Sponsor Voice (22:29)
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.
