This Paranormal Life - #280 Anjikuni Lake: The Village that DISAPPEARED

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

We've covered stories before where animals disappear, humans disappear, even trousers disappear... but what about an entire VILLAGE? What would cause all the residents of Anjikuni Lake to mysteriously abandon their homes, leaving everything behind? It's time to head to the frozen Canadian wasteland to investigate Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! -  thisparanormallife.com/storeMedium articlehttps://medium.com/truly-adventurous/project-poltergeist-745f2d498849Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityAdvertise on This Paranormal Life via Gumball.fmResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Louis BlatherwickIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are kiwi fruits actually Bigfoot testicles? If smoking kills, why isn't it in jail? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hello everyone! Welcome to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week we investigate a brand new case. This week it's a

case of beer we're investigating. Oh! That's right guys. We're kicking back. We're having a couple drinks in the studio because... Wait a second. Did you mean to get the non-alcoholic ones? What? F***. Hit record too otherwise we could have run to

the show. Yeah. Maybe if you drink enough of them we'll get If it record too Otherwise we could have run to the shop Yeah Maybe if you drink enough of them Will it get you f***ed up or something I don't think so It's 0.0 dude Or if I like hold my breath for long enough Well you just want to get f***ed up I just want to get f***ed up

Alright I'll choke you out I'll choke you out right here and now I've been begging to do it Alright it sounds like you're not trying to get me high though It's not like you want to kill me Which is a whole nother. No, no. We could just like, I could just rough you up.

Okay. And should I have like a safe word just in case? In case I need you to stop? You can try if you want. You got your hands around my throat. I'm going, watermelon, watermelon. You're just not stopping at all. You're like, I just feel pain.

I'm just punching your stomach. Welcome to the podcast where we investigate a brand new paranormal case every week. Be it a tale, be it a beast, be it a story, a ghost, a spirit, a demon. We investigate it and come to a conclusion at the end of the show as to whether or not it truly is paranormal. What the hell did you say at the top? Bigfoot testicles? Our kiwi fruits. Bigfoot nuts.

What's the logic? They're hairy. Okay. What do you think, man? This week, we're not investigating a paranormal creature. In fact, we're not investigating anything at all. What? We're investigating the absence of something.

Okay, I like this. We're getting very meta. We're investigating the absence of something. Okay, I like this. We're getting very meta. We're getting artistic. To begin today's story, we have to go to the frozen north of Canada. I feel like Canada's coming up a lot on the podcast recently. Coming up a lot? I think you've got Canada on the brain on account of just having been there. And yesterday I was wearing my Canada shirt that just says Canada on it. Yeah, what's going on, dude? I believe a lot. I'm not an expert in geography nor Canada, but I believe a lot of Canada is frozen and north. Especially, yeah, the further you go up, it gets real cold. And today, we're just a few degrees outside of the Arctic Circle.

We're talking about a barren winter wonderland here. There is nothing going on aside from the churning white water rapids flowing into a collection of crystal clear lakes. Cold, but beautiful. Like my ex-wife. One of these lakes was called Lake Anjikuni. Back in 1930, it was home to a small collection of Inuit people living in quiet harmony. In fact, they were only really visited by traveling fur trappers

who made a living by trading in animal pelts. One of these fur trappers was named Joe Labelle. He was pretty well known in the village by the lakeside, and he looked forward to the warm welcome he received every time he dropped in. But this time, his visit was different. As evening drew in, his horse ambled towards the town. Don't worry, girl. We'll get you something to drink soon. As he drifted into the village, he couldn't help but notice that it was quiet.

Strangely quiet. There were usually husky dogs barking, flames crackling in fire pits, and a hubbub of conversation all throughout the little town. But today, the only sounds he could hear were the footsteps of his own horse. Just then, his attention was grabbed by a distant glow. It looked like a fire halfway up the hill. So he kicked the spurs and his trusty steed took off up the hill. Giddy up, girl!

When did you say this was again? 1930s. This is a different life. I'm just realizing. Oh, yeah, because we're not even talking. When was cowboy times? Is this cowboy times? No, this is past cowboy times.

No, it's a bit late for all that. Yeah. Yeah, this is actually close to the Second World War. So I don't think it was cowboys fighting in that one. What a different existence. I mean, we talk a lot about being city boys on this podcast. We are sitting in an air-conditioned room in North London right now. Imagine being a fur trapper in the distant frozen north of Canada in the 30s.

Yeah. Just what did you say? Looking out for beacons on the horizon? I've never looked for a single beacon on the horizon in my life other than the f***ing red flash of a Blackberry notification. I've only looked for the glowing golden beacon of the McDonald's sign. The arches. When I'm drunk off my ass at 3 a.m. and me and my crew, I'm like, come on, boys.

Let's get you something to drink. We've been wandering for 35 minutes. Can we get three Sprites? Rory always anticipated the warm welcome he received at the McDonald's at Hackney. Not you again. F*** off. When he'd reached the location that he had seen, there was a small fire burning with what appeared to be a partially prepared meal next to it.

The fire was dwindling and obviously had been burning for a long time with no one around to stoke it. He continued on, hoping to bump into somebody that could explain what was going on. But within minutes, he was in the heart of this little town with no signs of life anywhere. He called out, trying to coax one of his friends out from their houses. Hello? Hello? Again, a different world. These days when you go to your mate's house,

you simply text them to say, I'm outside, rather than dare ring the bell or knock the door. This was pre-knocking doors times. You just turned up into a town and just started yelling. Ah! Yeah, yeah. Then your friends would recognize your voice

and come outside. They go, yeah, I'll go for a beer with you. All right. Ah! Anyone else? Ah! Yeah, that seems crazy, doesn't it? I mean, even when we were growing up,

I remember walking 20 minutes to my friend's house and just being like, can Connor come out and play? And they're like, no, he's eating dinner. Okay. And then you just walked home. Shit. Maybe we're not so different. This guy and us, your friends always were eating dinner. That's the problem. That's the problem with dinner. It's time of day changes. Yeah. And especially growing up. I don't know if it's different in other countries, but dinner and all in Northern Ireland was all over the place. Right. I knew some sons of bitches that were eating dinner at 430. Yes.

Some people were waiting until nine at night. Yeah. We were a nine household. You were a nine household? Living that Spanish tapas lifestyle for some reason. How did you not get super hungry before then? Like I had to eat at, well, I was a little fat piggy boy. So I used to come home from school and make a Rory special, which was a cheese toasty filled with mayonnaise. I was going to say, this is the, you're like a little Italian child working in a deli.

The Rory special is 16 slices of Parma ham, every type of Swiss cheese. Yeah, a lot of people probably don't know that about me. I was quite a chubby child growing up. Is it because I invented my own cereal once, which was just Nutri-ragrain bars cut up into squares not cereal not cereal for anyone who doesn't know what that is that's the equivalent of slicing up multiple pop tarts and pouring milk over it in a bowl and eating it the fact that you invented more than one meal for yourself like indicates that you were not willing to play ball with the status quo of menu items you obviously went into every restaurant and were just like i see your spaghetti bolognese

i will not be ordering it you will be making me the rory special spaghetti bolognese with burger stuffed into a calzone this is me talking to my mother at dinner time. But you're right. Much like the early days of fur trappers when we were growing up, there might as well have been no clocks either. Yeah, exactly. He kept searching the whole town, but there was no response.

He hopped off his horse and approached the nearest house, knocking loudly on the door, thinking, I don't know, maybe the entire town had overslept. But as he knocked louder and louder, still no one answered. He darted from door to door, pounding on every entrance he could find. Eventually, he decided to take action and entered one of the houses. A little breaking and entering. I like his line of thought.

Is it still breaking and entering if they're not in the house? Yes. Yeah, of course, actually. Of course. Yeah, shit. All right, yeah. But what if you want the things inside? Does that change the rule? Is that theft if I deserve the computer more than he does?

So that's what he did. Is that theft if I deserve the computer more than he does? So that's what he did. He pushed inside the nearest door and popped his head around the frame. Anybody home? The house looked completely normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary at first glance. There were cups and plates on the table. There were half-sewn garments on the chairs.

There was meat hanging over the cold fireplace. The only thing missing was the people. I'm starting to think more and more that this story is what he told the local sheriff in the nearest town. I simply went to visit my friends. My good friends. And when I wasn't able to find them, I simply entered the house and borrowed some items. They're like, you shot everyone, broke into everyone's house and stole their shit. This is a scary situation.

I mean, at this point, I'm probably hopping back on my horse and getting the fuck out of there. Okay. Because you need to come back with a witness who can testify that you are not a part of whatever the hell happened here because you're it sounds like you're going to turn a corner and there's going to be just piles of bodies somewhere and you don't want to be the guy standing in the

village with the bodies when the police show up i mean yeah your brain's got to be going a million miles a second because if no one's here if if that's what's happening, everyone's gone. What was it? Did some kind of hideous beast run through the town and chase everyone away and you're now in its path? I will say, hey, don't maybe jump straight to the thought of everyone's been raptured. It's just me left on Earth. Because if you just start walking around butt naked and stealing everyone's been raptured it's just me left on earth because if you just start walking around butt naked and stealing everyone's shit right which is what we all want which of course is

what we want to do it'll be a little bit awkward when the next fur trapper arrives you're standing there in the middle of town you're still here oh and humanity is still good yeah on earth yeah awesome Don't tell anyone about this. Be a bud, would you? Joe couldn't understand what was going on. The homes were all stocked with food, weapons, and warm clothes. But there weren't any footprints in the snow besides his own. If these people had left, where were their footprints?

Okay, so we're getting a bit of a mystery picture for us to put together. Yeah. So the fact that there are still things in the house indicates that it wasn't that long ago that they left. But the fact there's no footprints means, well, at least they left before the most recent snowfall. God knows when that was. That's true. Joe did say that he must have been the only person to have been there in a good few hours, if not days. Because it's pretty frosty up here, guys. I mean, to reset the snowy ground probably only takes a few hours in a snowstorm.

Crazy. Soon, he had exhausted all the houses and started circling the perimeter of the village in desperation. As he rounded the corner, his heart leapt as he spotted a group of huskies lying on the ground. Hey! Here, doggies! Come on, tell old Joe where your owners went! But the dogs didn't move. When he approached them, his entire body froze with fear.

All seven of the dogs were dead. No! Judging by their state, it looked like they'd starved to death. What? I'm starting to think the owners have been gone for more than a few hours. Yeah. Unless they weren't feeding those dogs. Yeah, they're just some very hungry and dramatic dogs.

No, clearly, I mean, it takes a long time to starve to death. I mean, well, it does for humans. I'm guessing it does for animals too. Yeah, I'm glad you don't know how long it takes because that's something that a serial killer wouldn't know. But you know what? It takes approximately five weeks for a dog to starve. All right, somebody arrest that man.

Five and a half if you give them vitamin C tablets. Do you know how fragile a cat's bones are? No, I don't. I don't want to know. You can break them between your back teeth but not the front ones. Okay. Alright, starting to see why you are a

roaming fur trapper who lives outside society. By the way, I'm showing my ignorance here, but fur trapper, that is a fancy word for I kill animals and skin them alive. Yeah. Wait, that didn't make sense. I kill animals and skin them dead. You take fur.

I'm picturing Davy Crockett, a little beaver hat or whatever the f***. I wasn't a beaver hat. Something like that. A beaver hat or whatever the f***. It wasn't a beaver hat. Something like that. Two big buck teeth right at the front. It was a raccoon, right? A raccoon hat. Yeah.

Close enough. Close enough. Beaver hat, owl shoes. I'm also imagining a man driven mad by living outside society for so long. Just killing and skinning, killing and skinning. Yeah, it just worked out that that's actually a job. He's like, I can get paid for this? Oh, hell yeah. He's wandered in.

Oh, another fur trapper. Huh? Fur what? Dripping in animal blood. Yeah, sure. You guys got any dogs? As if seeing the pile of dead dogs wasn't enough, just beyond the carcasses was something even more unsettling. I know.

Joe walked closer to find a grave, clearly marked with a headstone and surrounded by a circle of smaller stones. But right where the body should have been was just a hole. It looked like whoever was buried there was dug up. What the f***? That's weird! Alright, you said the moment that no one answered the door, you were running away.

I'm gone, yeah. So we're long gone by this stage. Oh, yeah, yeah. Again, you don't want to be the guy standing by the open grave it's a bad look it's just a bad look bunch of dead dogs open grave and you know you're a fur trapper so they know you've got the capability of killing yeah you've got at least that like uh instinct in your head because i don't really really want to, I don't think I could kill an animal. You know?

Well, insects are animals. Yeah, they are. I'll kill a lot of moths. Yeah. That's true. You're a fur trapper for moth wings. By now, Joe was freaked out enough to call for some help. And being in rural Canada, the only choice was to alert the RCMP, a.k.a. the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Okay, okay. I don't know a lot about the Mounties, except for they're pretty cool hardcore guys. Whenever you see them, they're always on horseback. I think they dress in red. I don't think I've seen these guys since watching cartoons as a child. They're real? Yeah, yeah, right right that's cool the mounties i'm gonna google make sure i'm googling the right thing yeah look at these guys it's like a full uh

little red army hell yes these guys are straight out of the french revolution this is great they got the hats they got the red jackets the big pharre got the big Pharrell hat, if you remember that meme. Yeah, they look like a sober dad squad. The dad squad pre-beer and barbecue. Joe made his way to the nearest telegraph station and sent a Morse code for help. When the Mounties received the message, they immediately headed straight out to help. The only problem was they were pretty far away from Joe's position. A couple of days ride, actually.

Jesus. But they set off and by nightfall, they were about halfway there already. Again, another lifestyle I simply cannot imagine. I would not have been risking it to go see if you wanted to play in the street if it was a two-day ride. On horseback in an icy snowstorm. Yeah, you'd have to at least Morse code me first to make sure I'm not eating dinner.

Urgent, Rory. What time will you be eating dinner in 48 to 72 hours? As the day came to a close, the Mounties looked for somewhere to rest. They found a tumbledown shack by the roadside and went over to investigate. When they threw open the doors, they found another fur trapper and his two sons staying inside. Hey! Close the door, will ya? You're letting all the heat out! Sorry, friend. Is it okay if me and the other Mounties stay here tonight?

What kind of people would we be if we turned you away? Not Canadians, that's for sure. Come on in, friends. The men entered the shack and warmed themselves up. So, what brings you Mounties all the way up here, eh? Oh, we're heading up to NG Cooney Lake to solve a little problem. As soon as the words escaped the man's lips, the atmosphere changed. The friendly gleam

in the trapper's eyes vanished and his sons exchanged looks. Whoa, is everything alright? Did you see something up there? It sounds like this man killed them all. It sounds like him and his sons killed everyone up in that village. No, no, didn't see nothing.

Anyway, we'll be off now. Got like bags full of golden trinkets. They just kick open the door and disappear into the snowstorm. This is a real like in modern times, you know, it's like, sir, can we pop the trunk? See what you've got in the car? It's like, hey, trapper, can we look at your pelts? Make sure there's no humans back there. The best pelt of all, human skin.

The grizzled old trap man replied in a hoarse voice. My boys and I were out that way a couple days ago. We saw something. Something in the sky. The Mountie circled the man as he told the story of what he saw earlier that week. Must have been Thursday. Yeah, Thursday. We were on the shores of a lake looking to bag some seals.

But before we could get to clubbing, I noticed a strange reflection on the water. When we looked up at the sky, we saw something. What kinds of something? It was glowing. Yeah, glowing. I'm sure about that. The way this guy talks is insane. What's your name?

Carl. Yeah, Carl. I'm sure of it. He's working it all out. He's making it up. Yeah. Carl. I'm sure of it. It's like he's working it all out. He's making it up. Yeah. What were you doing up there? Fur trapping. Yeah, that'll do.

Fur trapping. Alright. Sounds like you weren't fur trapping. Fur trapping what? Animals. Sure. Animals. Mostly. Mostly? Yeah, that'll keep them quiet. You need to figure out your inner and outer dialogue.

It was glowing. Yeah, I saw something interesting. Get them. Get them now, boys. While they're distracted by my stories. We can hear you, by the way. I'm sure I saw something glowing. And in terms of size, it was colossal.

But I couldn't tell you what shape it was. It was almost like it was changing shape as it flew. Where was it headed? The trapper gulped. Right towards Anji Kuni Lake. Pretty scary stuff. I mean, if you're the Mounties, it's not too late to turn back. You're halfway there, but...

You can't turn back. This is your job. The people back at the station aren't going to know you didn't go. Just head back that next morning and be like, yeah, it's fine. Look around. Yeah, it's totally fine. Don't worry about it. They all slept in. Yeah. Are you sure?

You've been gone two hours. It's a two-day ride. Yeah, because the jet stream, the air made the horses go faster. So, yep, they're all fine, though. That would only work one way. You haven't eaten any of your rations, I notice. Didn't eat them. Didn't eat them.

Feeling healthy. Fit as a fiddle. Sure. Yeah. I think we don't go up there anymore. They said they don't want... They said they're fine forever. What?

The villagers. So that's the end of the Mounties going up there. Anyway. You're... No more questions. I'm tired from the two hours of travel. I'm going to sleep. No.

These men did not turn back. They were brave. You can't become a Mountie unless you're a warrior. You're not afraid of fear. Yeah, I assume you take some kind of Mountie version of a Hippocratic oath

where you, I don't know, I'm just going to spitball, lay your life on the line for the great people of Canada and maple trees. And that's what they on the line for the great people of Canada and maple trees. And that's what they did to make sure that the people of Canada and the maple trees were okay. The next morning, the Mounties packed up their bags and continued their journey up to Anjikuni Lake. After hours of being blasted by the icy wind, the fleet of police officers arrived at

the outpost that Joe had called from. Luckily, he was still alive when they reached him. When they inspected the camp, the Mounties confirmed every detail that he'd described and more. During their investigation, they uncovered even more clues. They found a load of empty kayaks floating in the shore of the lake. What? And beyond the empty grave

that Joe had discovered, the Mounties found that the entire burial ground of the village had been unearthed. What is going on? So we started off with a single grave that had been dug up and okay, some dead dogs. Very sad. But you're now saying

it's a Michael Jackson's Thriller music video. The entire graveyard had been zombified and they have risen from the dead. Yeah, but not only that, the living are also missing. Jesus. I don't know what's going on. I think it's funny that Joe found that one grave

and he was like, oh, this is crazy. Well, no need to look any further in the old graveyard. I'm just going to honker down and turn away. The Mounties show up and they just literally raise their heads and they're like, every grave is dug up, you son of a bitch. You couldn't have told us that before. The headstones in the graveyard had been stacked neatly at the gravesides. After an exhaustive investigation, they concluded that the villagers had been missing for at least eight weeks or so. Whoa, okay, chances are getting slimmer of finding them alive. But they couldn't find a trace or a reason as to why they had left,

or what had removed all the dead bodies. Now, that is more or less the end of that journey. What do you mean it's the end of the journey? They just wrote it in their Monty notebook. What's left to solve? Everybody dead. Anyway, back to Toronto. There's nothing left to solve. They never found out what happened to the people.

They never cracked the mystery. They just go back to their hometown and just scratch the name of that village off a map somewhere? Yeah, just burn it with a torch. All right. That's now a barren wasteland. Well, I thought seeing as the police failed to come up with a single idea as to what actually happened, it's down to us, Kit, and our listeners, and the internet, to put forth some theories. So let's look at what some of the most popular theories have been.

Yeah, let's go. Alright, theory one. Aliens. What? This one seems a little obvious, I would say. You know, a bright object was seen in the sky prior to the disappearance of these people, and although earlier the old man said that he couldn't discern the shape, I did read another account that stated that he described it

as a cylindrical object that morphed into a bullet shape. Yeah, we didn't spend a lot of time going over that trapper's description of what was going on because I think I was so focused on him being the murderer. Right, yeah, yeah. Due to his highly suspicious voice. But what he said was also unhinged. It was aliens. Yeah, aliens. I mean, yeah, if he's telling the truth, then, I mean, it is a possible theory. We said that in the village there were no footprints left over. Could it be that they left up?

No, you can't just... They disappeared vertically? No, no, no, no, no, no. So not long ago you were the one who was talking us out of the concept of a rapture, which no one had mentioned up to that point. But now you are, to be clear, suggesting a rapture. Not a rapture, some sort of abduction. Some sort of extraterrestrial abduction. A vertical ab abduction that's the only way i know how i mean it would be maybe the first time in this

paranormal life history where we've had a case where ufos abduct dead bodies and living bodies i've never seen that before i mean that, that's an interesting concept. I mean, if they really are coming to Earth looking for specimens to examine and autopsy or whatever, maybe they wouldn't be picky. Maybe they would just x-ray scan the Earth and just grab everything that looked like a body.

Yeah, I mean, why get stressed trying to grab the living ones? I feel like that theory is not quite grabbing you. Maybe not yet. Of Up? They disappeared Up? Alien abduction, yes. Yes. I mean, most of the time in an abduction story,

the humans are returned to Earth. They're not usually taken away. Which is not necessarily any more believable, but sure, it gives us more evidence if they come back. That's way less believable that the aliens dropped you back home

and were like, hey, don't tell anyone. Right. That's insane to think about. Yeah, there's no way. They would just vaporize you to get rid of you. Yeah. It's more economical that way.

You're abducted onto the mothership. They do all their experiments and then they're like, all right, we're done here. Great. And is that some sort of ray gun that beams me back to Earth? Back to my home planet? Uh, yeah, if you want. Incinerated. It's not that I don't like it. Not gonna lie,

it feels like I've been hit with a sucker punch of a suggestion. But it's not impossible. I mean, we're left with a pretty insane situation to try and explain. So it's possible. Luckily, we do have some more theories. So if you're not into aliens, there are more options. Theory number two, a cryptid.

Huh? Many suspect that the Wendigo could be responsible. Now, we have investigated the Wendigo on this podcast, but in case you don't remember, a Wendigo is an evil spirit that can adopt a human form. It's also said to have an insatiable hunger and feasts on humans. Yes, we have established in previous episodes this thing is native to North America and has a frightening dearth of paranormal abilities. I mean that does make sense as you said this is kind of the natural habitat of this cryptid. Is it crazy to think that one of those puppies could have wandered into the village maybe in human form? It's tough because the two pieces of information we have to go on is of course the

entire experience of discovering this time the way it is. But then also that trapper's story, which may or may not have been improv'd on the spot about seeing something in the sky. Yeah. I feel like I painted that trapper in a bad light. All right. I took some creative and comedic liberties with the delivery of the dialogue. You're trying to say that he is a trustworthy gentleman and we need to listen? He is. Sure. Sometimes in a certain gentleman and we need to listen? He is. Sure.

Sometimes in a certain light. He looks like a Wendigo. He really does. He's been known to make his sons murder people. So if it was a Wendigo, then I guess he just saw thunder or something in the sky. Right. Yeah. It doesn't quite explain the moving object that was seen heading towards

the lake. He saw a cloud for the first time. A few people think that there's a possibility that the people just left their settlement voluntarily. But if that was the case, it doesn't really make sense. Why wouldn't they take their weapons? Why would they leave in such a hurry? They couldn't even pack away their food or belongings. It does not up. And the dogs? That doesn't make sense at all, that the dogs were just left there to starve? Yeah. There is another theory. This one really doesn't explain a lot,

but it's worth bringing up. Aurora Borealis. What? As I said, it doesn't actually explain the disappearance, but it is possible that the old trapper and his sons saw the northern lights rather than a spaceship i mean yeah i always think things like that must have been so crazy to witness a thousand years ago like the first people to see an eclipse or the northern lights or some

of these like phenomenons that happen on earth yeah no wonder we were like praying to all these crazy gods and cutting people open and drinking their blood. There was a lot of wild shit. We didn't know what a volcano was. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, I mean, yeah, kind of.

I mean, it's tough though now because we actually have to figure out what's going on. I feel like there's also a degree to which a few hundred years ago when anything happened, you could just be like, huh, really will do that right yeah it's kind of you can blame him for a bunch of shit yeah lightning thunder horrible realist plague

tsunamis famine yep thor is a tricky little character and at that time you know you could use those phenomenons to just justify anything so if you were like out hiking with your buddies and you saw the northern lights you're like there it is a sacrifice is needed time for me to take your things

the mighty all knowing lords above us want the transfer of wealth from you to me. What a sad reaction to seeing an Aurora Borealis. You just take out a knife and point it at someone. Hand it over. Now that we've covered some of the main theories,

I'd say it's time to examine some of the evidence that we've collected so far. Yes, please. Now, we have to also be on the side of the skeptics here. The modern-day Mounties maintain the fact that this story is nothing more than a legend. However, there is some truth to the story that we can prove. Joe LaBelle really did exist and he applied for a trapping license in the exact same region the story took place. Okay. Now, unfortunately, one of the reasons why this story is believed to not

be true is because the most commonplace people heard it was in a 1959 book by Frank Edwards called Stranger by Science. So a lot of the people who would come across this story and this legend had heard of it in this book that I believe was a compilation of essentially mystery stories. Okay. I see what you're saying. So this is part of the problem of some old tales is that maybe they were oral for a long time, just shared around campfires. And then eventually someone puts them into writing, but that's tricky because that guy isn't too concerned with how historically accurate it actually is yeah and then all of a sudden it is stuck in a book between one story about the beast man of northern canada and the frog people of

ohio yeah like all right well that's not doing this story any favors, being jammed in between those two. And it's worth noting that this wasn't its first appearance. It was actually reported in a newspaper article on November 29th in 1930. So at least, as you said, not even just being talked about orally, it did appear in a newspaper. Yeah, this is interesting. So we really have to work out, are we witnessing the kind of word of mouth spread

of a real occurrence, paranormal occurrence potentially, or, I mean, I don't want to say it, but a kind of... Then don't, brother. Game of telephone. This is a game of Morse code, actually. And it's actually pretty hard to lose the original message in a game of Morse code, actually. And it's actually pretty hard to lose the original message in a game of Morse code. Annoyingly, I will admit there's a few plot holes in the story. The journalist who wrote it for the newspaper, Emmett Keller, said that the abandoned kayaks were battered by the

waves, but a lake that far north at the time would have been frozen solid of course tiny little plot holes all right maybe he like me took some creative liberties in the storytelling okay but then he was like i shouldn't have made that so poetic because yes the lake was frozen but that's not that exciting right right right you think this was the case of maybe he's um at the pub in the nearest town after this and he's trying to kind of impress his other trapper friends and creep them out. Yeah, so he's like, and the kayaks were rattling by the ocean.

Wouldn't the lake have been frozen at this time of year? Shut the f*** up. Just, don't just, don't niggle me with little bits of information. I'm trying to tell a ghost story. Anyway, so the embers of the fire were still glowing wouldn't there be too much of an arctic north wind for there to be a fire burning sure a big fire a big fire sure but there were embers i don't know behind a rock there were a rock sheltered the fire uh christ where am I? Jesus. Um, the dogs had starved, clearly, from being left alone for so many years.

Uh, wouldn't it take five and a half weeks? I mean, I wouldn't know, but wouldn't it take, well, I do, five and a half weeks exactly. Get this man out of here. Get this man out of here. I mean, that is worth bringing up. If the villagers had indeed been gone for eight weeks, how was there a fire still burning the day that Joe arrived? Yeah. That was a pretty important part of the story.

I forgot about that bit. Yeah. You see what I mean? It's a bit jumbled up, the timelines. There's also some conflicting information about the actual events. Some say that the settlement was so small that it only housed 25 people. Later stories say that the number of people that disappeared was in the thousands. Well, an entire city didn't disappear, so I don't think it was thousands.

Yeah, I think that is just someone who's trying to up the ante every time they tell it. It's what I'm saying, a game of telephone. Yeah. Some say the village never existed to begin with. It's not existent, right, bud? You wouldn't have told us this whole story, right, bud? Just some theories. Some say it never existed at all, which would explain why none of the people Joe claimed to know intimately were ever seen again. Right.

Just because it had a name and stuff. I was like, I was involved in the story. But you're saying someone made it up? No, it's real. Yeah, real. That'll do it. Just keep talking till we reach shout outs. Yeah, shout outs. That'll end the podcast.

You're a trapper. Rory's wearing a raccoon hat unfortunately that's all the theories and all the evidence that we have for today's case I mean as we said there's a little bit of truth that we can lock in with this story we know Joe existed we know he was in the region we know he was a fur trapper the story was told as early as 1930s in newspapers and spread around to the point where it was actually published in a book. But also there's a lot of holes in the story that we have covered. It's so true. I mean, doesn't this allet, pre-a time when the average person, say Joe,

could, you know... The average Joe? Could, you know, photograph this himself, log it himself, write up the report that day on Reddit and post it. Yeah. Jesus, it took two days for the Mounties to get there just to see what was going on,

if it even happened, let alone for this story to travel around the world. It's hard to put a lot of faith in the details and the accuracy of it. Especially when you're dealing with a paranormal story where the whole point of the story is that the evidence is gone. You're like, did that really happen? Where's the proof? You tell me, brother. There wasn't a goddamn soul in that village it's like no that doesn't count as proof the fact that maybe a village that you made up doesn't have

anyone living in it well it's also very you know where people also don't live narnia because it's made up too well this is the thing like it's very convenient that in a in a time when it's not that long ago like there were definitely records of people's existence. Yeah, this isn't the 1500s. This was 80 years ago, 90 years ago. So it was convenient that this took place in presumably, you know, a very northern Inuit population where there wouldn't have been as much record keeping.

So it was easy for him to just go, yeah, all my buddies disappeared. What were the names? he just starts making up names off the top of his f***ing head there's no like birth certificate in like a major city somewhere for that person that's true I mean especially some of those higher regions where it got really cold

you probably wouldn't even know where the villages are unless you lived and explored and worked up there I mean it was real like Red Dead Redemption you would just be in the wilderness and then spot smoke on the horizon and be like, I guess I'm sleeping there tonight. You follow the beacon, like you said.

Yeah, 100%. The golden arches of the 1930s. So yeah, I do understand that because this isn't a place that's, let's say, in a city where if a thousand people disappeared... That should hopefully move the f***ing needle. That should be written down somewhere.

Hopefully a police officer investigates it and writes it down. If the population of Long Island were just Thanos snapped off the face of the earth, I'd like to think we'd have some evidence to prove that. But unfortunately, because we're dealing with such an isolated little town, it does make it hard. But regardless of that, regardless of all the theories and all the facts,

we have to put it all aside and come down on our own conclusions kit at the end of this podcast. So what do you think in here, buddy? Do you think it's really possible that this village all the way up near the lake

was just completely disappeared one day is it possible yes is it likely based on everything we've heard not necessarily i mean i i will say there's even like a third option which is just maybe the people who lived here just moved to a different place. Had to abandon it for one reason or another. One reason or another. Maybe they did take all of their stuff with them, but the story as it went on was that it was all left behind. A thousand percent.

You know, you see it. It's a big thing in, you know, the Wild West. You can go visit the old ghost towns. Yeah. It's like they weren't abandoned. They just, less people lived there over the years and then eventually there was no one left. But it wasn't just one day they all disappeared.

Right. Even if it looks like that, not. Even if it looks like it. Maybe it was something similar with this village. Joe just hadn't been back to the village in a long time and he was like, oh, I didn't get the memo. Everyone moved because it was too cold. I do want to bring up that,

do you remember when we looked at uh trying to buy a ranch a ghost town ranch for the commune yeah we actually we spent too much time looking into that to the point where we were like if we set a stretch goal on patreon for like fifty thousand dollars we can buy this ranch in i think it was like near las vegas yeah it was yeah i thought i thought it might have been somewhere deep, deep Californian desert, but maybe it was Nevada. All I remember was it had, I'm pretty sure it had death in the title. Yeah, it was like death toilet Nevada.

It was not a desirable place, but it was a legitimate Wild West ghost town for sale. It was crazy. We were like looking up the legalities. We were like, all right, what kind of taxes do we got to pay? Who's the mayor? Do we have to have laws? Like, what's the story? I've seen that a few times.

People post about it in the Facebook group now and again, where they'll just be like, hey, south of Bristol, there's an old nuclear bunker for sale. Should we buy it? Right. And I'm such a stupid, impulsive person that immediately when I should just think, obviously, no. I'm like, what would we do with that space? Could we actually, is that crazy? It's only $150,000.

You know, we got to more. And it's like, no, obviously don't buy a nuclear bunker. We would spend one day in the bunker and be like, oh shit, we can't even deliver repret here, mate. I'm hungry. Yeah, that would be us leaving the bunker to go get McDonald's in the wilderness riding our horses. All right, that's enough messing about at the end of the episode.

Let's come down on our conclusions. We're avoiding the harsh realities, Rory. Today, like I said, do I think it's possible? Yes. Do I think it's likely? No. And that's just why I have to come down on a no. I don't think that people were vertically raptured.

Is it possible that they abandoned the village and left it behind? Sure. Yes. Do I think it was for some paranormal reason? Not today. Not today. Not today. Not today. Unfortunately, that's going to be a double no. Unfortunately, another double no.

I feel like we've been on a little streak. We're in a rut. We're in a rut. We had a few weeks of yeses pouring in. Oh, yeah. That's when I was on my meds. Now I'm off those shits. I'm feeling sour and dark.

So unfortunately, it is a double no. But you know what? Every Tuesday is a new chance at a double yes. So tune in next week to find out whether or not we will tackle a legitimate paranormal case. But you know what? Maybe some of you guys don't want to wait till Tuesday. Maybe you want another dose of this paranormal life even sooner. What the hell are you talking about, man?

You know what I'm talking about? The after parties. Ooga. That's right. That's where you get a little peek behind the curtain and past the curtain. You get to go backstage. You get to look into the dressing room while we're getting changed. It's almost as if you go to look behind the curtain and you realize that the curtain was a metaphor for the veil of

maya of reality itself and you are simply tumbling through time space gazing upon the godhead itself. It's also a Patreon. It's patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life.

If you go over to patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life, If you go over to Patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life, you can get access to bonus episodes, exclusive merchandise. It's the best way to support the show, and it helps us create fun bonus additional content for all of the listeners of the paranormal commune. So check it out. Head on over to Patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. We should say all the links to every way you can connect with This Paranormal Life

are in the description of this podcast. And one of the Patreon tier rewards is getting a shout out at the end of the podcast. And that's what we're going to do right now. Thanks so much to Nicholas Sr. Nicholas Sr., a man I have talked to many times when I've gone to ask if Nicholas Jr. can come out and play. Of course, Nicholas Sr. always says he's eating his dinner. He's eating his dinner.

And it's 3 p.m. Yeah, he's eating his dinner nine times a day if you ask Nicholas Sr. It's crazy. Let your son out to play, Nicholas. Thanks to Bryony Roach Wolf. Bryony likes to approach the wolf. That's right. A fur trapper listening to this very podcast

you know uh they'll just like hold out berries or some shit that wolves like and they're like they don't like berries little buddy here i think they're more interested in the hand yeah and most of the time most of the time the wolf attacks and it's pretty grisly. But now and again, you can pull out a few hairs. Thanks to Sam Taylor. Sam Taylor, the sailor, known for voyages across Canada's freezing wonderland. Of course, most of the lakes are all frozen. The ocean's frozen, river's frozen. You're a liar then.

So it's more of a, it's not like, it's more of a walk. All right, it's dragging a boat. It's dragging a boat behind the line. It's all summer and sometimes summer doesn't come this year. Thanks to Sarah Ramos. Sarah Ramos is actually pretty famos. No way. Even at our live show

the paparazzi were just there just being like, where are they? Where are they? Right. And we came out being like, we're here. We're here. And he's like, no, you're not. You're not. So they really got all the attention at our live show. Thanks to Gavin Richard.

Gavin Richard just keeps getting richer and richer. Oh, nice one. All about that passive income. He invented a fur trapping machine. It just hoovers up raccoons, spits out pelts. I didn't think anyone was making money out of that kind of thing in this day and age, but there you go.

Wow. Can I have a hat, sir? Here's a beaver hat. Thanks to Dave Skellhorn. Raven Dave Skellhorn. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do Got to lighten the mood at a funeral. Thanks to Kirsten Braun. Kirsten Braun, runner of the blog Kirsten Braun. It's like a fashion blog. They wear Braun outfits every day and wear it in various Kirst locations. That's pretty cool. It's quite stylish.

A new thing for the paranormal genre. Kirsten Braun. Sounds like a perfume or something. Thanks to Todd Ames. Todd Ames doesn't play no games. Straight up. He's a businessman. Yeah, it's kind of to a weird extent, though.

I mean, I've seen friends offer him just a simple board game and he goes primal. He turns into a feral orangutan just ripping and scratching and ripping and scratching. Yeah. Like, Todd, do you want to play Connect Four with your nephews? I don't play no games. I want to do business. Thanks to Lisa Flavel. Lisa is the Flavel of the month.

What? Flavor? Yeah. The flavor of the month? Is that what you're trying to say? Flavel? It's the Flavel of the month. Sounds delicious.

Lisa, I wouldn't want to miss you. Done at her local ice cream parlor. She won a competition. She got to pick her own flavor for ice cream flavor. It's called Lisa. You can eat her. Well, it's not human flavor. She picked it.

Okay. I'm seeing it. She picked human. She picked human flesh flavor. I'm worrying she knows what that tastes like. Thanks to John Day. John Day's had a long day. Just let him put his feet up, man.

Oh, come on. Let him have a beer. Let him have a couple beers. Let him have whatever he wants. Drugs, guns. Let him go wild. He's had a long day. Be safe, though. Let him go wild. He's had a long day. Be safe, though.

Thanks to Matt Holcomb. Matt, Holcomb, you're slacking off. You don't get to relax. Get those feet done. You've had a short day. You've had a short day. You need to do more work. Holcomb, you think you're done.

Go to the paranormal harvest fields immediately. Thanks to Audrey Wolcott. When Audrey joined the commune, she thought, no Wolcott hold me. Right. The Wolcott hold me. But it turns out our walls are pretty high and we cover the insides in Vaseline.

So it's pretty hard to scale them is all I'll say. So good luck, Audrey. Thanks lastly, but not leastly today to Mark Farmer. Truly a man we could need around the paranormal harvest fields. Actually, saying those words out loud, I don't know personally what we are harvesting. Yeah, souls at this point.

Right, Mark's more used to wheat, barley, those kinds of things, but he could pivot. Can you farm the living, sir? Here's a gun. We need you to harvest souls. Yeah, please, please, please. There's many, many vacancies

in the paranormal commune for professions that would really help us kind of feed the many people here. So if you're a farmer, get in touch. Thank you so much to everyone that supports us on Patreon.

We hope you enjoyed this week's episode. We're about to disappear out of this studio without leaving a trace. Uh-oh. But we will return. Do not worry. We will return next Tuesday for a brand new Paranormal Tale. Tell!