can get in, but also people can get out. Yeah. Not that anyone would want to get out. I just want to specify that. Well, I can't see why people would, but... Of course.

They do. They do. Come along to the paranormal commune. Quite a lot do. You're not painting it in a good light, is what I'm saying. There are no walls. The walls that we do have... There are walls.

I lied earlier. The walls that we do have are to keep everyone safe. What I would say is if we had a seawall we wouldn't need the chains well don't talk don't mention the chains don't talk about the chains because uh we wouldn't even need luxury suites the whole place would be one big luxury suite again uh i think what kid is trying to say is the the reinforced structures surrounding the paranormal commune currently are to uh you know make sure that everyone is safe and secure inside the compound so it works it works for everyone they're not there if they're not there for any alternative reasons um yeah they are electric sure but that's just because electricity

is paranormal do the people inside the electrified cages have to work sure we all have to work it's part of a stable community they get paid no it's a commune we share everything we do we do there are some downsides to this island of course i bigged up the undersea mine the undersea mine is closed you're not allowed in the undersea mine why did you mention it i didn't even like the undersea mine i got some bad news about the mine the mine's about to blow there's a volcano somewhere down there. The mine was the worst part about it. I gotta be honest.

There was no mine. The lie is eating me up inside. It honestly is. I gotta complain. It's not an island. The mine is closed. All right? It's been closed.

You're not allowed in there. And 45 years ago, everyone left. There's not a soul there. And it's quite far off the coast. Meaning commuting time is a bit of a pain in the ass. If we need help with anything. Let's hope the paranormal commune can help because we're not seeing any outsiders. It's, I love it, but we might have to pass.

Okay. Because of the mine? Because I lied about the undersea mine it's actually no it's nothing as before i could find somewhere with a mine i don't want a mine i'll just say that right now all right all right let me just hold on so it's a list of two my friend a lot of these are based around mines several of them are just mines. So I'm going to have to just let me... Coast towns are quite expensive, but mines, not so much. Not a lot of people want to live in holes underground. No, I wouldn't have thought so.

Oh, okay. How do you feel about possibly lethal levels of radiation? Go on. Pripyat, Ukraine. A.K.A. Chernobyl. All right, I can see where this is going. I don't appreciate your attitude. Moving on.

I mean, be honest. Is it or is it not the closest time to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster? Look, it's, I'm not going to lie, it's pretty radioactive. But brother, once you see the size of this mine you're gonna lose it yes it's a mine it's a fucking mine of course it's a mine all a lot of these are mine they put the radioactive waste other than a mine radiation is like your friends wait no it's like your enemies you gotta keep them close is that the saying yes keep your friends close no keep your yeah and your enemies and your enemies closer and once more of an enemy to mankind than lethal radiation i love the idea that you're like welcome to pripyat i'm like is that in chernobyl you're

like god no we can't afford to live in chernobyl pripyat is even worse you wouldn't believe the prices this is pripyat south america the finest diamond mine you've ever seen hey moving on to a popular choice you already know some backstory on this one so centralia pennsylvania usa it has the uh the advantage of being located in north america so yes now it is a coal mining town but we could possibly just live in the town i know that's thinking outside the box i know that you love your minds you've got that mind mindset but hey i'm curveball here what if we just live in the town and not the mines i am unwilling to continue arguing with you, so I'm just going to pretend that you're right. Yes, Rory, as much as I love mines, I agree to live in the town.

I mean, I'm pretty sure, for those of you who don't know, this is a town that is on fire 24-7 and has been for years and years. I think due to a mine fire. Yeah, of course, it's turned into mines. I said we wouldn't be living in the mines, so we don't have to to think about the mines that is where we'll probably cook most of our food it's disturbing to me that the only reason you're not suggesting we live in the mines is because the mines in this town are on fire it makes me think that you only found this place because you searched for mines and then were disappointed when you find out it was on fire i just don't know why that we would even be in the town when there's a perfectly fine yet crispy mine moments away. You know, I like barbecue food and the smell of smoke. So,

you know, let's not throw that one away. It's probably one of our best choices. And we only have one more. So let's hope that this is a winner. Our next and final option is Consono, which is described as Italy's answer to Las Vegas. Wow, that sounds promising. Here we go. See, don't say that I'm not a good real estate agent, all right?

Sometimes I deliver the goods. If there is a mine, anywhere near here, I'm going to flip off. No mine. This was set up to be a paradise resort. We're talking about shopping malls, swimming pools, maybe casinos.

I don't know. A luxury resort where people can come from all over the world and enjoy their stay. Unfortunately, only after a few years, a landslide wiped out the only road leading to the town. Leaving the shopping mall, restaurants, restaurants luxury hotel and pretty comfortable looking mine all completely inaccessible i'm sure there's one there man there's gotta be if you keep digging that's the fun thing about mines if you just make one if you dig for long enough you're in one uh i will say you're describing a luxury location that no one can get in or out of, which is pretty perfect.

Do we have a winner there? So we have, what is this? Consono, Italy. It's referred to as the city of toys. I think we might have a winner. In terms of location, in terms of facilities, this is the kind of thing we're looking for. We want a place that has luxury hotels, a shopping mall, sure, a mine.

Not a necessity, but it's good to have one. But also, with a little bit of effort and a little bit of perseverance, you know, could be a place that's not completely disconnected from the rest of Earth's population. Yeah, that's a great point. But of course, that's just our opinion you know this is a quote-unquote democracy and like all quote-unquote democracies we got to put it to um the people after which of course the grand council will of course have the final decision make the final decision but um you know you can vote on twitter if you want that would be great no pressure though because i, because, I mean, the Grand Council, as I say,

has most of the weighting in that decision. And the Grand Council has made its mine up, should I say. So you're going for one with a mine. I'm probably going to go for a mine, but it's not that much of a surprise, brother, because they all have mines in them. I searched ghost mines. Top five ghost mines. Town optional.

Oh, for God's sake. Do let us know. Yeah, we should put up a poll or something on Twitter if you follow us at thisparalife. I think you can do a bunch of options. Four options, maybe. So you might have to cut one of these from the list. But that's fine.

We could cut probably Chernobyl. Yeah. Yeah, that could probably cut. So it'll be between the villa in Argentina that was wiped out by the sea, the James Bond villain island in Hashima, Japan, Centralia, the barbecue city of USA and Consono, the city of toys. A lot of good options here, folks. And I just want you to know that uh hopefully that little section at the

end of the podcast shows you that you know we're working we're working day and night to make sure that the quality of uh living is high in the paranormal commune we're always looking at expanding and upgrading the facilities and um i think you guys are going to be really happy with with the next location that we choose so thank you for being a part of the paranormal commune but enough about the paranormal facilities we need to get back to the paranormal case at hand oh yeah uh kit regarding the abandoned town of portlock what are your thoughts on this creepy hairy beast terrorizing locals really tricky one rory hits upon a number of cases we've discussed in the past, including tales of Bigfoot and creatures like that living in these forested areas of North America. Definitely intriguing and persuasive that multiple people have experienced this. Multiple people, for God's sake, have died at the hands of this beast.

But less persuasive that we don't have physical evidence of, say, the footprints or maybe a photograph of this beast, which even Bigfoot has a handful of photographs supposedly attributed to him. That is a little worrying. And I do worry that this could be better explained by maybe just a bear or some other beast of that size yeah it's kind of worrying that the most convincing evidence we have to suggest that something paranormal took place is the fact that there is no evidence the fact that all these residents completely evacuated the town i mean that's the only thing that would convince you that this was something beyond a wild animal that it was something they felt like they couldn't deal with out in this wilderness but again that's not as good as a photograph or a selfie of the beast um it makes it kind of hard to make a judgment i was a little bummed out i'll be honest because on paper i read about this town this ghost town in alaska where bodies had washed up on the shore randomly, where people were disappearing in the woods

and it was abandoned over the span of one year. And immediately I was like, this is going to be insane. This is something we've never done before. I was a little bit disappointed to find out that it's a borderline Bigfoot story. Maybe not in the same way that Bigfoot sightings are usually just him walking across the wilderness or punching donkeys in a field. This was a version of Bigfoot where he is a villain. He is a monster.

He is killing people and shredding up their bodies to pieces. So that made it a little bit more interesting. But this isn't really the groundbreaking paranormal case that I thought it was. It's pretty in line with some of the stories that we've seen before and heard before on this podcast. Quite right. But as you know, we've got to come down to a decision. Is it a yes, it's paranormal, or a no? For me personally, this week there are just too many logical explanations. As illogical as it sounds, who's to say that this wasn't just a very dangerous wild animal roaming the woods that became so violent that the townspeople weren't going to risk being attacked by this bear?

I mean, that all makes sense. There's not really a part of this story that defies logic. That is inexplainable. Exactly. So it's going to be a no, unfortunately, for me this week. Double no. Wow. Didn't even debate that one.

Just straight in there. You really let me do my whole paragraph. I was barely letting you finish. Yeah, no. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree. I get it.

I get it. All right. Son of a bitch. You don't have to. Hey, you double no my cases all the time. Sometimes during the intro. Welcome to the... It's a no from no i didn't

even get a vote thank you for listening hey even if it wasn't decidedly paranormal what a what a cool story what a weird story absolutely and uh really opens up the door into this paranormal life exploring the world of ghost towns and possibly even moving to one thank you for listening to this week's episode of This Paranormal Life. Guys, we couldn't make this show without you. It simply wouldn't exist. And that is because of all of the love and support that you give us on patreon.com. If you like this podcast, and let's say you've caught up, you're out of episodes,

you need more of the paranormal and you need it now. You need 200 cc's of paranormal goo injected into your heart pulp fiction style which i think is just when they slam a needle straight into your heart uh and inject you to bring you back to life if that's the kind of content that you need and that's the kind of way you want it delivered you need to head on over to patreon.com where we have i believe now 39 bonus episodes yeah it's getting a lot there's a huge backlog there and for as little as five buckaroos a month you get access to that entire catalog of bonus episodes that is months of paranormal goodness that you can uh consume and fill your life with more Rory, with more Kit,

and with more This Paranormal Life. It helps support the show and is a great way to get more paranormal content. So check it out. And if you don't want to spend any money, there's still a way that you can support the podcast. What you can do is leave a little review on your podcast app of choice. Doing so really helps boost the podcast, helps us grow in the charts, good reviews, bring in new users. And as we said, we're going to have a huge new ghost town and a mine to fill with new commune members.

So let's get the good word out there, folks, and spread the message. I know for a fact you can leave a review on Apple Podcasts and maybe some of the others. I think on Spotify you can leave a review on apple podcasts and maybe some of the others i think on spotify you can't if you're listening there but um if you're listening on if you're on spotify no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no we don't need you anymore it's incredibly important it's almost 50 of our podcast listeners wow really but they can't give reviews so so hit that follow button oh yeah you can follow on

oh my god i'm sorry about that uh spotify list yeah you guys have listened to the podcast before you know that i joke sometimes on the pod so that was um that was me joking really came out of left field make sure to hit the follow button i believe kit said something like that that they should do hit make sure you're subscribed wherever you're listening. Make sure you're subscribed. Yeah, yeah. We are, you know, we are the peasants truly in this commune. We are the ones that, yes, send out this radio signal. But without you wonderful receivers, there would be no signal at all.

So thank you for listening to this week's episode of This Paranormal Life. Hope you enjoyed it. Thank you to Cammie Thoman and Amy Grisdale for assisting this week's episode of this paranormal life hope you enjoyed it thank you to cammy toman and amy grisdale for assisting this week and we will be back next week with a brand new paranormal tale