Vanished

Summary

MrBallen Podcast: Vanished – A Detailed Summary

MrBallen's "Vanished" episode from the "Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories" series delves into three perplexing disappearances, each shrouded in mystery and unanswered questions. Released on March 13, 2025, this episode captivates listeners with tales of unexplained vanishing acts that have left families and authorities baffled.

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1. Not Human: The Disappearance of Bobby Panknon

Overview: The first story, titled "Not Human," recounts the mysterious vanishing of four-year-old Bobby Panknon during a family camping trip in Washington State's Deep Lake area on August 2, 1963.

Key Events:

• Camping Trip: Bobby, his two older brothers, and their parents embark on a camping trip to Deep Lake. The following day, Mrs. Panknon, Edna, decides to explore an overgrown logging road near their campsite seeking a waterfall.

• Separation Incident: Edna instructs Bobby to stay on the road with his older brother Jimmy while she and the eldest son, Bill, go ahead. Shortly after, Jimmy, frustrated from waiting, joins his mother and older brother, leaving Bobby alone.

• Sudden Disappearance: Approximately 60 seconds after Jimmy and Edna return, Bobby is nowhere to be found. Initial searches yield no clues, leading to escalating panic.

Investigation Insights:

• Bloodhound Search: A bloodhound is brought in after three days without any leads. The dog tracks Bobby's scent two miles into the forest but finds nothing, ending the search after seven days.

• Abduction Theory: The lead investigator posits that an abduction is the most plausible explanation, albeit highly unlikely due to the remote location and the absence of any signs of struggle or evidence.

Notable Quote:

"Whatever it did, it probably wasn't good." – Narrator [05:19]

Conclusion: Despite extensive searches and various theories—from animal attacks to supernatural occurrences—Bobby Panknon remains missing, with his fate unresolved to this day.

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2. M Cave: The Vanishing of Kenny Veach

Overview: The second narrative, "M Cave," explores the disappearance of Kenny Veach, an avid hiker who vanished while investigating a mysterious cave near the secretive Area 51 in the Mojave Desert in 2014.

Key Events:

• YouTube Investigation: Kenny, a dedicated long-distance hiker, comments on a YouTube video about Area 51, mentioning his encounter with an M-shaped cave that induced an inexplicable vibrating sensation in his body ([14:43]).

• Community Pressure: Encouraged by viewers to document his findings, Kenny returns to locate and explore the cave but fails to find it in subsequent attempts. Pressured to make another trip, he eventually heads out a third time on November 10, 2014.

• Disappearance: Kenny does not return, prompting his girlfriend to contact authorities. Searches yield his cell phone near an abandoned mineshaft but no further evidence, leading to the termination of the search.

Investigation Insights:

• Access Denial Systems: The vibration Kenny described bears resemblance to military access denial systems, which prevent unauthorized entry into secure areas ([19:13]).

• Unsolved Mystery: Theories range from natural wilderness dangers to potential secrets linked to Area 51, but no concrete evidence explains Kenny's disappearance.

Notable Quote:

"It's like being thrust inside of a microwave." – Narrator [19:12]

Conclusion: Kenny Veach's disappearance remains a haunting mystery, fueling speculation about hidden secrets near Area 51 and emphasizing the perilous nature of exploring uncharted territories.

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3. Mine Is Mine: The Vanishing of Robert "Volcanic" Brown

Overview: The final story, "Mine Is Mine," tells the tale of Robert Brown, affectionately known as "Volcanic," an 86-year-old gold prospector who disappeared in 1931 while searching for a legendary gold mine in British Columbia, Canada.

Key Events:

• Preparation for the Expedition: Volcanic, a seasoned prospector, purchases supplies for his expedition to Stave Lake, driven by a map gifted by a grateful indigenous woman ([22:29]).

• Journey Begins: Despite physical limitations, including a limp from previous frostbite-induced amputations, Volcanic embarks on his quest, facing harsh wilderness conditions.

• Mysterious Encounter: Near Stave Glacier, Volcanic experiences eerie phenomena—a phantom wind that doesn't correspond to any visible weather patterns ([39:43]).

• Final Expedition and Disappearance: On November 2, 1931, a game warden discovers Volcanic's collapsed tent near Stave Lake, containing an empty sleeping bag, his supplies, a journal (missing the last page), and a glass jar with ambiguous contents.

Investigation Insights:

• The Glass Jar: Two theories surround the jar's contents:

  • Gold Nuggets: Suggesting Volcanic found the mine, indicating its existence.
  • Golden Teeth: Symbolizing Volcanic's disappearance without evidence of the mine's existence.

• Legacy: Over 33 individuals have perished or vanished seeking the elusive mine, underscoring its enigmatic and perilous reputation.

Notable Quote:

"It's going to take weeks to reach the gold mine, but he knew he was going the right way..." – Narrator [22:29]

Conclusion: Robert "Volcanic" Brown's disappearance adds another layer to the mythos surrounding hidden treasures and cursed endeavors. His story serves as a cautionary tale about the relentless pursuit of legends in unforgiving landscapes.

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Final Reflections

The "Vanished" episode masterfully intertwines real-life mysteries, highlighting the thin line between adventure and the unknown. Each story serves as a testament to the enduring allure of unexplained disappearances and the human fascination with uncovering the truth behind them.

Disclaimer: All stories are based on true events, with pseudonyms used to protect individuals involved. Some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

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For more intriguing and eerie tales, explore MrBallen Studios' extensive podcast collection, available on Amazon Music and various other platforms.

Transcript

[Mr. Ballin]

Hey prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

[Narrator]

Today's podcast will feature three stories about people who vanished without a trace. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Not Human and it's about a child who goes missing on an old logging road. The second story you'll hear is called M Cave and it's about a vlogger who goes looking for a mysterious cave near the infamous Area 51. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Mine Is Mine, and it's about a rugged old man who heads into the wilderness to try to do something that many people before him have died trying to do. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do. And we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Amazon Music Follow Buttons house and replace all of their baby carrots with regular sized carrots. Okay, let's get into our first story called Not Human.

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[Storyteller]

On August 2, 1963, four year old Bobby Panknon, along with his two older brothers and his two parents, headed off to a camping resort on Deep Lake in Washington State. The following day, Mrs. Panknon, whose name was Edna, decides she wants to Take her three sons down a logging road that was right behind their campsite that she had heard. Fed out to this beautiful little waterfall that she thought her sons would like to see. Edna gets the boys ready. She says bye to Mr. Panknon. And then she and her sons take off down this logging road. And as soon as she's on the road, it occurs to her that it's totally overgrown. The grass is really high, it's, you know, rocky and bumpy. And she's thinking to herself, there's no way any vehicle is getting down this road. And probably there's been no vehicles on this road for a very long time. This is a very isolated place on this campsite. So they walk for a little ways on this overgrown logging road until they see there's a turnoff that leads down to the water and this little waterfall. And so right away she saw there was all this brush they were going to need to walk through. And the ground looked pretty rough. And Bobby, her youngest, the four year old, he didn't have shoes on. He was going through a phase where he refused to wear shoes. And so it hadn't really mattered the entire duration of walking up the road. But it seemed like this might be too much for him to walk on. And so she told Bobby to wait on the road and she told her other son, Jimmy, the six year old, that to wait next to him, those two would stay on the road together while she and Bill, the 10 year old, would go past the brush, go down to the water, check it out for a couple of minutes, and then she would come back, she would pick up Bobby and Jimmy would come along and then they would go down and look at the water and then they would leave. Bobby didn't seem to mind, so he just sat on the road. And Jimmy was a little bit frustrated that he couldn't go with the first group, but he sat down too. And Bill and Edna took off past this brush down to the water. Now, the distance between where Bill and Edna and where Bobby and Jimmy were was only about 10ft. There was just this brush right in the middle of them that did obscure their view. They could not see each other, but they are very close to each other. And so Jimmy is sitting next to Bobby and he's getting increasingly more and more restless. He wants to go down and look at the waterfall. He wants to be down there with his older brother and his mom. And so at some point he just can't take it anymore. And Jimmy does something that to this day, he regrets every single day. And that is, he got up and left his brother. He went through the brush down to where Bill and Edna were. And as soon as Edna saw him, she was mad at him. And she goes, what? You left Bobby up there?

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[Storyteller]

And so they turned around after about 60 seconds and went right back up. And when they got back, Bobby was gone. And at first, they're not like, oh, my goodness, someone's abducted Bobby. Because there's no one on this road. They'd come up here and recognize that it's very remote, it's isolated, there's no cars that come through here. They hadn't heard anything. And so their first instinct was, okay, he probably got up, you know, and is behind a tree, or, you know, he walked down the hill over here, or he's nearby. And so they're yelling for him. They're walking around, and no one's panicking yet. In fact, really, Edna was just annoyed with Jimmy that he had left, you know, Bobby and that he's to blame right now. But it's just an inconvenience at this point. But after a couple of minutes, when they can't get Bobby to yell back where he is, they start to realize they might have a problem here. And so Edna becomes more panicked, and she's yelling at the top of her lungs for her son. She's having her other two sons, go look down by the water. Go look over there. But there's no trace of him. And they can't believe it. It didn't make any sense because, I mean, he's four, he's got no shoes on. They didn't hear anything. How could he be gone? But he was gone. And so finally, after a couple of minutes, Edna rounded up her other two boys, and they ran all the way back to the campsite where they got Mr. Panknin. And they hailed the police. And very quickly a big search was launched up on that logging. As soon as the police arrived, the first thing they did is they pressed Edna and the other two boys about. What did you hear? You know, you had to have heard something. He was only 10ft away from you, and he was within earshot of you. Certainly, you know, what did you hear? Did a vehicle come through? Did you hear an animal? Did you hear anybody talking? And Edna and the other two boys, they swore that they heard nothing, that they're just as baffled by it as anybody else. And so the police really didn't have a good starting point of where Bobby could have gone. And in that area, there wasn't any, you Know, steep drop offs or obvious places that Bobby could have fallen into or gotten trapped. The water for the waterfall, it's not deep. It's this little tiny brook. You know, it'd be difficult to drown in that little brook. So they just basically started fanning out in all directions, hoping they would, you know, find a piece of clothing or some other clue that would indicate where he went. After three days of searching that yielded nothing, they finally brought in a bloodhound to try to find him based on scent. And so they had the dog smell one of Bobby's shoes, and the dog immediately seemed to key in on his scent in the area where Bobby had gone missing. And the dog turns and starts running up the, the logging road away from the campsite, so farther into the forest, and it runs for almost two miles and it never seems to waver. It's clearly picked up Bobby's scent and it stops at this fork in the road about two miles away from where Bobby had gone missing. And it keys in on this one area right at the fort where there wasn't anything significant. It was just this bare patch of dirt. And so the police, they uncover the dirt a little bit, there's nothing there. They're looking around the area. There's no indication that Bobby was ever here. So they give the scent back to the dog and again, the dog just keeps tracking to this one section in this fork in the road. But they didn't know what to do with that information because there was nothing there. The search for Bobby was called off after seven days because they could not find anything. And so the lead investigator came out and did this press release where he basically said, we have no idea what happened to Bobby. However, we do think he was abducted. And his reasoning for this was pretty straightforward. Bobby was a young kid that had no shoes on in an unfamiliar forest, and he was only out of eyesight for two minutes. So how far could he really have gotten? Certainly not far enough that his family wouldn't have found him after those two minutes were up and they began looking for him. And so if you go down the abduction rabbit hole, you start with, okay, a person must have taken Bobby. But for a person to take Bobby, that means a person had to be in this area that was super isolated and remote and they hadn't seen anybody in the area. And there were very few campers at the campsite. So realistically, if a person was going to abduct Bobby, they had to have been planning it and had to have been hiding in the trees and were stalking this family until they got to that spot where Jimmy left Bobby. And then this person, you know, runs out of the tree line, runs over to Bobby, picks him up without Bobby making a sound. He muffles him, and he runs away into the woods carrying this child all in a two minute window, which was a totally abrupt window. It wasn't like this obvious thing that Bobby was going to be left alone. It looked like Jimmy was going to be sitting there with him, which would have been a deterrent, you would think, if someone was trying to abduct Bobby. But nonetheless, this window presents itself and this person runs down and takes Bobby. It just seems like that person would need to be really fixated on Bobby. One, and there wasn't a clear reason for why anyone would be very fixated on Bobby or this family. And two, they would need to be very strong and quick and agile more than the average person. So we're talking like a professional athlete level of agility and physical fitness. And so while it's certainly possible that a professional athlete had been stalking this family and then ran down in this tiny little window of time and stole Bobby away without getting detected, and then evaded the law for seven days in the middle of the woods. While that's possible, it's pretty unlikely. And investigators reached this conclusion. They thought, you know, it does seem pretty unlikely that a person did this. So they moved on to animals. And they said, okay, maybe a bear took Bobby. And so they brought out bear sniffing dogs to search the area for signs that a bear had been there and there hadn't been. And so they said, okay, maybe a cougar had been there. And so they brought out a cougar expert who looked around the area and there was no signs of a cougar in the area. Plus, there was no blood anywhere around the area where Bobby had been taken. There was no drag marks where if a predator were to grab you, they would need to drag you away. There was no drag marks. So it seemed like, okay, the large predator theory also has problems with it. And so the next theory offered up was, well, maybe a giant eagle swooped down and picked Bobby up and flew him away, which would account for why maybe it was quiet and there was no drag marks, there was no blood, and why he's just gone. But that was when authorities said, okay, we clearly have no clue. And so that's why they gave the press release and basically said, we just, we just don't know. And so while we probably will never know what happened to Bobby, it does seem likely that something took him. And whatever that something was, it was intelligent, it was fast, it was strong, it was agile, and it had been watching that family because as soon as that two minute window presented itself where Jimmy was gone and Bobby was vulnerable, it swept in so fast that no one heard it, no one saw it, and it took Bobby somewhere and did something to him. Whatever it did, it probably wasn't good.

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[Narrator]

Our next story is called m. Cave.

[Storyteller]

In 2014, Kenny Veach was an avid long distance hiker that spent lots of his time hiking around the Mojave Desert in search of caves and abandoned mine shafts to go check out. Sometimes he'd bring his girlfriend with him.

[Sponsor Voice]

But most of the time he was.

[Storyteller]

On his own and he would stay out for a couple of days at a time. Kenny was constantly on YouTube watching hiking videos and anything to do with the Mojave Desert. And Kenny was a regular commenter on all of those types of videos. In June of 2014, Kenny must have watched this video called Son of an Area 51 technician, because he had left this comment where he was telling the community that had watched this video that he had had a very strange thing happen to him when he was out hiking near Area 51. For those that don't know what Area 51 is, it's a highly confidential United States Air Force installation that is frequently looped into alien conspiracy theories. Kenny goes on to describe the strange event, and he said he found this cave entrance on the side of this mountain that was shaped like an uppercase M. As Kenny walks up to enter this M shaped cave, he said his body started to vibrate and it stopped him in his tracks. And he said he didn't know what it was, but as he walked closer and closer, his body just continued to vibrate to the point where he said he just had to turn around and leave, that he knew something was wrong with this cave and he could not go inside. And so he said he turned around and he left. His comment got a lot of traction on this video and a lot of people jumped on and were like, well, I don't really believe you one, but if that is true, you got to go back. You got to go back there and explore it. You got to document this, whatever this is, we want to know what it is. They were basically egging him on to go back and check it out. Kenny responded to his critics and said, I'm telling you the truth. I know what I saw. This cave was different. I go out in the desert all the time looking for caves, and I go in them. That's what I do. This one was different, and that's why I didn't go in it. But people just kept egging him on to go back and check it out and to film it, show documentation of this thing. And so finally he agrees. A couple of months later, Kenny goes back out to the Mojave Desert with his camera and he films himself looking for the M cave, but he. He can't find it. So the video is kind of a bust. He still uploads it to YouTube and he tells everyone that he's gonna go back out again. He knows where it is. He's fairly confident that he can get to it again, but he just needs to go out a third time to go look for it. Over the course of the next month, in the comment section of that video, people are encouraging Kenny and saying, go out there, go Find it. We're so excited. One commenter was not so encouraging. Their name was Lemmy Kilmeister, and they wrote on his video, do not go to M. Cave. If you go in, you won't be able to get out again. Kenny wrote back, what do you mean? And lemme Killmeister didn't respond and subsequently vanished from YouTube. Kenny brushes this off, and on November 10, 2014, he heads back out once again to try to find m. Cave. On November 14, when he had not returned and his girlfriend had not heard from him and couldn't get in touch with him, she called the police. The police launched this massive search for Kenny. They knew roughly where he was going to be because he had documented it so aggressively on his YouTube channel. And so they search in that area, and after about a week, they find his cell phone, and it was laying outside of an abandoned mineshaft. Now immediately, searchers think, well, he must have fallen into this mine shaft that was almost a vertical mineshaft. He must have fallen in there to his death. So they get a camera and they feed it down into this mine shaft, and there's no one in there. And very clearly no one had been down this mine shaft in a very long time. Certainly not Kenny. There were no tracks around where his phone was located, so no animal tracks or people tracks. And the phone didn't have blood on it or scratches on it. It was just sitting there. With no new information beyond the cell phone, they had nothing else to go on. And eventually the search was terminated. Kenny never turned up. He was just gone after that.

[Sponsor Voice]

While it's pretty easy for people to.

[Storyteller]

Chalk up this whole M. Cave thing as total nonsense and that they believe all that happened is Kenny went out into the wilderness of the Mojave Desert and ultimately got lost and died. And that's fair. I do want to offer up one thing about his description of being near the cave that first time he saw it. He described his body vibrating to the point where he couldn't go any further and he had to turn around and leave. The United States military uses these things called access denial systems around their highly classified installations. Anywhere where you cannot risk someone getting in, like a fence isn't good enough. They use these machines that fire beams at people that get too close. They're non lethal and. But it's like being thrust inside of a microwave. You feel hot and really uncomfortable, and you turn around and you get the heck out of there. The fact that Kenny was right near Area 51, a highly confidential area, regardless of alien conspiracies, It's a known, highly confidential base and he's discovering this strange cave entrance that doesn't look like other cave entrances. And he's walking up to it describing basically what it feels like to be hit with an access denial system. It makes you wonder, did he discover some secret entrance to some secret base or is this a bunch of crap and he just got lost in the desert and died? We don't know. But what we do know is that his search for M Cave probably ended his life.

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[Narrator]

The next and final story of today's episode is called Mine Is Mine.

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On an early morning In August of 1931, an 86 year old man carrying a massive backpack limped into a supply store in the tiny town of Alvin, British Columbia, Canada. This man's name was Robert Brown, but everyone knew him as Volcanic because decades earlier he had discovered a gold mine in Volcanic City, Canada. Volcanic had actually made his living as a gold prospector and he had been so good at it that he had been able to retire early. And so these days, as an 86 year old man, he pretty much got to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. And so inside of the supply store, the young man at the cash register smiled at Volcanic and offered to let him keep his backpack at the Front of the store while Volcanic shopped. And Volcanic kind of scowled back at him. I mean, he took offense to this. He knew how he must look to this clerk. I mean, Volcanic was old, short, super skinny, and he dragged his left foot when he walked. And so he figured, you know, this kid must think he's weak. And Volcanic hated that he did not think he was weak. And so he said to the guy, no, I can carry my bag myself, thank you very much. Then, to show the clerk there was more to him than met the eye, Volcanic flashed this big grin, revealing this gaudy, enormous set of gold teeth that he had bought when he had struck it rich in Volcanic City. And after seeing these ridiculous gold teeth, the clerk looked very taken aback, which was exactly what Volcanic wanted. Satisfied, Volcanic limped past the cash register and the clerk towards the back of the store, where he picked up some cooking supplies, ammo for a shotgun, and a pen to write in his journal. And then he took everything up front to check out. Volcanic watched as the clerk furrowed his brow as he rang up the items, clearly trying to make sense of what Volcanic was up to. He asked Volcanic if he was going camping by the Pit river that ran through town, but Volcanic said no, he was going to the Pitt river first. But he was going to hike all the way along the Pit river, go through the mountains to another body of water called Stave Lake. And before the clerk could ask any questions, Volcanic said he was going there because there was a hidden gold mine he was going to explore. And at this, Volcanic watched with delight as the clerk's eyes got wide. Volcanic knew most people, especially in this area, thought this gold mine was a total myth. And sure enough, when the clerk recovered from his surprise, he said to Volcanic, like, hey, you really ought to reconsider going there. The clerk said he had seen plenty of people come through his shop on the way out to go try to find this mine, but nobody ever came back saying they had found it. In fact, he said that some of these people didn't come back at all. At least two people had died because the hike to Stave Lake was. Was miles and miles through extremely dangerous terrain. Volcanic waited until the clerk was done lecturing him, and then he leaned over the counter and he whispered to the kid that he was different. He had a secret that would allow him and only him to find that mine successfully. And when he did, he would come back to the store and he would lay the gold down right on the counter just to prove it to him. Then Volcanic left a handful of cash on the counter, he gathered up his supplies, flashed one more gold toothed smile, and then made his way out the door. A few hours later, Volcanic hiked uphill along the rocky banks of the Pit River. He'd only covered about five miles so far because after all, he was 86 with a bum left foot. And so he moved pretty slowly these days. But even still, only five miles into the journey, he already felt totally cut off from civilization. The Pitt river was about 1,000ft across, and it was surrounded on either side by a thick forest. Volcanic was hiking parallel with the river. With the water on his right and the trees on his left. It was a stark and isolated setting that would make most people feel small and vulnerable. But after so many years working as a gold prospector, Volcanic was very accustomed to being out in the wilderness all by himself. So this felt normal. Now, of course, decades had passed since the last time Volcanic was a gold prospector. But even now, at his old age, he still felt like he was the skilled outdoorsman he once was. Volcanic kept on hiking uphill, staying close to the shore's edge until the sun began to set. And by that point, the trees on the left had begun to thin out, and Volcanic was finally able to see kind of far out beyond in the direction he was going. And he saw off in the distance, there were all these mountains. And as soon as he could see these mountains, he pulled out his journal and he flipped the last page and he studied the page and then looked at the mountains, and he smiled. It was going to take weeks to reach the gold mine, but he knew he was going the right way, because on that last page of his journal was a map. This map was the secret that Volcanic had told the store clerk about. It was the thing that was going to allow Volcanic to reach that gold mine where so many others had not. Volcanic had actually drawn the map himself several years ago. Back then, he'd been panning for gold in northern British Columbia when he had run into this indigenous woman in the forest. And this woman was deathly ill. And so, out of the kindness of his heart, Volcanic had given this woman some healing herbs and then stayed with her for days until she was nursed back to health. And this woman had been so grateful to Volcanic that she had told him a secret. She told him that the legendary gold mine out near Stave Lake was absolutely real. And she said she knew this because her father was friends with the guy who discovered it. The man's name was Slumak. And she said he would go into the wilderness for days at a time. And then when he came back home, he'd come bearing these huge gold nuggets as big as chicken eggs. And not only did this woman tell Volcanic about this mine, she gave him directions to it. And so, as she did, Volcanic took notes in his journal and then used those directions to construct the map. However, before Volcanic parted ways with this woman, she gave him a warning. Right before he died, she said Slumak put a curse on the mine. And so now, if anybody tried to reach the mine, the forest itself would stop them. And so now, standing in a clearing beside the Pit River, Volcanic thought back to that warning. He wasn't afraid of what she said, but just to be safe, he figured he would spend as little time as possible in the forest. And any time he needed to pitch his tent along this journey to the mine, he. He would do so as far away from the tree line as he could. This was actually Volcanic's second attempt at trying to reach this gold mine. Five years earlier, he had attempted this exact same hike. On that attempt, despite Volcanic reaching the shores of Stave Lake, which apparently was right near the entrance to this gold mine, he had to stop because he got a severe case of frostbite on his left foot. That frostbite had caused three of his toes to die and rot. And so Volcanic had to amputate all three of them with his pocket knife right there out in the wild. No anesthetic, nothing. And so this is why Volcanic had to turn around on that attempt. And it's why he now walked with a limp. And Volcanic had to admit that the fact that he had been forced to literally cut off his own toes did make it seem like he had become a victim of Slumak's curse. But he also knew that it didn't take a curse to make the Canadian wilderness dangerous. He just should have worn thicker socks. Just then, Volcanic heard a twig snap somewhere outside of his campsite in the darkness. And so, instinctively, he shot up. He grabbed a shotgun and he turned towards the sound, half expecting a bear to come charging out of the woods. But after standing there for several minutes, nothing came out of the forest. And eventually, all Volcanic could hear was the gentle sound of his fire and the river. The forest was totally still. As his heartbeat slowed down, Volcanic told himself that, you know, the sound he heard must have just been a rabbit running through the forest. You know, nothing to worry about. And so he lowered his gun and steadied his breathing, and he looked at his fire, and he gave half a thought to Just leaving his campfire burning, you know, just in case he heard something else, he'd have some light to go out and see what it was. But he thought he was being kind of paranoid. And so he grabbed some water and put out the fire, engulfing him in darkness. And then he climbed into his tent and fell asleep. The next morning, Volcanic got up at sunrise, packed up his tent and his camping gear, and then hiked all day long. And he did this, day in and day out, dragging his left foot behind him for over a month. Volcanic knew he was moving much slower than a younger, healthier man would. Some days he could barely travel a mile before feeling so exhausted that he would have to stop. But despite becoming skinnier and more ragged by the day, Volcanic kept on hiking. And eventually, after going all the way down the Pit river and crossing through the mountains, he finally arrived at the shore of Stave Lake, the same place he'd been when he'd had to amputate his own toes. But this time, he was able to keep on going. Volcanic hiked all the way to the opposite side of Stave Lake, and he came to a stop to take in the view. Surrounding the lake were all these huge rolling mountains. And in one spot, Volcanik noticed, the mountains dipped down and formed a natural bowl in the earth that was filled with this gorgeous bluish white ice. Now, even though Volcanic had never been to this place before, he knew instinctively that that had to be Stave Glacier. And this glacier meant everything to Volcanic because it was the last major landmark on his map on the way to this mine. According to his map, the entrance to the gold mine was located on the side of a mountain not far from the glacier. Now, Volcanic wanted to keep pushing forward and try to get to this entrance as soon as possible. I mean, he was excited. But the sun was starting to go down, and he knew if he kept on going at night, the risk of injury was quite high. He could slip and fall. And remember, it had taken Volcanic over a month to hike into this location. He is way away from civilization, and so if he gets hurt, nobody's coming to help him. And so he decided he would stop and make camp that night. He pitched his tent well away from the tree line. He ate some beef jerky and biscuits, and then he crawled into his sleeping bag to try to go to sleep. But he couldn't. He was too excited about this mine. He was so close. And so he laid there restlessly for hours, listening to the sound of the wind pick up outside. Now, normally, the sound of the wind would help Volcanic fall asleep. But tonight, it was not helping. It was actually making him feel really uneasy. The wind was loud and fast, howling across the lake. And that's when Volcanic noticed that despite all the noise outside, when he looked at the fabric of his tent, it wasn't moving with the wind. It was totally stationary. And so Volcanic sat up and he opened up the flap of his tent and looked outside. And the second he did, it got even louder, you know, the howling wind. But he couldn't feel any wind blowing. And so he struck a match and he held it out in front of his tent, and the flame didn't even flicker again, despite all this crazy howling sounds. And that's when he realized there was no wind. And so, feeling totally unsettled, Volcanic closed the flap of his tent, got back in his sleeping bag, clutching his gun, you know, listening to this horrifying sound outside that he couldn't make any sense of. And then by the morning, when the sun came up, the sound just went away. By this point, Volcanic was so anxious just to leave and go to this mine that he didn't eat any breakfast. He just grabbed his journal, tore the map out of the last page, tucked it in his back pocket, and he started hiking. He still felt very uneasy about the phantom wind he had heard all night long. But now his sole focus was on this mine. He knew that if he could find it, he would not only have infinite riches, but he would also go down in history as, like, the greatest gold prospector ever. And on top of that, on the way back out again, he could stop at that supply store and drop some gold on the counter and rub it in that clerk's face just like he said he would. Volcanic made his way, first towards the glacier and then up the side of a mountain. He dodged tree limbs and climbed over boulders, all the while dragging his left foot on the ground. And then finally, up ahead, he saw this dark hole on the side of a mountain, and it looked like the entrance to a cave. Now, Volcanic could not see very far into that cave, but he was certain the gold mine had to be inside of there. And so, with a rush of excitement, he made his way up to the dark entryway, and he stepped inside. Two months later, on November 2, 1931, that store clerk back in Alvin looked out the front window of his store and watched the snow begin to fall. A blizzard was coming in. And all this clerk could think about was that strange old man with the gold teeth who had wandered off into the wilderness three months earlier. Now, the old man had told the clerk that he would stop by the store on his way out to prove he had found the gold. However, the man had not returned. And so the clerk wasn't sure if that was because, you know, he was too embarrassed because he hadn't found the mine, or if maybe he had gotten stuck out in the wilderness. But either way, the clerk just had a bad feeling that, you know, something bad could have happened to that guy. And so, just to play it safe, the clerk grabbed his jacket, he left the store, and he went to go find the local game warden to tell him what was going on. Three weeks later, that same game warden trudged through knee high snow at the edge of Stave Lake. Even though he and his search party were much younger and healthier than Volcanic, it had still taken them weeks to arrive here, mostly because of the blizzard. But in all the time it took hiking to this location, they had not found a single trace of Volcanic. The warden was beginning to wonder if this was pointless, if they should just turn around and head back. That's when he looked up and he noticed the glacier on the far end of the lake. And in the snow near that glacier was this little pop of color. The warden pointed it out to his men and they all began running towards it. And as they got closer, they realized what this thing was, was a tent that had collapsed under the snow. And then once they actually reached the tent, they shoveled off all the snow and sort of popped it back up. And they looked inside, but Volcanic was not in there. Instead, they found an empty sleeping bag. They found some cooking supplies, a shotgun, some ammo, and a journal. That's last page was missing. But there was also one more thing that was inside of this tent. On the floor right near the opening flap of this tent was a glass jar. The warden picked it up and he looked inside and he gasped. Volcanic Brown was never seen again. And no explanation for what happened to him was ever uncovered. His body was never found, and there were no signs of struggle anywhere in or near his campsite. But the contents of that glass jar that was found inside of the tent proved that either Slumak's gold mine or Slumak's curse was real. There are two slightly different versions of what people believe was found inside of that jar. The first is that the jar was filled with huge nuggets of raw gold. If this is true, it means the gold mine did exist and Volcanic must have found it before he disappeared. But the second version of what people say was found in that jar has a much darker meaning. In that version, when the warden held up that jar, he did see gold inside, but it was not gold from the mine. Instead, it was Volcanic's solid gold teeth. Almost 100 years have passed since Volcanic went missing, and still to this day, no one has ever successfully found the mine and lived to tell the tale. But to this day, people still keep looking for it and so far at least 33 people have either died or disappeared in search of it.

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A quick note about our stories they.

[Annaleigh Ashford]

Are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

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