cover of episode 43: Portlock, Alaska | Red Thread

43: Portlock, Alaska | Red Thread

2024/11/9
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Key Insights

Why was Portlock, Alaska abandoned?

Portlock was abandoned due to a combination of economic decline, harsh living conditions, and mysterious stories of deaths, disappearances, and strange creature sightings.

What is the Nantanuk?

The Nantanuk is a half-man, half-beast creature from local folklore in Portlock, Alaska, attributed to causing fear and leading to the town's abandonment.

What evidence supports the existence of the Nantanuk?

While there are no official records, oral histories and local folklore describe the Nantanuk as responsible for deaths and disappearances. Melania Helen Kell, a Nanulek elder, spoke of her experiences with the creature.

Why do some people doubt the Nantanuk stories?

Some, like Sally Ash, believe the stories were made up to keep children safe and away from harsh conditions. They argue that the town's abandonment was due to economic and logistical reasons.

What role did the construction of Alaska Route 1 play in Portlock's decline?

The construction of Alaska Route 1 in the 1940s drew people away from Portlock to more connected towns, leading to economic decline and eventual abandonment.

How did the Discovery Channel's Alaskan Killer Bigfoot series explore Portlock?

The series followed a group of men trying to resettle Portlock while searching for the Nantanuk. They experienced eerie phenomena but reached no concrete conclusion about the creature's existence.

What is the significance of the 1920 accidental death report in Portlock?

The 1920 report is the only accidental death from Portlock mentioned in newspapers, suggesting that the town was not as plagued by mysterious deaths as folklore suggests.

Why do some believe the Nantanuk stories were created?

Some believe the stories were created to keep children inside and safe from the harsh conditions of the town, rather than being based on actual encounters with a creature.

Chapters

The episode introduces Portlock, Alaska, a once-thriving fishing town now abandoned due to a series of mysterious events and folklore.
  • Portlock was a small but mighty fishing town.
  • A series of disappearances, deaths, and unexplained events turned it into a nightmare for its inhabitants.
  • The town is now a desolate ghost town.

Shownotes Transcript

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As night settled over the small town, a family huddled together on a small couch while a storm outside howled against the windows. A boy sat nervously, his eyes darting around the room as he whispered,

"But what if it's true? What if there really is something out there?" His father chuckled softly, ruffling his hair. "Those are just stories. People like to make things up to keep life interesting. Nothing out there but the wind."

"Yeah, son, the only creatures around here are deer and foxes," the other man on the other side of the couch said with a comforting smile. The boy relaxed a little before falling asleep. Silence settled in the cabin, broken only by the occasional crack of thunder. But then from outside the log cabin in Port Lock came a slow scraping against the cabin wall. The two men, still awake, exchanged a glance, tension hanging thick in the air. In the quiet, one whispered, "Isaiah, wake Jackson up."

And the other replied, I know, Caleb. It's time for Red Thread. It's time, boys. My family, you're all back together. Yes, sir. We're all back together. The family united. Look at that. We made it. I thought I was going to grow up in a one-parent household for the rest of my life, but luckily, here we are. Hello.

Who did that? You made it. Exactly. Are you the kid who's like chuckling and going to sleep? I feel like if I made one of you two the kid, it would have been offensive somehow. You would have been offended by that. So now you're the kid and I'm like ruffling your hair. I don't know which one was ruffling my hair, but someone was. I'll be the guy outside scraping the wall.

You're the one that kills us. Yeah, I'll be the murderer if y'all want. That's fitting. Before we start, Red Thread, now that the family's back together, Isaiah, you've been going through a few interesting weeks setting up some beneficial things for your countrymen. Would you like to just quickly talk about the charity that you've helped set up? That's very kind of you to toss the floor over to me. I've been participating in some shenanigans, for sure. I like to stay up to trouble.

So yeah, basically, as a lot of you probably know, there was a huge flood in Hurricane Helene that

affected a lot of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. So I, along with some people in the affected region, put together a nonprofit called the Appalachian Rebuild Project. Basically, we just have a bunch of people on the ground who for a long time have been going broke trying to facilitate repairs on people's houses ever since the flood hit. So not only people's houses, community centers like churches and areas, but

pretty much anything that the state isn't going to fix soon. That's what our target's been. So we decided that we needed funding from somewhere. So we put together a board, got some members and are now bringing in funds in order to use them effectively. There's no end goal of like, if we raise this much, this will happen. Cause honestly, there's no ceiling to it. The longer we can be helping people out, then, uh,

and the longer we'll keep doing that. So yeah, Appalachian Rebuild Project or the AARP, very proud of already the support that we've seen so far. You all have been fantastic. And yeah, so that's a thing that I'm doing now.

Okay, so and people can donate to this charity if they want to help out. Yes, there is the Appalachian rebuild project.org website that has a donations tab if you want to donate directly. There's also merchandise on there that if you buy the profits will go towards the ARP. I currently at the time this video is up have a merch drop going for a couple of weeks.

All profits from that are going to the ARP. So there's a ton of different ways that you can donate. You can also get something for your donation. Oh, another important detail. My friend Sophia, who's a fellow board member, she lives in the area and has been documenting everything the ARP is doing. So if you donate, you can actually look on the socials and see where the donation money went in real time. Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, that's really cool. Keeps it transparent. So follow there if you're interested. So there's a bunch of different ways that you can donate and also see how that turned out. So yeah, if you want to support, it means a lot. Appreciate it. We'll have a link in the description so you can easily click down below to go check out the charity website as well as make a donation. If it's within your means, it definitely sounds like it will help out

with a lot of charities, I'm a bit iffy on them these days because you never know where the money is going. But like these grassroots... YouTube charity is a bad word for a good reason. It's understood. But these grassroots campaigns by affected people whose sole interest is in putting the money and the resources back into the communities affected, it seems like a great thing that you're doing. So, linked below. Go check them out. I appreciate that. I

I also want to clarify, this isn't just like we set up a bank account and we're now taking in money and sending it out. It is a 501c3. We partnered with a long existing charity called Vets to Drones who specialize in taking veterans from the military and getting them commercial drone training. So they've been doing this for years.

It's their accountants, it's their stuff, and the Appalachian Rebuild Project is effectively a mission through them. So it is a large, pre-existing, legitimate 501c3 that we are doing this through. So it's all above board, it's all IRS-legitimate stuff like that. You've had boots on the ground as well. You have directly been there on the scene and been helping out in that capacity.

Oh yeah, I've been on location. I have a video going up before too long going into all the details of that. And then the other board members, like my friend Tony, the day the flood happened, he was out on his dirt bike trying to find people, coordinate what they needed. In the first three days after the storm hit, he put 1,600 miles on his dirt bike trying to get to people. It's crazy.

It's massive, the scale of destruction and impact felt by the hurricane. The estimated damages to just North Carolina right now are about $52 billion. Yeah, that's crazy. It's unbelievable. So go check that out. You will help your fellow American.

out by doing that people in need desperate need so go check it out in your own time if you feel like that's something that you can positively contribute to no pressure obviously it's just something that's an option there if you if you feel like helping uh in less altruistic news um we've set up a new website a counter to our patreon which is patreon.com slash the official podcast where you can get bonus

early access, ad-free access to all of our series across the official podcast, Red Thread, Criminally Stupid, as well as other shows like Real Boys, which has just come out, which is a movie review series with myself and a friend named Connor. All of that is available over on patreon.com slash the official podcast, and it has been for a while now. But we also have a new website called official.men, which

which is a it's an alternative to patreon so you get all the same benefits but it's just there if you don't want to use patreon so official.man that'll be in the description as well not a charity uh you you get you get stuff if you if you pay for it like early access he's saying officially on the record it is a charity go ahead write it off of your taxes i mean taxes he's taking all the money

Technically, my whole career is a charity at this point. The charity being me and my livelihood. So thank you very much. Make sure Jackson is accountable for every dollar spent that it's reported. It's going to be all Lego. Trust me.

Yeah, but yeah, you can go check that out if you want bonus access to all of our series. Really appreciate everyone who signs up for that, obviously. And we have merch coming out soon for Red Thread. You guys have seen the design. It's got all three of our faces on it. I'll put it up on screen right now. Yeah, so that'll be coming out soon. I'll let you guys know when that does come out. But that's it for notes, other than this is the Red Thread.

There's show notes in the description so you can read along with us as well as links to the audio show as well, audio platforms, if you want to listen to the show there. Other than that, we're talking about Portlock today, guys. It's an interesting one.

Yeah, it is. I actually wrote a doc on this that Christina did on her channel. Oh, she did one, did she? No way. Are you serious? Yeah, it's pretty interesting. It's a cool story. I know a little bit about it. Okay, I actually... I think this is a red thread first. I have never heard of this. Really? Really.

The word portlock does not ring a single bell. I don't think I've heard of it at all. It's a Bigfoot reminiscent, let's say. Yeah, yeah. I'm super excited. This is new for me. I'm surprised you've never heard of this. This is a new sensation. Up and down your inner thigh.

A big hairy hand? Yeah, I feel all tingly. I feel loved. I might be ready to make some mistakes if you know what I mean. Are you playing this up, Isaiah? You're actually an expert. I'm being fully legitimate, like hands up, no fingers crossed or anything. I do not know what Portlock, Alaska is. I do not know what the whole conspiracy is or anything like that.

Damn, calling out the people from Portlock, Alaska. He doesn't notice you. He doesn't care about you. Portlock, Alaska. Nestled in the southern edge of the Kenai Peninsula up in Alaska lies a desolate town named Portlock. A permanent chill fills the air and surrounds the abandoned rundown buildings. What could have happened in this small town that would send all of its inhabitants running? Mystery and dark folklore has whirled in Portlock for decades now.

Once a small but mighty fishing town, a series of disappearances, deaths, and unexplained events turned it into a nightmare for the people who called it home. Let's find out what sent the people of Portlock running in this episode of Red Thread. Does that kind of give you an idea of what this is about? Yeah, so I... Ghost Town. I'm pumped. Ghost Town. Abandoned Ghost Town, baby. That's so fun. I love Ghost Town. But why was it abandoned, though, Isaiah? Yeah, why?

I don't know. I'm excited to find out. I'm excited to theorize. They fish too many fish. They finish too much. Yeah, it says finishing. Too much busting. It's a great sign. It says a finishing town, which is funny because it's like a town you go to to finish. A busting town. It said once a small but mighty finishing town. It's well known across the land. You go there if you want to cum. Cum.

Calm down. Okay, so let's go over the official story. Let's immediately ruin the mystery and just go into the official story for why it was abandoned. You said calm down and it shot through me like a PTSD flashback. Oh yeah, dude. I was in the trenches.

what's the connection there he wouldn't know he's Australian let's just leave it be it was a different time I'll say that now under the assumption that you went somewhere to come a lot what are you talking about it was a podcast that just has like I can't even describe it I'll figure it out on my own

There's no way I can describe it without sounding like a psychopath, so let's just get into the episode. You had to be there. Let's just go. Let's take the official story. All right. The official story. The area that would eventually become Portlock, sometimes referred to as Port Chatham, was established in the early 20th century and was named after a British Royal Navy captain, Nathaniel Portlock,

I was thinking named after like it was named after him. It's saying it was named after a captain was said to have gone through the area and claimed the area in 1786.

It was set up as a cannery for salmon later in the 20th century. The town was small, but filled with hard-working fishermen, lumbermen, miners, and those who worked in the cannery, most of whom were local natives and Russian Aleuts, descendants of Russian colonists. Is that how that word's pronounced? Yeah, I think so. That was an error, though. The town's small, but filled with hard-working Finishermen. That should be...

just so we're consistent here they're walking around in like a butcher's outfits like you need help you need help I'll cut your meat for you I can get you there yeah what cut you want how much fat you want on it sounds like our comment section that's well marveled they're

There were several key motivations for Russia to expand into Alaska back in the 1700s, with one of the big ones being economic opportunity found within Alaska's abundant fur resources. Particularly, otter pelts, which were highly valuable at the time. The first permanent settlement of Russia, Alaska, was established in 1784, and in this part of Alaska that was controlled by Russia live local natives and Russian colonists.

Living alongside for a long period of time resulted in the Russian Aleuts, who would eventually go on to make up the town of Portlock, which was officially established as a town in 1921 when it opened its own post office after the territory of Alaska was admitted as an organized, incorporated territory of the United States in 1912. So I guess that makes sense that Russia controlled Alaska before that, but why'd they hand it over to the U.S.?

We bought it. Oh, you just bought it? Yeah. We love buying stuff. If I remember right, it was like there wasn't a lot that could be done with it. Yeah. Isn't there a bunch of oil up there? Until Big Sam left Seattle in the year of 92. That's a reference. Big Sam. Big Sam.

I have no idea what that reference is. Y'all are lying to me. Maybe this is... I would be surprised if this is an entirely fake story you all came up with. Isaiah, it's another Johnny Horton song, North to Alaska. Instead of 1814, we took a little trip. North to Alaska! Going north. I actually don't know that one. I know Battle of New Orleans, of course, because I'm American, but I actually don't know that one. Of course, yeah. It's an old hit, an old bop.

So there's a bunch of oil up in Alaska, right? That's what Alaska is known for now. Oil lands. Maybe now, but the gold rush was big. Yukon gold was the massive. Yeah. So was that after Russia already got rid of Alaska? Did the US benefit from the gold rush as well? No, the gold rush was before 1912. Yeah, it was in there. For Alaska specifically, it was in, I believe, the late 20th century.

Okay. So, yeah. Okay. Well, you guys really scammed the Russians. Yes. I mean, also, at the time the sale happened, we weren't as hostile with them as we eventually became. Maybe that's why you became so hostile. They felt scammed after you guys took Alaska and found all the fucking oil in the world.

I'm sure they weren't thrilled about it, no. Did they deport all the Russians that were there? Or are they now US citizens? No, they lived there, I think. Also, it was the 19th century, not the 20th century. I haven't slept much, so I'm getting my centuries mixed up. I was confused there for a second. Well, when you said late 20th century, I was like, okay, so 1994. I was born on the Yukon, panning gold.

Just in the middle of the 80s, there's like prospectors out there. Yeah, yeah. I went one ahead, two ahead instead of just one ahead. My bad. My B-dog. Yeah, okay. I'm just kind of imagining what it would be like to live in a country and then have your country sold to another country. Like if China bought Australia or something and now I'm just Chinese, I guess. That'd be weird. I wish you were Chinese sometimes. Thanks, I'll work on it.

You can continue now. I actually don't know this, but would the... Did Alaska get sold to us because of the revolution in Russia? I guess it would, right? Probably, yeah. When was the October revolution? Was it 1912 or was it 1914? Um...

Which year did the October... 1917. There was a lot of revolutions the decade before World War I. There was a ton of different revolutions in different parts of Russia. Yeah, they probably gradually built up to it. So that was probably a contributing factor for why it became a territory. Yeah, they were probably desperate to make some resources to... I'm pretty sure we bought it

but I don't think we just took it. I think we bought it. Well, we had to have bought it before the gold rush. So we had to have bought it probably in the middle 20th century. We bought it from Russia in 1867. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. 30 years before the Klondike Gold Rush.

So you bought it, but it was only organized. It was only an organized incorporated territory. In 1912. Made that in 1912, right? So that's the first step to statehood. Before then, it was just like a land. Yeah. And then it was a state in the 40s or 50s or some shit like that. 1948, I think. 48 or 49. Yeah, it was around then, the 50s. We bought it for the whopping price of $7.2 million. How much is that today, though? Damn.

140 million should be. 20 times. If it is actually 140 million, I'm going to lose my mind. He's good with that. You're our money man. So he has that kind of autism. It's been like, I mean, just post-Civil War, there's probably 20 times inflation since then, I would assume. I'm very impressed that you know that off the top of your head, the rate of inflation. Really? It's probably a really simple thing, but it's impressive that you just know that.

How much money did you say? $140 million? No, $212 million. Never mind. I've lost it. Immediately just ruined it for him. Hold on. Let me see if like 2020. Oh my gosh. Inflation's insane right now. Just four years ago, it was $174 million.

Wait, four years has caused that? I'm getting radicalized. Four years? Oh my gosh. Don't look at it. Four years. It jumps up another $40 million. So I didn't account for COVID? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, you didn't account for COVID. I think that's literally what happened. Because if I go back, I didn't account for COVID. That's really funny. Because if you go back like... The government doesn't want you to see. Okay, so in 2010, it would have been $146 million.

And then up to 2017, it's 164 million. But if you just go through COVID, it shoots up super fast. So...

Wow. So, yeah, I guess I interesting. So there's been that exponential living in the bus. Yeah. Inflation. Yeah. People are lying when they say that inflation is bad now. Believe it or not. Well, I'm looking at a graph right now. This is not related to the topic at all, but I'm looking at an inflation graph right now. And it just become in the last four years, it becomes like a vertical climb. Yeah. Yeah.

COVID moment. That's great. Lockdowns. I'm glad that happens. Is it because the economy did so well during COVID in terms of like, I'm pretty sure there was a lot of money being made during COVID and then because of like the handouts and stuff, it dropped off. I don't know if I would say it was doing well. I don't remember. I wasn't paying attention during COVID. I think it's the other way around. I think it's because we printed too much money. That's what I was saying. Yeah, but that's what I meant by doing well is that we like

artificially supplied the federal reserve was doing great if that's what you mean well when the federal reserve is doing really well the people are not yeah funny how that works but then too much money supply yeah and because of that inflation went up afterwards drastically yeah yeah yeah i mean increased money supply is like the like an indicator of um uh an indicator obviously of inflation and then but you know increase the money supply

stimulus and then people buy into the markets and then it's supposed to offset but it didn't i guess because there's also just because people just hoard the money probably yeah housing markets uh yeah most in australia the housing market is really bad so i assume that's where most of the money went um yeah anyway portlock yeah i was gonna say well this isn't a sign of probably what inflation isn't a sign of is bigfoot in portlock so let's continue that there you go good transition um

The 1940s saw the opening of the new Alaska Route 1, a large highway intended to bring more rural communities back into the fold. This highway, which ran to the other side of the Kenai Peninsula, missed Portlock entirely. Naturally, everyone was drawn to towns closer to the new highway as it was more efficient and convenient. Due to the new infrastructure raising the standards elsewhere, supplies became hard to source and transportation was limited. The fishing and logging industries began to dwindle, and economic prospects became more limited.

By the 1950s, the remaining residents decided to relocate to more connected towns in Alaska, and Portlock was officially abandoned with the government citing economic decline and harsh living conditions to be the reason.

So that's the lame, stupid version. I want the actual truth. Isn't that crazy that in the 1940s you could just build a road and entire towns and cities could cease to exist because of that road being built? Yeah. That's happened a lot in Appalachia, in regions. It's like, oh, well...

so-and-so's dad used to live up there but it was the top of a mountain so everyone ditched it but towns were also much much smaller so that was actually feasible at the time isn't that also why like uh i could be wrong on my american geography here but didn't uh chicago suffer because like a highway was built that like bypassed or something so less people started to go to chicago chicago or detroit oh detroit is detroit yeah you're right yeah

Detroit. That's the one. Whenever I think about suffering, I think of Detroit. Detroit. Yeah. Real quick, before we continue on to find out the truth of Portlock, just a quick word from the sponsors of this episode.

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Big thank you to you guys for checking out our sponsors, of course. You really make the show possible by doing that, so big thank you for doing that. And now, back to the episode. Let's find out what happened to Portlock. And back in Caleb, what is the truth if we don't want to believe the lies of Big Road?

Mysterious stories of deaths, disappearances, and strange creature sightings have long come out of the town of Portlock. Cases of deaths and disappearances have been recorded down by oral histories and local folklore. And while there are no official records of these incidents, but many of these stories, tales, and rumors are still to this day considered the reason Portlock was abandoned. I'm sold, baby. There's no clinical evidence. Let's go.

That being said, the stories are kind of fire.

Yeah, this sounds like me talking to a group of kids at a park. Even though there's no evidence of this, this is what actually happened. This is what happened, press like. Couldn't it both be true, though? Couldn't they have built the road to avoid the monster in the woods or whatever? No. No. That's what they want you to do. They want you to compromise. No. Absolutely not. They want you to lower your beliefs. They want you to hide from the truth. Okay?

I will not hide from the truth. Don't do that, Jackson. Convince me, Caleb. Don't do that, Jackson. Look, I know you're Australian and your entire existence is built on subjugation. No, I'm not anymore. Remember, China bought Australia. I'm Chinese now. You can't use that anymore. I think we should start with the words from a woman named Melania Helen Kell. A Nanulek elder who was born in Portlock in 1930. Sorry, too soon?

Too soon, liberals. You often talked about her experience growing up in the town.

In an interview with Naomi... The way he said that, I imagine your face morphed into the troll like this. Too soon? You mad, bro? Sorry, liberals. In an interview with Naomi Clowda of the Homer Tribune, which I don't believe is a real thing, in 2009, Melania spoke through a translator about a horrifying creature who would terrorize the locals.

Melania suggested that the Altuik people called the creature Nantanak. Nantanak. Nantanak. You have a little pronunciation thing, a little phonetic pronunciation. Thank you so much, Jax. Oh my gosh. Or was this your girlfriend who did this? Yeah, girlfriend. Thank her.

Thank you so much, Jackson's girlfriend. They described it as half-man, half-beast monstrosity, and Melania directly attributed it as the reason for many leaving the area. While a scary half-man, half-beast hybrid is certainly scary enough to make people leave a town, Melania had other stories. She also talked about the spirit of a woman who would haunt the areas around the cliffs that connected Portlock to the sea, saying, her dress was so long she would drag it.

She had very white face and would disappear back into the cliffs. What? That's fucking scary. You never heard of those people? What? I believe Melania. She's trustworthy, dude. She's an immigrant. She wouldn't lie. Oh, God. Jesus.

According to Melania, her grandfather was out logging in 1931 when he was struck over the head with a piece of logging equipment. This hit killed him on the spot, but no one knows who or what could have possibly done this, but her family believed that it was the nun to knock. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Hold on. Timeout. Timeout. Timeout. Okay.

Her grandfather was out in the woods. Yes. And then a piece of logging equipment. Now, in my head, this is like a truck. It could be anything, but it's funny. I was thinking an axe. Comedically large. Sure. Just threw it on the top of his head. And he just gets hit in the top of the head, but no one was there to witness it. Yeah.

Accidents don't exist in this place either. Did they just found him dead? Instead of being like he was murdered, they were like, it must have been the ghost lady. Well, no, they're saying he was murdered by the Nantanuk. Okay, so it was... Okay, sure. Okay. If you want to get pedantic with it, yes, they would have technically considered it a murder. But I'm saying what immediately threw them to the Nantanuk instead of saying it was...

like you know he was murdered yeah maybe it was like a family wide cover up they invented the non-tanak to hide their murder on their grandfather that he didn't like I was trying to trick the Australian into giving a fake a stupid like normie that was a pretty good one that was a pretty good trick

And you know what? He fell for it. He's really like, you're right. Maybe it's not real. See, that's why. I'm too agreeable. It's my Australian attitude of being too agreeable. Of just being like, yes, sir. Whenever someone tells you to do something. I'm a people pleaser. It's an issue. I'm never going to agree with you again. Out of principle now. Okay. Yeah. Well, start the clock. Five seconds later.

Would you guys, this is reminding me of the discourse we had with the monkey man episode. Do you guys remember that?

Where you were laughing about the woman falling to her death from a staircase. To be fair, he didn't laugh this time. Yeah. Which is very serious. Not yet. But now you've brought it up. Oh, gosh. Guess what's going to happen. Not yet. Not yet. The little laughing evil man inside of me just awoke. I know. He's alive. Ding dong. Dinner bell. He was tired after your 40-hour road trip, but now he's ready for dinner. Oh.

You said that, you haven't laughed, and Caleb was like, no. And he starts convulsing like the mask. Honey, I'm home! We should quickly touch on the terminology used here for the Nantanuk. The term is likely derived or borrowed from the Dina Ina. What? Dinina.

Athabascan word, Nantina. Nantina. I'm going to butcher all this so badly. I like how Dena'ina took you forever, but you just ran through Athabascan like it was nothing. Dena'ina. I don't know. Nantina. Nantina. Dena'ina. Athabascan. No, no. I'm saying I'm just amazed that the smaller word was like the trouble, but you just destroyed the big one. It had a little mark in it.

Yeah, it's the apostrophe. The apostrophe. I don't think you can call them that anymore, by the way. It's that hopping period. There you go. I don't like flying punctuation. I don't think you can call them that either.

You definitely can't call him that. Meaning those who steal people. And this new version of that borrowed word is interestingly enough specific to the Chugak dialect of Sugpyak-Altuik used in the Kenai Peninsula. I'm so glad Caleb's reading this section. I like how Nontanuk got a pronunciation guide but then she just skipped over all these words. Thanks!

It's like when you're trying to not get mud on your shoes, but then you step in one puddle, so you're like, ah, whatever, and you just plop through the rest of them. Actually, you know what it is? I think I added this paragraph. Yeah, if I recall correctly, I added this paragraph, so that was on me. Lazy bastard. Yep, that was me. My bad. Well, the terminology...

While the terminology originally meant something else, it appears that there was a tweaking of a longer-standing folkloric creature to assign a more modern cryptid idea to it. As Brian Dunning of Skeptoid.com once wrote, we all tend to treat native legends with respect, and while we might be quick to poke fun at a Bigfoot story, we're more accepting when we hear of a Nantanuck story. It's a clever and effective trick, and make no mistake that the cryptoid...

It's a clever and effective trick and make no mistake that the cryptozoologists do it very deliberately. Okay, interesting, interesting, interesting. All right, all right, all right, all right. I just have to say,

Brian Dunning and Skeptoid.com I think is the biggest nerd I've ever heard. My name's Brian Dunning. Literally. As you're reading that, I imagine pushes glasses up snorts, actually. Call me Skeptoid. I'm so intelligent. Making a website called Skeptoid.com and dedicating posts to how

Cryptid legends are fake is I need to find this guy's home address. I think. Oh shit. Brian Dunning run. I like that. Get out of the country while you can. That's a joke in Minecraft.

Don't do that. I think he actually is a big deal in the skeptic community. I looked up his Twitter. I think he's got 200k followers. I'm going to find him right now. He's been on Joe Rogan's podcast four times. I remember him getting into a big... Or maybe once. I think he's talked shit about him and he said that Joe Rogan was one of the biggest propagators of misinformation 10 years ago or something. And then they got into a debate over Tower 7 with 9-11.

So this whole thing is just shutting down anything fun. Well, that's what skeptics do. What a loser, dude. What a freaking loser, dude. That's not fun. Skeptic has like a massively negative connotation now. And I think it's because of all the skeptic YouTube channels that popped up over like between 2014 and 2020 that were just raining on everyone's parade. Let misinformation happen. Neckbeards, dude. Neckbeards. Inside dwelling. That's too fun. I'm the fun police.

Misinformation bad when it comes to other things, but not cryptids. Leave cryptids alone. Dude, I love misinformation. I love spreading misinformation. Dude, my dad's name is Mr. Information. Well, that's good, though. Well, that's my mom. She's misinformation. So that's why. Oh, there we go. That's the joke. That's where you get a problem. Yeah, exactly.

I take it. I'm a mama's boy. My dad's Mr. Information and I'm a mama's boy. There we go. That's pretty good. That's so stupid. You got it. Anyways.

Throughout the 1930s, more villagers began to see creatures creeping within the forests that surrounded the town. Fear and paranoia was ever-growing within the villagers. Strangely, large animal tracks and claw marks down trees were frequently found, almost like there was a reminder of the Nantanoc everywhere they turned. Melania's... What's up in Alaska? Also, deer do that. Yeah, bear, deer, moose. Moose, they all...

scratch stuff and with their antlers obviously yeah but this is something that is an opinion an australian would come up with i agree it's the net actually um animals do that too actually yeah that's you right now i've already i've already yeah exactly he's back on our side he's good he's good he's back he's back

Yeah, because we told him to be. We won't have to liberate you, I guess. Well, how was that about you weren't going to agree with me anymore, Jackson? Fuck, how do I win this? It's a catch-22. Where are we at? Melania. Melania?

millennia, spoke of hunters who would disappear and never come back, or their bodies would be found dismembered and torn apart in ways that made it highly unlikely to be done by a bear. A Port Graham elder named Simeon Kvaskenov told of a gold miner that lived in the area who went to work one day and never returned. It seemed like a lot of the locals in roughly 30 person sized town had similar stories.

A lot of these stories all come from the Homer Tribune article from 2009, which itself relied on two sources, one being Melania and the other being a 1972 article in the Anchorage Daily News that was later found in John Green's 1978 book, Sasquatch, The Apes Among Us. That's a dope title for a book. The Apes Among Us. Let's go. Oh my God. Let's go. That's in the 70s too.

Peak of cinema. That entire sentence is like unreadable by modern standards. Yeah. Ape among us. Ape among us. Just can't do it. A local villager at the time named Tom Larson also had a strange tale to tell. Apparently, one day after work, he went to the beach and it was there that he spotted the Nantanuck, the tall and hairy creature we've spoken of.

In a panic, he ran into his home to grab his gun before heading back out to where the beast had been and still was. They had a bit of a staring contest, continuing to make eye contact for what probably felt like a long time.

Tom ultimately didn't fire the gun, and he has said that even he didn't know why he chose not to fire the gun, but ultimately, he and the Nantanuk parted ways peacefully. That's a beautiful story. That's beautiful, yeah. And then they made sweet love. On the beach for hours. For hours, dude. Wow.

That is a Texas thought process. Or West Virginia, either one really. Thought process for this. It's like, yeah, but did he get to make poke in the sleeping bag with it? Make sweet love with it. Alright. I just got off Corridor H. I just pulled over up there on Corridor H making sweet love do nothing to knock in Hampshire County. Ha ha ha.

Another more modern story was told by a man simply known as E.D., who was working at as a paramedic in 1990. E.D. had gotten a call from a man suffering from a heart attack at Eagle River, and when he arrived, he found a native man in his 70s. After getting the injured man stable and rested in the ambulance, it began to drive to the native hospital in Anchorage when E.D. and this man struck up a conversation.

E.D. and the man spoke of hunting and fishing, and E.D. briefly brought up the area of Dogfish Bay, a location near Portlock where he would often go fishing.

When this bae was mentioned, the man immediately sat up and grabbed Ed's shirt. Sorry, I messed up. I didn't do my own bit. I just added another fucking name. There was another guy there. Sat up and grabbed Ed's shirt in desperation. Did it bother you? He asked. With those words, Ed apparently felt a shiver across his skin and a hair behind his neck prickled up.

Edie then asked this man if he had seen it he hadn't but insisted that his brother had been chased by it They never used any term like Bigfoot or Nantanuk to describe it, but they both knew what the other meant Maybe that's good fucking fucking that's cool. It's pretty fun. Then like a jealous lover. They were shot up immediately Yeah, you fucking my you fucking my Bigfoot my bitch. Yeah, my big hairy bitch. Oh

ED would also go on to talk about an experience he had in 1973 when he was out hunting with two friends. A bad storm had forced the crews to take temporary cover at Dogfish Bay. During the night, when trying to get some sleep, ED was awoken by one of his friends, Denise. Squeezing his leg to wake up ED gently, Dennis put his finger to his mouth

Be quiet. Then outside, they heard a step and another and another. Deliberate, heavy, human-like steps. Ed and Dennis woke up their other friend, Joe. He's all the way to Derek's name is possible. This is not a real group of people. This could be made up. This is easy makeup right here. Ed, Dennis, and Joe. What? What are you talking about? There's no way. And they all silently listened to the noise outside until they could hear nothing but the wind.

Then they didn't talk about it the next day, assuming it was a bear. The following night, they slept with their flashlights on and their rifles at the ready in their tents, just in case. At 2.30 a.m., Ed woke up from his light sleep with another leg squeeze. Why would you squeeze the legs? Sexual, dude. It's sensual. Yeah, getting them ready. Getting them ready for the big guy. The big guy. It's probably a big woman out there.

If I wanted to wake up a friend in a tent... Yo, hold on. Let's hear this thing out. Maybe it wants to negotiate. Maybe it has a deal at once. You guys go camping a lot. If you were in this situation, would you squeeze your friend's leg? Because I'd probably just tap them on the shoulder or something. I wouldn't go for the more intimate... I mean, it's like... I don't know how they're relaying. Maybe the leg was closer. At a time in my life, if I was a single man and my bros are all out camping and there's a...

part of Muammar Gaddafi's Amazonian guard outside walking around mysteriously trying to meticulously lure us centrally and lustfully into the woods? Absolutely. We're squeezing legs. Muammar Gaddafi's Amazonian guard. Dude, he's known for that. Anyways.

Oh yeah, he was. Both of the other men were already awake and he heard it again. The steps. They determined it couldn't have been from there and so they decided to peep out with a flashlight. To their confusement, there was nothing there. That's a new word we just invented. They decided to cut their trip short. Confusement. Confusement.

To their confusion. I think that's another word I put in the script before that we've had this exact same conversation. I think it was when Charlie was right. To their confusion. Is that a real word? I don't know. I would say confusion. I don't think it is. Wait, hey! Yes, technical confusion is a word. According to linguistic definition. I keep getting shit for saying confusion, but apparently it is a word.

A lot of people say regardless and irregardless. They add the prefix ira, but I think they mean the exact same thing. Yeah, they mean the same thing. There's no point. Irregardless. Confusement and confusion obviously mean the same thing, but for some reason my brain just goes to confusement. Yeah, I mean, I like it.

In April 1973, an article came out about Portlock in the Anchorage Daily News. This is the article primarily sourced in the 2009 piece in the Homer Tribune that would go on to push the Portlock Alaska mystery to the forefront of the clip to do with the scene accompanied by a stark image of a lone eagle on top of a tree. It tells the story of a man named Robert and his friend Janelle.

They had both been out on a trip sailing by the Alaskan coastline and were looking for a place to stop, to regroup, and refuel while they waited out some bad weather. They found Portlock, immediately realizing upon disembarking the boat that they had stumbled upon a ghost town, it having been abandoned for some decades now. They described it as empty, but felt something or someone watching them. They set off and the next day stepped at Nanmalek,

where they stayed with a local teacher who shared stories of the strange town of Portlock with them. The teacher and his wife told Robert and Janelle of stories that swirled around the town of Portlock and leaked its way into nearby towns. They were told of stories that began to emerge during World War II. Men leaving to hunt and never returning, and even more grotesque was that sometimes their mangled bodies would rush down to the lagoon.

While out tracking moose, instead of finding normal animal footprints, they would stumble across absolutely massive human-like footprints that when followed revealed an area that showed signs of a struggle between this strange giant creature and the moose they were originally hunting. It seemed like everyone who had lived in the area had their own story. It's the Nephilim. Holy shit. There's giants out in Port Walk, Alaska. Giants in the woods. Let's go!

Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. Do you count Bigfoot as a giant potentially? Yes, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. He's either that or Cain, like Cain and Abel from the Bible. That's the two options. Um,

That goes so hard. You saying giants made it 10 times better. But just the idea of people go out hunting and then you see their body going down the river and you can't stop it or you can't go out and get it, but you just watch it pass. That's such a cool story idea. I just love that. I also like...

how kind of nuanced this story is and that they simply just passed by the town but felt it was weird and then found out all this stuff about it later. It adds a layer of like authenticity to the whole thing. Authenticity to the whole thing. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. I like the way that's laid out. All right. The interesting tale. Oh, is that tale or take? Take. Okay. I'll call it a take then. The interesting take, Sally Ash.

Around two years ago, an Alaskan musician and journalist named Darren Harp Daddy Smith published an article in the Anchorage Press about the Nantanoc. Cryptids fascinated Darren, and when he heard about the story of Portlock, he wrote that it sounds like a Scooby-Doo plot. But, interestingly, in his investigations, he spoke to Sally Ash, who was actually the translator for Melania in the 2009 article, and also her cousin. Sally, uh...

Sugpake? Is that how that's pronounced? I can look it up. Sugpake. Sugpake of Russian Alouette descent grew up near Dogfish Bay but always heard about Portlock as her family had lived there during the town's lively days. The warnings had been drilled into her head by an early age. Don't go out on a foggy day because he is walking about.

Sally herself believes that the Nantanoc is real and part human, possibly a human who wanted to be alone and isolated themselves away from the town, where he would go on to become bestial. She recounts the following story. Quote,

Something's going on here. Then he looked in there and there was a man with his hands in the back way, which means turned around. It looked like a man, but he was all hairy and he looked really scary. So he and our cousin took off running and didn't want to be up there.

I wasn't sure if it was a Bigfoot, but there was a horrible smell. That's a common thing that gets seen in a ton of these Bigfoot analogous stories. There's always a smell mentioned. Yeah, the stink always shows up. Well, it's because they're so bestial. They don't clean themselves and stuff. It's like primal nature. Yeah.

Or is it like the smell of rotting flesh or something? Have they described the smell? Normally it's just smelled like a stink of rot, but if someone, like if a human is out in the woods for long enough and sweating and gross and everything, you smell pretty bad. I mean, there's stories of soldiers in Vietnam who couldn't see the enemy approaching, but they could smell them first, like before an ambush happened. Yeah.

You ruined the surprise. You ruined the ambush. You ruined the Haichou men surprise. The Haichou men surprise. That sounds like a special at Panda Express.

Just real quick I know those are two different cultures I apologize I said Hi-cho-man instead of Ho-chi-man I know That's what made it even funnier It was a white man moment It was a Panda Express special Because it is a mispronounced Wrongly used It's uh Just to go back it's Suk-pi-ak apparently Suk-pi-ak Suk-pi-ak That doesn't make any sense

But sure. All right. That's just what this big white man moment says. Suck the air. There was something really interesting in the article, though, which was her opinion of Melania. While talking respectfully about her cousin, she also wanted to clear the air, so as to speak. She claimed that Melania's whole story was made up. Okay. Apparently, everyone knows it wasn't true, but felt it wasn't their place to comment or say anything to disagree with her.

Melania was their elder and they were taught from the time they were born to respect their elders. Apparently they all had a bit of a laugh about it after the interview. Sally believes that the move back in the day away from Portlock was out of convenience and not a fear of the Nantanoc. The other towns had churches, better schools, and economies.

But think about it. Melania grew up in the town of Portlock for her entire childhood, and that town and her childhood is now desolate and abandoned, completely different to how it was when she was a child. She most likely mourned the life she had there and the town it once was, and perhaps this was her way of remembering and honoring it. There's still a big connection to the land, too. It is owned by the Chugak Corporation Corporation.

which is one of 13 Alaska Native regional corporations, which was created in 1971 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Their elders lived there and their ancestors are buried there. Sally talks about how Melania may have been warning intruders away from the land that they felt so connected to.

so she's just like yeah melania was lying that's okay so yeah how does she know that for one that's what i want to know where does she get off just made it up she's lying well she said trust me bro yeah very likely i think i'm gonna believe the person who's lived there their whole life thank you melania saw what they were talking about what did you learn that uh your trump impression is good my um

Wouldn't that be great if Trump's giving a speech and then Melania walks up and she's like, I saw the biggest man ever. And he's killing people and there's a town, a small town, and it's abandoned. And he's like, Melania, we'll find him.

To be fair, have you guys seen Barron Trump? Like a bit more hair and he's probably pretty close. You're right. He is an efflem. He's an efflem. Yeah, he really is. He's a freak. Freak of nature. He's so fucking tall. But don't forget, Sally still believes in the Nod to Knock is real, but she also believes that you won't find him.

He's fast. He's a recluse. And despite the numerous attempts of adventurous people going to Portlock in search of the creature, she is sure that he will never be found. Okay, Sally, make up your mind. Is Melania lying and has never seen this thing before? Or is it real and it is killing people at the speed of sound? Well, it sounds like she's covering something up. She's hiding something. Maybe they all... I don't like this middle ground where it's like, oh, no, it's real, but she's definitely lying. You'll never find it.

This is a weird playing both sides game. I'm not a fan. Yeah, she's playing the middle road. Get off the fence, Sally. Pick a side. This is a quote from Sally. If you follow him, he will hide and he could turn into different animals. Where did the shapeshifting come from? That's a pretty common thing. For Bigfoot? Shapeshifting.

No, just like about native legends in the region. There's normally some element of spirits of different animals being incorporated into it and stuff like that. Yeah, I guess it's not like one-to-one with Bigfoot. This is more of a unique kind of folklore interpretation. Yeah, it's its own thing. If you chase him, it suddenly disappears behind a tree, and when you get close enough to see him, all you see is a shimmering little mouse, shapeshifting. They would change to a different animal, make you feel sad for them. They said don't touch them, just leave them alone.

So don't discount the story of Nod to Knock altogether. Melania was interviewed in 2009, and while her story may be the tall tales of an adventurous childhood, there have been many accounts of something in Portlock from years and years before then, and maybe when there's smoke, there's fire.

What has been terrorizing or scaring the people of Portlock and the surrounding areas for years to the point that the town was abandoned completely in the 40s? And it wasn't a sudden thing either. In 1905, workers at the cannery were sent home early due to, quote, something in the forest. As shown by records made by Portlock Cannery Management, what was it? We don't know. But something spooked them enough to send everyone home and then away from the town for an entire year until they felt it was safe enough to return.

The fuck was that? If there's legitimate records made by the cannery management, that's something... What's the rational response there? Or rational reason for that? It was an ontoc. That's the rational response. It was an ontoc. Send it to the military immediately. Kill it. Kill it. Well, that's very Texas of you, and I'm proud, but... Kill it. We've got to kill it, right, guys? Yeah, nuke it. Wait, is there another way?

Is there another way? Then killing it? You could make love to it as you suggested. I could also make love. Yeah. You should try that first and then if that doesn't work, kill it. Genius! In December 2021, the Discovery Channel aired Alaskan Killer Bigfoot. This one-eighth episode miniseries that followed men, real men, who traveled to Portlock in search of the mountain ark.

The show received a pretty mixed reception, averaging at around 5.8 out of 10 on IMDb. The premise was to see if the area could be brought back to life and resettled. That's a pretty cool concept. The men had 40 days to find resources and decide if it was possible to rebuild the town while their faith and ability to survive would be tested. Yeah, pretty dramatic. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on.

The premise of the show was to see if the area could be resettled, but it was titled Alaskan Killer Bigfoot. Well, yeah, because it was in the area where the Bigfoot lived. That's fucking clickbait, dude. Those are two different things. That's clickbait.

That is such bad clickbait. And let me guess, they never even showed, there was never a Bigfoot in the show. Let me guess. No. They mentioned it for three minutes during one cutaway segment and it never came up again. All the rest is like log building and making fires and stuff. Yeah, it's the fucking house building theme from Red Dead. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

and then overnight it's just a lot of infrared footage overnight of them just like did you hear that? setting up like IR cameras or whatever and then there's like a knocking sound and then they cut back to Isaiah and then

I love that part of the game. That's such a good game. Oh man, I'm playing through it again at the moment. I love it so much. It's so good. It makes me very sad.

Oh yeah, I just finished Red Dead Redemption 1 again for the first time in maybe like 10 years. It still is just such a masterclass. The end theme for American Venom when you're... I know we're not talking about Bigfoot at all at this point, but the end theme for American... For one, the level being titled American Venom when John goes to get Micah. Oh my gosh. What a great... It makes me want to punch a wall and send another $40 billion to the war machine. Um...

But like that theme when John gets up the mountain, they're like, it's always you, John. And it's like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. So fucking good. Do you think, do you want a third game or do you think that they should just stop it too? No, I think it's done. I don't know. I would actually love to see a game go back even further to like the creation of the gang and see what happens there. Of the Vanderling gang? Leading up and ending on the boat leading into two, obviously. Like the boat, you know, mission that went wrong.

the heist that went wrong i i don't know i feel like you have your hands too tight at that point because like red dead 2 was in a good enough spot because all we know from the first one is that there was a gang and these are a few members and a few right whatever you want you could go wild but we know so much about the the vanderlyn gang now from red dead 2 that you have to work in really tight restraints and also you can't have characters progress past the point to where they

they started in the second one. Yeah, if you add way more depth to them in the first, in the third game than like the second game, it would be hard to fit that in. You'd have to have like a, you'd have to go back in time because like both games are the end of the West. Obviously one walks into the other. You'd have to have like Landon Ricketts or Uncle, like a post-Civil War type

Go back even further. Yeah, exactly. Like the early 80s, the early 1880s in like Central Texas or something. And it could still, like if you do that, it could still end with coming across like Dutch when he's like younger and stuff as well. So you like... Realistically, because I would say by the end of... Let's see, Red Dead 1 takes place in 1905, right? Yes. So...

I would say that Dutch is probably what, like mid fifties in that game. In one, probably in one. Yeah. Forties, fifties. Yeah. Late forties, early fifties, something like that. Um, realistically, I think you go back to like pre civil war. If you were to do that, you go back to like blood Meridian age, like middle of like bloody Mexico and you know, the, uh, the Apache wars with the locals and stuff like that. Um,

I mean, if you were going to do it. I don't think they're going to do it again. I don't necessarily want one. It's so good. I mean, like Rockstar, whatever they do, I'm down for it. I'm going to play GTA 6 when it comes out. Bold take. You'll be the only one playing that game. Yeah, only brave opinions on this podcast. You guys ever played Fortnite?

Oh yeah, love it, love it, love it, love it. Best narrative in a video game is Fortnite. The seasons with their stories, the little stories. 65, season 340. Yeah, really cool, really cool. I love the state of the video game industry. You can pay your taxes. There's a game where you can pay your taxes in it. Did you know that? No, did not. What is that? Uh...

Let's just get back to the Bigfoot. Okay. Apparently the show highlighted supernatural phenomena. The crew experienced eerie sounds and constantly felt like something was lurking about and watching them. That seems shocking to me. In a Discovery Channel series? No way. They explored the possibility of the Nantanuk looking for evidence of its existence, but also brought up the fact that many of the alleged mysterious deaths and disappearances could have instead been due to natural causes like bad weather and dangerous wildlife.

Things not uncommon in rural parts of Alaska.

What was their conclusion? Not much, apparently. Admittedly, I have not watched it, but they did not reach any concrete conclusion on whether the legend of the non-Tanuk was real or not. And ultimately, it's the Discovery Channel. You get what you get with them. What a fall from grace these network cable channels have had in the last 10, 15 years. I think we talked about it last episode a little bit, Caleb, but I used to grow up watching these channels so fucking much. And maybe I was just a dumb kid that

That would believe anything But I feel like there's been a fall in quality Yeah it was like Mythbusters And Dirty Jobs and cool shit like that And now it's fucking Alaskan Killer Bigfoot There's a hole on an island And we keep trying to find treasure there And there's no treasure but we're on season 9 Maybe it'll be this year Maybe this year We'll find something in the hole Yeah it's fucking dumb

I don't know what you're joking about. I think that's art. I think it's beautiful. I love art. I love art a lot. I love art a lot.

Alright, the Portlock murders. The main claim that the town was abandoned due to a string of unsolved murders and disappearances, whether or not by the Nantanoc, are fundamentally based on these main stories. Number one, a logger by the name of Andrew Cumlock was allegedly found dead in 1931. He was said to have been killed by a blow to the head from behind. I assume that's the grandfather that we were talking about before. Yeah, based in Logpilled. Yeah.

Number two, a gold miner disappeared and never returned. And number three, stories of cannery workers who had disappeared and then been found horribly mutilated and dismembered when their bodies washed down the local stream. Some articles seem to suggest the scale of these particular cannery worker killings were even larger than just a few, but I could not locate an agreed upon number. So it's a nebulous amount of cannery workers that were killed during this time period. So often is that the case? What'd you say?

And so often is that the case? We have an unconfirmed number of dead cannery workers. It's a big issue with the cannery industry. Rest in peace. May God rest your souls. Alaska's digital newspaper program archives reveal that despite the folklore surrounding Portlock, newspaper reports on the area from the late 1700s through to 1963 all remain surprisingly or unsurprisingly ordinary.

Most of the articles cover topics like local industries with no mention of the incidents that modern stories seem to suggest. Over several decades, only one accidental death from Portlock made it into the newspapers, which was a 1920 report with no details other than the accident's occurrence. And when it comes to disappearances, only one story mentioned a missing persons case, and it was unrelated to Portlock residents.

In 1917, two hunters, Ben Sweezy and Bill Weaver, left Seward, which is a place nearby, for a two-week trip by boat but never returned.

Portlock appeared in the story only because a boat matching the one the hunters took was reportedly seen in the area. The 115 nautical miles of open sea between Portlock and Seward seem to suggest drowning was likely a cause for disappearance over the Nantanuk or some other supernatural element. But that's just what the media wants you to believe. This is just newspapers. So don't buy fake news about the Nantanuk.

I'm so proud of you Jackson that's the most non-Australian thing you've done this episode does that count as agreeing with you though? yes it does you're never getting away the options are you're either wrong which is very Australian or you're right and also agreeing with me which is also Australian we'll overthrow your government again please do and then we'll give it back just for fun so you don't know what we'll do the next time again we just do it

I'd prefer it over the Chinese. We're good at it. You'd prefer it over the Chinese? Why? Explain that in detail. Go ahead, Jackson. What do you mean? Have you ever been to Panda Express? Is that Chinese food? I don't even know. I don't know, dude. Where do pandas come from? Let's Google that shit. Somebody ask Siri.

Ultimately, there just isn't any available evidence to support the claims made that Portlock was filled with murders and missing bodies, but that is not relevant. Who cares about evidence? Well, there isn't much of it today. The town's completely abandoned still, although a census in 1980 randomly reported that 31 people live in the town, same as 1940. A strange error, but an error nonetheless, as the area is still completely abandoned.

The buildings are crumbling away and overgrown with moss and vegetation. The machinery from the cannery can still be seen along the shore, a reminder that the town was lived in and loved a century ago. But the elements and time have worn away those memories, and while it's surrounded by beautiful forest and coastline, its legacy will be of the stories told to keep children inside and out of the harsh conditions.

It does still attract the occasional adventurer, trying their luck at finding the Nantanok that roams the lands, but he still has not been found to this day. We'll keep you posted if he is. We didn't even touch on that. I think we touched on it in earlier episodes when we covered the Wendigo and stuff, but yeah, a lot of these stories, these folklore stories in these rural communities are literally just created to keep children inside and out of the elements a lot of the times. And that would track with...

What was her name? Melania. Being a child at the time, right? Obviously, she would have been told those stories to try to keep her safe and inside and out of the conditions. That's a common thing. But yeah, regardless, I believe her. Believe Melania. Non-Tanuk was real. I don't.

I don't believe her. I'll have to go to see it. I'm very... I'm not into the conspiracies anymore, guys. Seeing is believing, I heard recently. Someone said that. Who said that? And I heard that. They're a liar. They're a filthy liar. My grandmother.

Oh, okay. Never mind. You should always believe your elders. She said, seeing is believing, Caleb. And then she showed me a picture of a nine-foot-tall man, the son of Anak, she said, from the Book of Enoch. And she said, this is who I saw in Washington, D.C., 1969, December 4th, 718 p.m. And Washington, D.C. is now an abandoned ghost town. Lee Harvey Oswald was there. Lee Harvey Oswald was there. He was on the man's large shoulders.

And I said, grandma, dude, if I grandma, dude, if you're, if a family member of yours told me that I would just not bat an eye. Yeah. I wouldn't be. If your dad came up to me, dude, when I came down to hang out and me and your dad were walking around outside, I mean, this is no exaggeration. I think he was wearing the biggest hat I've ever seen. Is your dad a cowboy? Yeah.

It was like four feet wide. It was insane. In my head, whenever he was facing forward, it was just a hat the size of a table. It was so cool. He got that toad silhouette from Mario. That's what he looked like. His hat is crazy big. He doesn't wear it in the fall because it's cooler now. He came over today and his ear had a little bit of blood on it. I was like, what's on your ear? He got hit by a briar bush.

And he's like, that's not blood. My ear's just really old. I was like, what? What does that mean? What are you talking about? My ear's really old. What do you mean? What do you mean? I showed desperately... Whenever anybody in my family says anything, I just say like, what are you talking about? What do you mean? If your dad walked up to me and he was like, I saw a Nephilim in...

okachobee oklahoma yeah on on the night of december 14th you know 1985 i'd be like i hope you're having a good day too mr phelps exactly straight over yeah when it surprised me a bit so yeah i think we should listen to caleb's family that they probably can you ask them if that's what's going to dictate if i believe in the non-tonic or not i will ask him man

Sweet. Thank you very much. And thank you for listening to this episode of Red Thread. I hope we answered your questions about if the Nantanaki is real or not. I think this cleared everything up. There's someone who came here like, oh, I finally get to find out more about the Nantanaki right now. I was like, what? Learn more about Caleb's family than the Nantanakis.

I mean yeah we went over all the evidence what do you want from us he's real it's clear he's real don't worry about the road the giant highway that was built just north of you know Portlock that changed everything the reason that the town is a ghost town is because of the Nantanoc and the ghost woman that went into Cliffside to whatever the fuck that was about thank you very much for listening to Red Thread thank you

Links below to the charity that Isaiah is affiliated with. I guess you're on the board, right?

Yeah, I'm a board member. Yeah, so closely affiliated, I'll even say. Linked below is that, so go check that out, as well as sour.gg for delicious treats made in Caleb's kitchen, handmade, directly by him. More importantly, support the charity efforts, though, for this app, for sure. Maybe NextApp?

Maybe next episode we'll... Yeah. Maybe we can work something out next time. That's very kind of you, but I am almost 100% positive that SarahBoys.gg is legally a charity. I told the IRS that everything that's been on it is a write-off. And they don't pay taxes. You heard it on the record. He admitted it publicly. Dear IRS, he does not pay taxes. I think that's going to be legal this soon, though. He's a smart businessman, then. That's all that is. To not pay taxes. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's going to be legal pretty soon. Okay. Wait, weren't they actually floating the idea of getting rid of federal tax completely or something? I heard about that, yeah. They're just replacing it with tariffs.

Yeah. Wait, what? That's what they did in Portlock, Alaska. And look what happened. You're messing with me. Don't do that to me. That was mean. Don't give me hope like that. No, they actually did. That's a real thing. Donald, it's part of the Trump big thing is like they want to remove income tax and replace it with tariffs.

You'll still have state tax. I'm not going to say anything. I've gotten excited for things in the past. Specifically things when it comes to government. I'm like, oh really? I'm so happy. And then it's always disappointment. So I'm not going to do it yet. Because of bureaucracy. You're correct, Isaiah. You're correct in that belief. The government sucks. Fuck the government. But not in a good way. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Red Thread. We'll see you next time. Bye, guys.

See ya. Bye. Bye, guys. Subscribe to the charity, sour.gg. Bye.