Episode 362 - Portlock, Alaska Mystery (Bigfoot!)

Summary

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Two Girls One Ghost – Episode 362: Portlock, Alaska Mystery (Bigfoot!)

Podcast: Two Girls One Ghost
Episode: 362 – Portlock, Alaska Mystery (Bigfoot!)
Hosts: Corinne Vien & Sabrina Deana-Roga
Release Date: March 1, 2026

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Main Theme:

An immersive dive into the haunted, abandoned town of Portlock, Alaska, notorious for mysterious disappearances, mass abandonment, and terrifying stories of violent Bigfoot-like creatures, known locally as the Nantanook. The episode unpacks the chilling history of the settlement, indigenous legends, modern retellings, and listener-submitted encounters with cryptids and hauntings.

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Episode Structure

1. Lighthearted Banter & Tangents

• [02:20–10:09] The hosts reconnect, discuss the challenges of adulthood, public services, scams, USPS admiration, and quickly touch on postal worker uniforms before diving into the topic.
  • Notable Moment: Sabrina's affectionate monologue about her love for USPS and fantasy of owning a real postal uniform.
    Quote:
    "I want a USPS outfit so bad. Like, so badly. I want the jacket, I want the gear, I want the hat. Like, I literally have a tear coming down my eye." — Corinne [09:03]

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2. Setting the Scene: Portlock, Alaska

• [10:09–14:47] Sabrina introduces Portlock as a town “where the residents have cowered in fear, fought for their lives, and eventually abandoned the area entirely.”
  • History starts with Captain Nathaniel Portlock, an 18th-century British explorer, who documented Alaska and its indigenous people.
  • Finds an abandoned native village in a seemingly perfect location—a foreshadowing of the town’s cursed fate.

Quote:
"As the men drifted off to sleep, they awoke to...horrible screams and cries. Beasts of sorts. An animal. They could not understand what it was or identify the sound of, but it seemed to be coming from the edge of the mountain, calling down to them, taunting them, warning them." — Sabrina [15:17]

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3. The Nantanook Legend: Cannibalistic Giants

• [17:17–24:23]
  • Hosts discuss research from Luke Phillips (Black Beast and Boogeyman blog) and listener demand for Bigfoot stories.
  • In 1867, the Sugpiek people settle in Portlock, only to face months of terrifying attacks by “cannibalistic giants” called Nantanook, who sometimes retreated but never left for good.
  • The attacks last 38 years before the tribe finally abandons Portlock.

Insights:

• Attacks intensify during harsh winters—possibly resource-driven?
• Locals believed the Nantanook to be half-man, half-beast, capable of tearing people limb from limb.

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4. Portlock’s Modern Settlement and the Cannery Era

• [27:38–36:37]
  • Russian Alutiiq group moves in, establishing a salmon cannery and creating a semblance of normal life—schools, post office (“for Sabrina,” [28:28]), businesses.
  • Town implements strict rules: don’t go out in bad weather, past curfew, or beyond the treeline; armed patrols at night.

Quote:
"If you find yourself in the streets when darkness falls, you better run for your life or find one of the armed guards patrolling the streets for safety." — Sabrina [29:54]

• Despite safety efforts, disappearances and strange deaths increase. Remains are found with claw marks, bite marks, and torn limbs.
  • Cannery is repeatedly sabotaged—massive hairy creatures are spotted by credible witnesses, indicating intelligence and strategy.

Quote:
"The cannery was broken into twice, and once it was even burned to the ground… A resident claimed to see a huge, hairy man destroying the fishing wheels along the beach." — Sabrina [32:42]

• [1931] A tragic killing: Andrew Kamluk, a logger, is found dead—struck with equipment too heavy for a man, possibly used as a weapon by Bigfoot.

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5. The Abandonment and Legacy

• [36:37–47:17]
  • Despite horrors, the community continues until 1950, then is suddenly abandoned, leaving a ghost town.
  • Portlock weirdly appears in the census only twice, both times with the improbable number of “31 residents”—contradicting evidence.
  • Hunters and wanderers report continued Bigfoot activity into the 1970s and even 1980s; territory seems fiercely protected, and attacks are specifically confined to the cove.

Quote:
"If they truly wanted to wipe out and obliterate the town, they easily could. But they don't." — Corinne [40:26]

• Theories exchanged about what the Bigfoot are protecting—hosts wonder about primal drives, a resource, or even a hidden mystery at the cove.

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6. Listener Cryptid & Paranormal Encounters (Email from Krystal)

• [51:11–67:10]
  • No first-hand Alaska Bigfoot tales, but Crystal from the Ozarks shares four major stories:
    • Not Deer: A deer-shaped cryptid with unnatural features [52:34–53:28]
    • Ozarks Bigfoot Sighting: A large, furry, bipedal creature crosses a rural road, then drops to all fours [54:01–55:12]
    • Fairy Music: Enchanted music box melodies heard in the deep woods at night, never explained [55:41–56:10]
    • Woods Stalker: Terrifying feeling of being watched in the woods, getting angry when whistling or singing.
    • Other stories: Face in high window (possibly paranormal), footsteps on the ceiling and poltergeist activity (Barge Street haunting), and a moving visitation dream with Crystal’s late stepdad.

Quote:
"After that, she did not run in the evenings for a long time… She realized this was not a deer." — Listener Krystal [52:34]

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7. Reflections, Questions, and Theories

• [45:22–47:10, 46:24–47:17]
  • Sabrina and Corinne debate: Is Portlock's Bigfoot lore myth or real? Could something be specifically defended in the cove, explaining targeted attacks?
  • Both marvel at the relentless abandonment pattern regardless of the community, and the lack of mainstream verification despite mountains of local testimony.

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8. Episode Closing & Calls to Action

• [67:41–69:17]
  • The hosts invite listener stories, especially Bigfoot encounters, and plug their Patreon, Apple+ early-access tier, and the ongoing listener survey for future episodes.
  • Express gratitude to the production team and listeners, encourage spreading the word via “pyramid scheme” (joking reference to viral growth).

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Sabrina on indigenous abandonment of Portlock:
  "People up and left. Yeah, sus." [14:09]
• Corinne on Bigfoot intelligence:
  "They're strategizing… Let's attack the business. If their business is, you know, gone, maybe they'll leave." [33:23]
• Sabrina (listener email):
  "She realized this was not a deer." [52:34]
• Corinne on the big question:
  "What does the bay have that we don't understand, aside from an abundance of fish and shellfish?" [47:17]
• Sabrina’s closing question:
  "Is there a colony of Bigfoots…demands for people to stop fishing there? Or is this just a legend?" [45:22]
• Corinne on cryptid acceptance:
  "Can’t they be real and some of it be legend?" [45:24]

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Key Insights & Analysis

• Historical throughline: Portlock’s cycles of colonization, attacks, and abandonment span from the late 1700s to the present, with Bigfoot lore evolving alongside each generation that tries to settle.
• Bigfoot as territorial guardian:
  Recurring theme of resource-defense combined with chilling violence and coordination—host speculation about the creature’s motivation.
• Importance of local knowledge:
  Indigenous accounts, oral history, and present-day encounters weave a pattern suggesting something very real, even without mainstream “official” verification.
• Broader cryptid context:
  Listener stories connect Portlock’s legends to a wider world of American folklore (Not Deer, Bigfoot, Fae), showing these phenomena aren’t isolated.
• Emotional balance:
  Episode juxtaposes horror (dismemberment, haunting) with humor (postal service uniform dreams), creating signature “spooky but fun” TGOG energy.

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Useful for:

• Anyone interested in cryptid mysteries, Alaskan folklore, or haunted places
• Listeners needing both entertaining storytelling and a dose of (sometimes) credible paranormal research
• Fans eager to understand why Portlock became “the most haunted (ghost) town in Alaska”

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Listen for these timepoints:

• [10:09] — Main topic intro: Portlock’s haunted history
• [15:17] — Menacing nighttime attacks on Captain Portlock’s crew
• [20:15] — Sugpiek’s battle with cannibalistic Nantanook
• [32:42] — Cannery sabotage and Bigfoot sighting
• [35:00] — Mysterious violent death of Andrew Kamluk
• [40:07] — Discussion of Bigfoot intelligence and community structure
• [45:22] — Hosts’ debate: legend or fact?
• [51:11] — Listener cryptid and haunting stories

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Tone

• Warm, friendly, often humorous; peppered with genuine awe, skepticism, and respectful curiosity toward indigenous legend and listener testimony. The episode deftly mixes unsettling folklore with bantering camaraderie and audience engagement.

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Final Thought:
If you love ghost towns, cryptid lore, and deep-dive historical spookiness—especially with a dash of postal worker cosplay and relatable millennial tangents—this episode offers the full package.

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Transcript

[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

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[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

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[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

Very spooky. Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Two Girls, One Ghost. Two Girls, One Ghost.

And we are your ghostesses. That is Corinne in our. If you're watching the video, Corinne is in our regular studio and I am Sabrina. We're recording a part again, because illnesses. Sickness.

Yeah, it happens. It also sounds like when you say, like, oh, Corinne's in the regular studio. It sounds like I put in more effort. The studio's in my house.

So you walk downstairs I put in less effort.

Every single time we record in the studio, Sabrina has to travel to me.

You know what I also realized is that Massachusetts, like, tolls are crazy. The amount of money I've spent on tolls just driving to work, I know

it is really expensive. Which actually, that reminds me, I got so. You know how text messages are becoming the phishing texts and spam texts are becoming, like, more and more clever? I got a really convincing one the other day that was about an unpaid toll in Vermont. For a second I was like, I do. And then I was like, these dumb asses. There are no toll booths in Vermont. But if I weren't from Vermont and didn't know that, I'd probably click on the link and be like, oh, shit, do I owe three bucks? Did I, like, drive through something and not remember?

Okay, well, I had the opposite where I did get a text saying I owed tolls. And I was like, well, where's the. I never got a notice in the mail. And, like, my address is on file with my registration of my car and stuff. And, like, so I thought it was spam and I didn't respond to it. And then I got called by the, like. What's it called? Like, where they're chasing you down for money?

Oh, did you tell them, like, hey, you never gave me mail.

The person who was calling me was no longer the toll people. It was collections. It was a collections agency. So it was like a completely different agency at that point.

Sometimes the mail fucks everything up.

It's very confusing. And also, like, my. My brain is automatically trained to now think that everything is, like, spam or scam.

Well, because, like, as you should, because if you're not. Because I don't want to click any links, then it probably is spam, right? Oh, wait, this is a good time for me to do a little PSA for people because this happened to my brother. He was like, partway through the process and then realized. But it also happened to one of our friends moms, a couple years ago. If you are looking to, like, renew your passport or apply for your passport and you are trying to do it online, the first website that comes up when you Google, like a US Passport application or whatever, it looks extremely convincing. Oh, no, the website. That is not the right website. You're putting in all of your information to a scam website.

So just wait, now I need to look it up.

Yeah, it happened a couple years ago to a friend's mom. And then I was like, oh, my gosh, that. That's so unfortunate. But then my brother was just going through the process of like renewing his passport and the same thing happened to him and he never gets caught with those things. So weird.

So you have to make sure you go to. You have to go to USA Gov. Is that the right one?

Let me look.

I mean at the top it says official websites, use.gov. but then this is confusing. Both of them do look really legit.

Yeah, I like can't remember what I would recommend is that you actually. I know I was just saying the mail sometimes fucks everything up. But I would, I would recommend going to usps.

I have such an affinity for usps. Like I love them so much. I just do a lot. It's so magical the way that like you see FedEx and UPS, they have these barcodes. It's more digital. The fact that you can hand write in sloppy writing an address on an envelope, put a stamp on it, put it in a USPS box on the street, in random fricking bumblefuck, nowhere and it will get delivered is the most magical thing in the world to me.

I know I have so much respect

and love for usps. It's like, can you tell how I am so deeply passionate about them?

I was actually just talking to Brian about this the other day that I was like, oh, you know what job like I think I would have actually probably enjoyed was being postal delivery when I lived in Beacon Hill. Because they have their like, their like side bags full of mail and then they just satchel all day and I feel like I'd be so fit.

Although apparently that's really bad on your bones. There's a lot of people, employees. I mean, this is why they get like a really good retirement plan. But like the wear that takes on your body.

That's true.

Is like pretty significant. Yeah.

But then I would argue that the way like for people who do like long haul trucking or just like spend all day like driving buses or just like sitting down.

Office works too. Like you got to find a balance.

Fucks you up. We're. We're not meant to work, you know.

No, we're not. We're meant to frolic in fields and bake stews in our cottages.

Yeah. Like, who made this? Why did we make this jail for ourselves? It's horrible.

You know, I was thinking about. And the Office didn't. Sorry, we're going on such a tangent and we'll get to the episode in a second. But like I was thinking about this. The Office did an episod about it. About how like you go to school and you're forced to participate in recess or gym or both your whole life. The second you get to adulthood, it's like, no, you sit in an office and you work. You do nothing else.

Oh yeah, like, oh, you wanna walk to go pick up lunch? How dare you be gone for 30 minutes from your desk.

[Corinne]

Like you have to carve out that

[Sabrina]

time in your own personal life, which is already like making time for things in life is so hard if you want to work out or like move your body. But otherwise your whole childhood, it is forced, mandated part of your life. Even in prison, this is the part the office did where they get outdoors time.

Yeah. And we don't.

We don't. Well, we do. We have the opportunity, but we don't force ourselves. There's no one holding us accountable.

And now we're lucky that we get to do this full time. But we've also lived lives in the corporate.

Yeah.

World. We know what it's like.

Right? One more thing about usps because I love them.

I really want go off brunette.

I might cry. Like, I'm literally getting emotional. I want, I want a USPS outfit so bad.

Oh my God,

like so badly. I want.

Didn't you ask for this years ago? Was it USPS or was it some other. There was some other uniform. You asked for two.

Has it always been the satchel? I want the jacket, I want the

gear, I want the hat.

Like, I literally have a tear coming down my eye.

I have an idea. Why don't you pick up a shift during the holidays? They're always looking for like part time help, aren't they?

Correct.

And then you can take photos in it.

When do we have time?

During recess. During your recess.

Sabrina, do they have a merch store? Because I would love, I would, I would buy. Would buy immediately.

10 out of 10 would buy USPS.

And this is the thing. I don't want the like Amazon costume. I want the real deal. I want the real stuff.

You want to look at that? Someone stitched that for you as a postal worker.

I'm their number one fan. I really am. I love them.

Hey. Well, there's a post office in this story that I'm about to share.

Oh, great, great. I'm gonna cry again then.

I think I just wrote post office as like an example of businesses that were coming to the town. But I mentioned a post office.

Okay, just.

You ready? Perfect.

Okay, what do we have today?

We are going to Alaska, A land of breathtaking beauty. Untamed wilderness and majestic wildlife. But tucked away in its vastness is a town where the residents have cowered in fear, fought for their lives, and eventually abandoned the area entirely.

Oh, shit.

For the town of Portlock, Alaska, is home to a very angry group of bigfoots. It's been way too long since I

talked about Bigfoot episode.

I'm cool. See, I. Your passion is with the U.S. postal Service. Mine is Bigfoot. The story begins,

you know, the woman speaking of things. The woman who married the Eiffel tower recently just divorced the Eiffel tower for a fence because she fell in love with the fence.

So I didn't even know someone married the Eiffel Tower. Oh, yeah.

Big.

What did the fence have? Less attention, less competition?

Well, this is the thing. The picture that they chose to show in this article that I read was her sitting, like, straddling the fence and, like, sitting on top of, like, a pointy part of the fence. And I was like, huh? Okay.

Oh, yeah. All right. Well, you know what? Someone introduced this girl to a washing machine. I think she might find a third marriage here. So,

yeah.

Okay. This story from Portlock, Alaska, begins, at least for us, in 1785. Captain Nathaniel Portlock, who I swear we've talked about before. He was an 18th century British naval officer who sailed into Alaska at a time when much of the region was unchartered by Europeans. In the 1780s, while commanding the ship called King George, Portlock moved slowly along Alaska's jagged coastline and into places like the Prince William Sound. And he basically would just, like, record all of the lands, the mountains, the violent weather. He would chronicle all of his encounters with the indigenous communities. And basically, it was just like, his job to write down everything and anything that he could figure out about Alaska, like, map it out, what's it like? What are the people like? And that is what he and his group did. Okay, so here Nathaniel Portlock witnessed the indigenous peoples of the region hunting and using sea otter pelts, which they had done for centuries. It was a big part of their practice and their culture. And for the most part, they would use it for, like, local trade or ceremonial practices or, like, clothing. But captain Nathaniel Portlock, he was like, oh, let me get in on this action. And he started obtaining the pelts from the indigenous hunters and. And selling them in Chinese markets where they were extremely valuable. So he kind of, like, brought in some more like, international trade when it came to this. So now, while he was documenting the Alaskan coast and trading with the locals, capturing what life Was like before the area was permanently colonized. He happened upon a town, and in his journals, he would describe the danger, the unease in the wariness of what he and his crew were about to encounter. A place that would soon be known as Portlock, Alaska, named after captain Portlock. Captain Portlock and his crew were surveying a secluded bay on the Kenai peninsula in a place that's now called Port Chatham bay, when they came across some remnants of a native village. And this had clearly been abandoned for a very long time. But they were like, what happened here? Why would they abandon this area? This is prime real estate. Like, it is tucked into a cove. There's ample fish and seafood and deer and, like, wildlife to hunt like this was. This area felt way too good to be true. And certainly not an area that you'd put in all this effort to build a village in, only to abandon it, right? So already they were like, this is strange that anyone would just, like, move on from this area. This feels like a gem.

And it's one thing because, like, you know, native tribes would fight over land all the time, right? So like, one tribe would put shout another. But it's one thing if, like, a new group of people were living there. It's altogether abandoned. Meaning people up and left. Yeah, sus.

Right. And there's like, plenty of nomadic groups, too, and communities. But like, again, like, it doesn't mean that you're picking up and moving constantly. It's like, you know, based on seasons or, like, food or. Or just like you could spend decades somewhere before, like, your community up and leaves. Like, there was no reason for this to happen here because everything was so bountiful, and it was, like, perfect and secluded and protected and just, yeah, a dream.

So dun, dun, Dun.

Portlock and his crew, they're like, okay, let's set up camp here. We'll. We'll spend some time surveying, Completing our surveying duties. Right. Seemed like a good idea. What's the worst that could happen? They're equipped. They're in a group. No one else is around. But at night, soon they would realize that that was not true. As the men drifted off to sleep, they awoke to ho. Horrible screams and cries. Beasts of sorts. An animal. They could not understand what it was or identify the sound of, but it seemed to be coming from the edge of the mountain, Calling down to them, taunting them, warning them. The vocalizations directed at them, at the men in this camp.

That's very haunting.

And each night, the noises seemed to be getting closer and closer and closer. Many members of the crew suddenly felt super ill. They were terrified. They were sick. And now they were begging captain Portlock to leave. And he didn't want to, I guess. Like, they were like, hey, we did all that we could. We did some surveying. It's time to go. But he was like, mm, let's stay a little longer.

Wait, so this is. Is this still the middle of the night, or is this come morning, everyone's

like, hey, whatever that was, into being there. Like, they've been there multiple nights now, and it seems like they are being hunted by whatever it is in the MO like, people are freaking out because the sounds are getting closer and closer, and they're like, oh, my God.

It's.

You know, this is a warning to us. And, like, we are being urged to leave until pushed out, and we need to.

You gotta respect that they're not the bigfoots, because I imagine that's who's trying to threaten them. They're not just attacking right away. They're giving fair warning.

They're giving warning. Yeah, they're giving ample warning.

It's kind of like they gave you time to pack up your things.

And there were others who came before them that were given warning, and there were others that would come after them that would also be given warning, all experiencing the same thing. An ominous feeling, a heaviness in the air, and something lurking or stalking them from the mountains above.

Yep.

Okay, so I want to give credit to Luke Phillips, who has a blog called Black Beast and boogeyman, who wrote, like, a pretty comprehensive article on everything that happened in Portlock regarding to Bigfoot. There were a bunch of articles on the Internet, but, like, small bits and pieces strewn about. And I feel like Luke did a good job of, like, grabbing them all and putting them all together. So a lot of this stuff.

Thanks, Luke.

Thanks, Luke. A lot of what I'm about to tell you, Luke, is also included in his blog post about it. But then there's also many other sites, like I said, and even a series on Disney about it.

Okay, but then I wrote, but Luke,

in my opinion, hit all the key points, so shout out, Luke.

I love it. Also, when I searched our inbox for a listener story, which we'll read at the end of the episode, there were, I'll say, like, five emails about this topic where people were like, corinne, you have to research this about Portlock. Yeah.

Wait, that's so funny. Oh, man, I should have seen this. I missed them, but I wish I hadn't because I, like, only kind of more recently learned about this case.

Yeah. I mean, they were just like a sentence of like, corinne, have you heard about this?

So, well, now I have.

People love your Bigfoot.

I encourage everyone to keep doing that. If you hear an amazing Bigfoot story, please try to bring it to my attention.

We should do a search of our inbox for Corinne, have you heard of. Or Sabrina, have you heard of, like, that type of.

Yeah, that's a good point, because there are a lot of emails that say that.

Yeah. Anyway, note to self.

Note to self. All right, back to it. Some 80 years later, because the. The group did leave, right?

Yeah.

Some 80 years later, in 1867, another group set up camp in the bay, the serene, inviting bay that had been abandoned a few times before. And this community was the community of nomadic Sugpiek, which I watched a YouTube video from a native Sugpik person, and I am attempting to pronounce it like they did. And I know, hearing myself right now, that I'm not doing it.

Well, you're trying, and I think that's the most important thing. And we're doing our due diligence to look up the phonetics and how to say it. So we try.

The mispronunciations are not due to lack of research. It is strictly because it just is. My mouth isn't doing what it's supposed to do.

We can't all be the actor who plays Ilya and become experts on a

language we've never spoken before. Honor language expert.

Incredible.

Okay, so the community of nomadic Sugpik were about to call this place home. It seemed like the perfect place for them. It was tucked away in the COVID There's plenty of food to forage and hunt and fish. They wouldn't go hungry. And they were in such a remote area also, that it would be pretty difficult to get to this place unless you were truly seeking it out. So there was this sort of, like, a sense of safety here, too, Right. Like, they weren't just going to be happened upon, most likely. So as the community built their shelters and settled in, all seemed to be going perfectly. And it was for a few weeks. One month after stopping here, the village was raided and people attacked not by other people, but by cannibalistic giants who returned each night to the village attacking the people.

We've never heard of Bigfoots eating people.

Oh, they did. Yeah. These are, like, not your friendly Bigfoots. These are, like, really scary guys. They're aggressive, and they will rip you, consume your flesh. And they do. They do. The Sugpyuk people were not gonna give up easily, so they did try to fight back. They rebuilt. They appealed to their ancestors, their traditions, their culture. They were trying to find any way to appease these beasts coming down from the mountain to rid themselves of these hungry beasts. And they gave these giants a name, Nantonok, which means the hairy man. They described them as half man, half beast, but also referred to them as an animal and being a very rare animal. And while vicious in the beginning, the Nantonok seemed to retreat for a little bit. And so now the community is like, oh, my gosh, did we do it? Like, did we. Are we gonna live peacefully here with the Nantinach, like, up in the mountains, leaving us alone? Do they know that we mean no harm to them? And for many years, the Sugpyuk people kind of did hold their own and did their best under the circumstances that they had. But while for a little bit, these beasts, these giants, these Nantenok had retreated, there was still a threat of random attacks and random attacks. What if.

I mean, listen, it's violent. It's scary. We clearly don't understand why they're so violent. But what if there's, like, something they're protecting? Like, I'm thinking about how turtles lay their eggs in the sand on the beach, and then they have to, like, they hatch and they go down, you know, to the water.

Oh, yeah.

Is there something primal or mating related or just something that we don't understand that they are trying to protect?

That that happens on the bay has.

Yeah. Like, specific timelines. I don't know. Just trying to protect your men. Correct.

Yeah. It is interesting because, so, like, it did say that during especially harsh winters, there were more attacks in the village and more raids, which would make you think that it was about resources and food.

Sure. I'm not really sure it's a mystery. Until you befriend the Bigfoot and get to ask them all the questions. It's a bit of a mystery.

Right. And also, like, the reports were saying that the Nantenok were during these winter months, during these harsh winters when they would retreat from the mountains and come down to the village, it wasn't like they were coming down and stealing the deer or stealing the elk or something. They were literally grabbing people and eating them. So they were hunting the people? Yeah.

Huh.

Maybe they're like a, like, aggressive version of Avatar, where it's like, you're not supposed to harm any animals without doing a certain, like, ritual or ceremony. And because the Sugpia people didn't Know Bigfoot's rituals? I don't know. We're grasping at straws here. So people would be brutally ripped apart in the streets. They would be taken from their homes, pulled limb from limb, and then consumed by these big hairy monsters, these Bigfoots.

Wait. It reminds me of the men in Ungall a little bit, too.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Sick. Eventually, it did grow to be too much for the Sugpy people. And in 1905, after enduring 38 years of attacks, murders, and unrest, the community decided to leave.

38 years of putting up with them.

They lasted 38 years.

I mean, did they really. Did they really last?

It should be named after them, but instead Captain Portlock and his, like, week of being there.

Damn.

[Corinne]

Yeah, well, that's also wild because 38

[Sabrina]

years, they never established peace, and they just, like, lived with these brutal attacks and never found a way to, like, prevent them.

No, that's wild. That's what it said.

I'm curious how many people lost their lives?

I know, and that's one of the hard things. Like, some people say that this is just like, lore because there aren't newspaper clippings and. And, like, census reports on how many people were murdered or whatever. But I don't know. There's a lot.

I mean, what year was this, though, too?

Well, it started in the 1800s from when I first started, like, from my research. But, like, there were also reports that it wasn't necessarily about, like, the Bigfoots attacking, But there were also reports before Portlock's crew was even there about, like, other people sailing through and, like, reporting strange feelings and falling ill and leaving quickly.

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So head to Graza co and use two girls to get 10% off your first order of olive oil. And be sure to look for the Graza mayo the next time you're at your local grocery store. We will be just under two decades later. After the Soque people left, a small community of Russian Alutik moved to the bay. And I did look this up because I was like, okay, who are the Alutik? And it does seem like the Alutic is part of the Sugpyuk indigenous group. So them being referred to as a Russian alutic, I think means that maybe they were part of the group of indigenous people who were at the time, like, around that time, forced to hunt and prepare food for the Russians when the Russians had control of the Kodiak archipelago.

That's a piece of history I did not know.

Yeah. And I didn't look further into it, but because I was like, why are they. Why are they being called Russian?

Right.

And I think that's maybe what I deduced could be completely wrong, but.

Right. Okay, Interesting.

Okay. So I think, like, really? This is another group that's like a part of the same sort of, like, indigenous community.

Sure.

All right. So the altic, they're setting up a business here. So they moved to the bay with a specific goal, and that was to set up a cannery to process and can salmon in the area. Because this was a perfect area. There was an abundance of fish. So they're like, great. We can totally do this. This makes total sense for a cannery to be here. And then with a cannery and with a business like this comes more infrastructure. Right. So they set up a town with a school for the kids, a post office for Sabrina.

Perfect.

And other businesses to support those who were working at the cannery.

So all those pictures of portlock as you talk about this.

Oh, yeah. And also, if you're watching on YouTube or on our patreon, there are some photos included in this. I almost said presentation

in a way. It is a bit of a presentation,

I guess, sort of in my PowerPoint

presentation also, if other people are looking it up, because this is what's happening. I just searched portlock. There are two portlocks that come up. There is mysteries of portlock, Alaska, and then there's portlock paradise, which is in Hawaii. Very different.

Well, I'm sure portlock paradise is beautiful. Portlock, Alaska, is actually quite stunning too.

It is. They're very different landscapes, but yes.

Yeah. So the town is set up. The cannery is going. There are people living here, kids. It's a community. Right. Like, it's a working town now. But there are some rules to the town. Do not go out in inclement weather. Which that makes sense. You know, like, they're in Alaska. They're on the water. That could be dangerous. Do not go out past the town. Wide curfew. Now there's a curfew. Do not go past the tree line. And if you find yourself in the streets when darkness falls, you better run for your life or find one of the armed guards patrolling the streets for safety.

This reminds. Sorry, my camera's shaking. Cause Leia's tail just went under the cord. This reminds me a bit of the beast of Jevoudin story that we covered on crimes of that I think you have to cover again on two girls, one ghost.

We'll be bringing it back in a couple months for two girls, one ghost.

Damn.

But yeah, so there are rules. And that is because just like the communities and groups that came before the alutic are being hunted. Hunted by Bigfoot.

Perfect timing for Leia to Jump in, say hello. But I made the mistake of wearing all black.

Our own hairy littlefoot. And it is interesting because so they, like, basically had, like, a neighborhood patrol. They had, like, armed guards walking the neighborhood at night in this town. But I'm not sure, maybe it was for, like, a sense of safety or just, like, having someone, like, see something and say something as quickly as possible. Because from what we've learned of bigfoot, very few guns and armor can do much against their strength. And I think that that is very much true in this case, too.

It's also giving, like, is it the village, right?

The movie the village?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where there's beasts in the woods and there's people on patrol, and there's really good twists in that movie if no one's ever seen it. Great twist.

Yes.

So the people of this community would soon learn that taking up arms was not going to be enough. As the canning business boomed, the community grew and new trades were brought in. There was fur trading, gold hunters, mining fishermen, all sorts of different people. And so this community was still small. Yes, but now the numbers held a sort of comfort and safety. But with the increased population came an increase of disappearances from the town. People disappearing in the fog, venturing too close to the tree line only to never appear again. And disappearances in the wilderness did happen. I wouldn't say frequently, but, like, you know, there's enough. There's enough. You're in Alaska, you're in the wild, and usually there's evidence of what happens, right? Like, there's some sort of attack or, like, you know, the trail kind of goes dead for a second, and you're like, okay, someone must have, you know, fallen or had an accident or, like, succumbed to the elements. There's bodies. There's evidence. You know, they're right by the water. Bodies will wash ashore. And that is what happened to some people. But others that did not happen. Others show a different type of attack, Something that they were not familiar with, Something that didn't seemed to exist in the Alaskan wilderness to their knowledge. Bodies washed ashore with strange markings on them and unidentifiable claw marks. Limbs torn apart, Giant bite marks.

Oh, my gosh.

The cannery was broken into twice, and once it was even burned to the ground. During a break in, one of the residents claimed to see a huge, hairy man destroying the fishing wheels along the beach. And the man then ran home to grab his gun, and when he returned with his gun to the beach to, like, shoot this big hairy man that was destroying their Businesses. He didn't shoot. Instead, he just stared at this giant who was staring back at him for a bit, and then the big hairy man walked off into the woods.

Okay, well, this also indicates more intelligence. They're not just, like, animalistic attack creatures. They are. Again, they're strategizing.

They're.

They're saying, we want these people out of here. We've given enough warnings. We've taken a lot of people. Let's attack the business.

If they.

If their business is, you know, gone, maybe they'll leave.

Like, it seems like they understand what's going on inside the business. They see the process of, like, the fish being caught, brought to the cannery, never to be seen again. You know, like the. Yeah, from their perspective, like, fish are being abducted and then never seen again once they enter this building. Like, that's also scary. If you are one with the wild and you're, like, trying to protect your resources in your community, you're going back

to your avatar, respect of ritual and everything.

These people, like, with, like, metal and cement structures. Just like, comet. It seems so alien. Like, we are alien. Like, it would appear very alien, I think.

Yeah.

So there were many, many sightings like this. Like, the guy on the beach witnessing the destruction happen there. And then in 1931, there was a body found just beyond the tree line, A man named Andrew Kamluk who went into the woods to log some trees. And now it's inevitable that people have to go into the woods. Right. Like, one of the rules is don't go past the tree line. But I think that's, like, probably a general rule for people who don't have business being in the woods. Right. Like, kids don't go in the woods, especially, you know, like, if you're not a logger, don't go in the woods, stuff like that. But he did need to go into the woods. He had it to. He needed to log some wood. But when you go in the woods, it's also a good idea not to go alone. And Andrew didn't go alone. He brought with him his dogs. But that was not enough.

Yeah, you might need buddy system with more humans.

Yeah. As Andrew and his dogs walked deeper into the woods, something else was waiting there for them. Andrew's body was later found, his head caved in with a heavy piece of equipment from the community used to strike him in the head. So it was like something was from one of the businesses or just, like, you know, like a rogue piece of, like, metal pipe or something.

But that means, like, the bigfoots had to have stolen that previously. It's not like he had gone into the woods with it.

Yeah, they collected it and then used it against him. This piece of equipment was too heavy for any man to pick up, so it wasn't immediately like any human suspect is ruled out. It's not someone from the community who, like, went to go murder him. His dogs were also torn apart and scattered across the forest floor around their owner.

No. I was so hoping that the dogs were safe. No.

But still the community stayed. They tried to continue canning. They tried to keep their children safe. They tried to patrol the streets more heavily at night. Yet the attacks never stopped. Dogs were killed, livestock stolen, people missing, and murdered. In 1950, the community was hastily abandoned, leaving Portlock, Alaska, a ghost town. So something happened where they were, like, at their wit's end and they just up and left, like, left everything.

That's a pattern. That's what people are doing here.

Right.

Damn.

I don't know what that final event was, but, like, clearly there was so much that happened up until then.

I also just think about and, you know, I could be speaking out of my ass. And there are many different types of communities in Alaska. But I feel like Alaska, if you're living in like, somewhat of a remote wilderness type area, there are threats like this anywhere in Alaska. So it must have been like, they must have weighed the pros and cons of like, hey, even if we move somewhere else, there's a different animal or different threat that we'll be dealing with. Like, this is the risk is worth the reward here.

Right.

Until it wasn't. And it reminds me of the book which Kristin Hannah, just generally incredible author. But the Great Alone is this beautiful story about a woman living in Alaska. Highly recommend.

So one fact that's odd is that we know people live there. We know that there are communities that live there. There was a straight up cannery there with businesses and stuff. But oddly enough, Portlock only appeared on the U.S. census twice. Once in 1940 and then again in 1980. And both times it listed exactly 31 residents, which is just weird because that wasn't true. Like, in 1940, there were far more than 31 residents.

Well, the census is hard because, like, it does require a bit of door knocking.

Well, and if you door knock in a place that people are afraid of Bigfoot, I don't know how many people are gonna answer their doors.

Right. Exactly.

Okay. Now the place has certainly been abandoned. It is abandoned, deserted. Declared a ghost town. But it doesn't stop people from visiting ghost towns, right?

No, it does not.

Like I said before, Portlock is not the easiest place to get to. So it's like, it takes some effort to get there. So I'm not sure if the people who are going to visit this ghost town Are aware of the murderous bigfoots, or if that's like, literally the purpose of them going there. I'm not sure. But people do certainly go to try to check this place out.

I do feel like you don't just stumble upon this place. Like, I feel like you don't. You're going for a purpose.

So while the cannery was shut down and people abandoned the town, this wasn't the last time that people were in the area or considering the area as home. In 1968, there was a goat hunter who was surprised by these terrible screams Coming from nearby in the woods, Seemingly following and stalking him. Luckily, he was able to make it out of the woods unscathed, Though he was a bit rattled. So, like, while there's no community settled here, there's still people, like, nearby with different homes or, like, purposes of venturing over this way.

Right.

Just five years later, in 1973, three hunters were caught in a storm, and they went into the abandoned village near the cannery to go take shelter.

I would do the same.

The entire night they were there Sheltering from the storm. The hunters stayed awake, Trembling in fear as an unrecognizable but certainly huge creature circled their camp, Growling and speaking in some unintelligible language. The men not only heard the creature, but they literally saw it. And they said it was a giant bipedal beast, so big one.

It's also interesting because it feels like every time Somebody has seen this bigfoot, it's one. It's not like a group of them. Although the sounds indicate multiple. It's like there's a scout or one entity that goes into the village to do the, like, labor, hard work, physical labor, the killing.

Yeah, you're right. But maybe it's because it only takes one. You know, they're so strong, they only take it well. Also, that goes to show that even though they do inflict a lot of harm, and there is a lot of, like, murder and dismembering Involved in this story, if they truly wanted to wipe out and obliterate the town, they easily could. But they don't.

Right. Like, with their pinky, they could do it.

Yeah. Also, I'm not sure if my microphone's picking up, but there's a 20 month old chatty Cathy in the background.

I was going to say, the whole day of recording, I've heard Noah been having, like, the time of his life. So I'm glad he's enjoying himself.

He's chatting it up.

Yeah.

He's actually, like, starting to say stuff because he's had a little bit of a speech delay, which we knew he'd have based on some, like, oral motor stuff that he had going on. But Brian was trying to brush his teeth a couple mornings ago, and I heard him scream, dada. No, no, Dada. And I was like, oh, my God. When he's upset, he can say stuff. Like, the other day, I can't remember what I. What I did, But I'd never heard him say the words all done. He always signs it, and he was like, very much done. He goes, all done. All done.

In distress, he's like, when I need to make my message very clear, I will do it.

Yeah. I think he can secretly talk. He just doesn't. Unless he's like, he needs to.

He's like, you guys already do everything I need you to do. Like, all good.

Really true. I know that that's a part of

it is like, yeah.

He barely has to request anything.

Right. Which also just like to pause. Corinne.

Yeah.

What a beautiful testament to you and Brian as parents and you as a mother. Your child feels so safe and taken care of that he doesn't even need to verbally communicate with you. Like, if you ever wonder about yourself, just remember that, like, thank you. You're incredible.

Thanks. This is a good stage when they're, like, starting to talk and see things.

Oh, my gosh. So I spent the last, like, week and a half with Noemi and Delfina, helping out with my sister and their family. But Noemi has started saying when commercials come on, she goes, what the heck?

Oh, my God. Okay, back to Bigfoot. In 1989, there was an elderly man who suffered a heart attack after returning from a walk in the woods nearby this area. And when he was being treated by the paramedic, he admitted to seeing Bigfoot. He called it by the native name and said that he saw the Bigfoot. The sightings and attacks of Bigfoots in this area seem to bleed between the centuries, suggesting to me that suggests that there's a population of Bigfoots that remains here. I don't know what their lifespan is, but I assume it's not 200 or 300 years.

I mean, we don't know.

We don't know. But I was like, okay, there must be Like a full group, a community of Bigfoots. They're elusive here in the wilderness.

I mean, they don't have to leave because everyone else keeps leaving. They have claim on this territory.

This is like feral Bigfoots, which is so interesting because I feel like there's a lot of other Bigfoot stories and communities. You know, like, we have the Sierra Nevada sounds. We have just so many different ones from just like Nepal and different mountains and even like the Edwards Air Force Base where it's like Bigfoot's broken and we're like captured on CCTV footage. And like, there's just so many examples of Bigfoots being in nature where they're not upset by. Or maybe they are upset, but they don't. They're not.

They're more protective than they are human.

Interact. Yeah.

Yeah.

They, like, do get kind of pushed out and they adapt, but they don't fight back. Like, this group, like, this group is like, absolutely the fuck not.

There's different communities and types of human beings. Why not? At least, I guess the one positive is they found each other. They live in their community and they're, you know, maybe this is the inmate Bigfoot civilization and all the, like, Bigfoots that do bad are sent here.

This is like our Australia from years ago for big bucks would just send their prisoners to Australia. How terrible. I don't know. But what we do know is that these beasts do not want their space invaded. They will attack, they will murder. They will reclaim their home. And they have done so for decade after decade.

Damn.

In a 2016 Alaska Magazine article, it was pointed out that there are no verified reports.

Reports.

There are no verified reports of these murders.

To be fair, there's none of those either.

But I would say the presence and the sightings and the whole reason for Portlock's abandonment is way more than just legend. Like, I feel like that is the proof. Why do we need an article clipping in the archives to believe everyone else? So, right. I guess I put it back on our listeners. What do you guys believe? Is there a colony of Bigfoots demanding and defending, I guess, their community in Portlock, Alaska? Demanding to be left alone? Demanding for people to stop fishing there? Or is this just a legend?

I mean, can it be both?

No.

Like, can't they be real and some of it be legend? Like, yeah, I guess.

Yeah. Well, because I guess, like, to your point, it's kind of like, you know, we're coming off of the winter holidays and there's all the talk about, like, krampus and stories like that that are like, huge learning lessons and warnings to children. It's like, how do you get them to. To behave or to not, you know, wander off with a stranger? It's like, could these be kind of aggressive versions of that? Right in the Alaskan wilderness? That makes sense. Like, there's wolves, there's bear, there's moose. Will kill you.

I mean, either way, there is something here that is pushing out any chance of a real human civilization living there for a long time and forcing civilizations to up and abandon their homes. So to me, that's enough for me to be like, I don't ever want to really go there to find out for sure. Yeah, I'd stay home. Thank you very much.

I agree with you there. But I want to bring back a point that you said, which is like, what are they protecting? What is happening here?

Usps, right?

It's the usps. It's the postal. Their prized postal worker. Yes. Their favorite little guy. They love him.

They love him.

I am curious because there's, like, you know, people have encounters and be really scared by their encounters with Bigfoot in the nearby area, but it seems like it's specifically the, like, cove there. It's like anyone who tries to settle right there in that specific spot, they get attacked, they get killed, they get murdered. If you're just 30 miles away in the same woods or whatever with your goats, you might encounter something, but you're not viciously ripped apart and killed.

Right. So what is there in that cove that is so important to them?

What does the bay have that we don't understand, aside from an abundance of fish and shellfish?

Where do narwhals. Leah just snored so loud. She's over by the radiator and just living her best life, snoring.

So cute.

Did you ask where narwhals live? Yeah, in the same land as ELF and the North Pole.

Okay, well, that's actually true. I just wasn't sure. Okay, it says Arctic waters of Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. So does that mean. Also, do narwhals live in Alaska? Because if you say Russia, that's basically saying Alaska. No, they don't. They don't live in Alaska. So they must just live on the other side, huh? I guess, yeah. Canada, Greenland, Russia. So they live on our coast in the Atlantic.

I mean, if I saw a narwhal in real life, I would. I would think I was seeing a cryptid for sure.

I thought narwhals. I've told you this before. I thought narwhals were mythical beings until I was in high school and we were supposed to, I was in Spanish class and we were supposed to do, we were supposed to like choose something to do, like a Spanish presentation on or like write a book on and like read it. And I wrote a book on the mythical unicorns of the sea, the narwhals. And then someone was like, corinne, narwhals are real.

Narwhals are real. Well, they feel like they shouldn't be real.

Sophomore year.

I don't blame you.

Spanish high school.

That's how you thought they were fake. Okay.

[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

I was trying to find specifically Bigfoot in Alaska, but unfortunately we did not have any encounters from listeners that had both of those. But I did find this email that has a Bigfoot encrypted encounters and like truly, I think there's like 30 stories in here, but I chose four of them to share and I'll start with the cryptids. Bigfoot Perfect. It's from our listener Krystal and I will start, like I said, with the cryptids. There's multiple stories here. This is titled Persimmon Point Cryptids. One day, sometime after I left for college, but before my sister graduated, my sister was out on an evening run. We lived in the middle of the Ozark Mountain woods on a dirt road with enough other dirt roads in the area that my sister could run in a mile wide circle around ours and the neighbor's property without ever seeing another person. On this specific day, probably about an hour before dark, so the sun was just starting to set. My sister was running past a little lot with no trees, just grass, when she saw a deer. Deer were a normal sight in that area. In fact, we often saw deer in our extended yard, which was really a small field in front of our house. However, we didn't normally see them so close, so my sister stopped, not wanting to scare it away. But as soon as she stopped, she realized this was not a deer.

Ooh.

She wasn't sure how she knew it. Like it looked like a deer, but there was something off, like the legs were a little too long, the grayish shade of its fur, maybe how shaggy it was. Even though it was long past winter and the deer shouldn't still have its winter coat. Or maybe it was the look in its eyes. All she knew was that it looked like a deer but was most definitely not a deer and she was suddenly terrified. She managed to make herself keep going, walking past it back towards our house, and as soon as it was out of sight, she started running. Not jogging full out, sprinting back to the house, and anyone who has run on a dirt road knows how difficult that can be. But she managed not to fall before she made it home. After that, she did not run in the evenings for a long time.

Yeah, I.

But she also didn't tell anyone about the encounter until we were both in our 30s. She thought we would make fun of her for being scared of a deer.

Oh, that makes me sad for her.

I know. But when she did tell me, I stared at her and I said, you saw a not deer? My sister had no idea what that was. She had never heard of them, and I had only heard about them in my early 30s. But by then, I had stopped explaining cryptids to my family. Only my stepdad had ever really been interested enough to listen to me, and he had already passed away at that time. So I explained to my sister what a not deer was and that everyone who saw one described them a little differently. But the one thing they all had in common was that they looked like deer, but most definitely were not. Okay, next story about cryptids in this area. One night, my mom was driving home from work. It was winter, so while it wasn't late, it was already well after dark. She was about to take a right turn from one dirt road on to Persimmon Point Road when she saw a massive, furry creature running on two legs cross the road in front of her, also heading towards that same road. Her first thought was, maybe it's a bear. But we didn't have black bears in that area, and while black bears can walk on two legs, they don't usually run on two legs. Whatever my mom saw looked like natural, like it was meant to be bipedal. Then just before it entered the woods, it dropped down to all fours like it was a bear after all. Or like it was trying to crawl under some bushes. But why would a bear run across a road on two legs like that? My mom hit the brakes when she first saw the creature, and after it disappeared, she sat there for a few minutes, hoping to see it again. To this day, she believes she saw Bigfoot.

Yeah, sounds like it.

I'm a little skeptical of this one, which I think is hilarious, because she had just told us that she's, like, the only one in her family who likes to talk about cryptids, but her mom believes it was Bigfoot.

Okay, but this also the fact that there's a naught deer and there's a Bigfoot, and that there is a theory that Bigfoots are interdimensional beings, it does make me wonder, like, is there Some sort of, like, weird portal over here where there's all these, like, Cryptids and creatures coming in and out. And that's why there's.

Because to see two different Cryptids so

much like the same family, seeing two different Cryptids in the same spot by the same road, like, that just seems so odd.

Well, let's not. It's not just two Cryptids. Let's add another to the list.

Oh, my God.

Fairies. Sometimes at night, my mom would hear music coming from the woods. While sound does carry oddly in the hills, our nearest neighbors were a quarter of a mile away, and my mom didn't know why they would want to play music in the middle of the night. And it wasn't party music either. It was like a music box that someone was playing in the woods, which is so eerie. Like, that's the creepiest thought.

Oh, yeah. Ooh, that's so much creepier because, yeah, I was totally picturing, like, some sort of, like, Fae music or something.

Yeah, it was so loud that occasionally it would wake my mom up in the middle of the night and she would wake my stepdad up and he could hear it, too. We never could find an explanation for it. Was it ghostly music? Was it fairies? Was it someone in the woods? Did my neighbors have a strange taste in music or just something else we haven't heard of before? Okay, the last Cryptid encounter. You know, growing up, I never went into the woods at night, but there was one time I did. I wasn't following anything, not towards any music, but just into the woods that edged around the field in our front yard where we used to keep our horses. I couldn't make myself go any further than that because I kept getting this feeling along my spine like I was being watched. I assumed it was a mountain lion and rushed home and told my family not to go outside. And my mom was like, duh. Why would you ever go into the woods at night? And the subject was dropped. However, there were a few other things that I did that I shouldn't really do in any woods, much less ones so close to Appalachia. So it's close to Appalachia, but it's not Appalachia.

Okay.

I love to explore the acres around my home, and I usually brought my dogs with me. And sometimes my cats would come, too. Sometimes it would be fine, and I would enjoy the nature and explore, but other times, I would get that same feeling, like something was watching me. I assumed maybe there were hunters nearby, especially if I had wandered off of our property and onto the neighboring acreage, and I didn't want them to mistake me or my pets for a deer. So I would sing or whistle, and that feeling of being watched would only get worse. It was like whatever it was that was watching me became angry. So I would stop whistling and I would leave, because obviously, whatever it was knew I was there. This happened a few times in a couple of different places in the woods, Sometimes with my dog, sometimes without. It wasn't until much later that I realized it probably was not a human. Probably wasn't even a mountain lion. There was something else watching me in those woods.

So creepy. But, like, could that be Bigfoot?

Or any number of the creatures that are clearly lurking in these woods?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna read two more stories, and then we'll revisit this email from Krystal in a future episode. Because there are so many that apply to so many different topics, but this is one called Face in the Window. Back when my mother lived in her house in Lockwood, Missouri, the year before my stepdad died, an adult cousin was visiting from out of state, and we were all hanging out in the living room. The sun had set and the lamps were on, but my mom hadn't closed the curtains yet in the side window. We were in the middle of Main street in a small town, so we didn't really care if the neighborhood saw into the living room. And the window was roughly 8ft off the ground, so no one could really get close enough to look in. Anyway, we're all talking, watching tv, when all of a sudden, my cousin shouted that someone was outside. He rushed to the window and looked down, but didn't see anyone. We asked him what he saw, and he explained that he saw a face in the window, like someone was standing outside looking in. But we were like, there's no way a human could do that without a ladder. But he insisted there was a human face in the window. We all went outside. There was nothing there. No footprints, no ladder, nothing. The area around that house was clear. It wasn't like someone could have run away with a ladder without being spotted. He was completely freaked out and always insisted that the blinds stay closed while he was visiting that house ever again. The rest of us, though, we were all a little more nonchalant because we knew the house was haunted and keeping the curtains closed was definitely not going to help. But we didn't tell him that.

Oh, my God. I feel like that would be one of the scariest things to see a human face outside of the second story window.

Well, what About a demon. How about seeing a demon? Because that's the next story.

Oh my God.

This is called Bard Street Demon. When my mother was young, she moved around a lot. One of the houses she and her family lived in was on Barge street in a small town in California. And this house had something extremely malevolent haunting it. My mom thinks it was just an evil spirit, but I suspect it was probably a demon. Most of it was poltergeist type activity, like things moving around, random knocking, footsteps, etc. But sometimes it got worse. One night, my mother and her sister fell asleep in the living room. My aunt was on the couch while my mom was on the floor next to the couch. When my mom woke up and heard footsteps walking toward her from down the hall, she turned her head toward the hall and didn't see anything. But then she realized that the footsteps sounded like they were on the ceiling. Not on the roof. On the ceiling. There was no attic. She tried calling out to her sister, but she didn't wake up. The footsteps got louder and closer until they were stomping right above my mom. She hid under the covers while screaming out her sister's name. She finally woke up. Just enough to mumble out what? And immediately the stepping. The footsteps stopped abruptly, so my aunt didn't hear anything. Later, when my aunt's boyfriend was spending the night on the couch, he ended up having the exact same experience with the footsteps. That was when my grandmother started setting out her old family Bible, which had been blessed by a priest. And the haunting seemed to stop while the Bible was open. Whenever something started happening again, someone would call out, did anyone close the Bible? And sure enough, the Bible would be closed. They would open it again and the activity would stop. And this is one of the things that made me wonder if it was actually a demon and not a ghost. Years later, long after my mom's family had moved out, another family moved in. It was a family of two parents and a teenage son. They apparently weren't a superstitious family and tended to ignore strange things happening. Until one day, the parents had been out for the evening while the teenager was home alone. When the parents came back, they found their very large, brave teenage son crammed into a tiny corner of the kitchen. Crying in terror. He refused to speak any word of what had happened or what had scared him. They moved away. And years after that, the mother of the family of three found out that her brother in law had a younger brother that was getting married to a woman who already had a few kids. The families all Got together for a large barbecue and discovered that this woman had previously lived in that same house on Barge Street. That woman was my mother. So now it's weird. This house has kind of brought together this extended family of mine and everyone who's lived there.

Ooh, I, like, have chills from that.

I know. Isn't that weird?

Yeah.

Has experienced terrifying things before they ever met each other. And, no, the teenage boy, who is now sort of my cousin and an adult, still will not discuss what it is that scared him. Terrifying.

I'm dying to know, because there's already so much, like, between this house and just, like, what they were seeing in their childhood home.

It's so much.

I keep thinking, do you think it was a demon, or do you think it being on the roof and, like, making noise?

The Bible thing is interesting. Like, I mean, it could just be, you know, their version of, like, closing and, like, setting boundaries, of being like, hey, protection. You know, it's the same way, like, if I decide lighting a candle is what is protective, like, it could be the same thing as, like, opening a Bible. I don't know. Okay. I'm gonna end on a more. I mean, it's sad, but it's a More a positive story. This is about dreams. Less than a year after my stepdad died, I had a dream about him. We were in our old house on Persimmon Point, the place where they saw all the cryptids. We had lived there for 13 years. I was in the living room, and my stepdad walked out of his bedroom in front of me. And at first, he didn't look at me, but he knew I was there. And instead, he looked towards the dining room table where two children were sitting. There was a girl and a boy. The girl looked like my sister when she was about 4, and the boy was facing away from me, but from the back, he looked like my little brother when he was about 2. The same dark curls. So I assumed that they were my siblings at the age they were when they first met my stepdad. But then my stepdad looked at them and smiled this extremely proud, almost excited, happy smile. And I realized it wasn't the smile of a parent remembering his kids young. He looked like he was meeting them for the first time. Later, when I woke up, I realized they were actually his future grandkids. And I now know they were actually the third and fourth grandkids that wouldn't have been born for another decade or so after I had this dream. Anyway, in the dream, after he saw the kids, I told him that he couldn't see mom right now, but did he want to see my youngest sister? My youngest sister was his biological child, and while my stepdad tried not to play favorites, she was definitely his little girl. So I led him to my youngest sister's room and told my sister that even though she couldn't see him and he was there and did she want to talk to him. This is all in the dream. So my sister began talking to him about things going on in her life at the time, showing off her new things, Just the sort of thing that any kid would do to their parent that they hadn't seen for a while. And the whole time, my stepdad was looking at her with this small little smile, like he was so sad he couldn't interact with her directly, but at least happy he got to see her and got to see that she was happy and that at least she knew he was there watching over her. I then told my stepdad that my mom was there now and he could see her after all. I led him to the kitchen, where my mom was doing something at the counter. Like my sister. My mom couldn't see my stepdad, but unlike my sister, my mom could tell that he was there without me having to explain it. And she could even sort of hear him when he spoke. She immediately started having a conversation with him. And unlike with my sister, I felt like I didn't need to be there to bridge the gap between them. So I left them alone. I knew that, unlike most of my dreams, that this was real. My stepdad needed me to bring him to my younger sister, who wasn't as sensitive to reach out to him on her own. And now I really believe. My youngest niece and nephew were apparently hanging around the family at least a decade before they were born. And I felt a lot of closure after that dream.

That is so incredible. I love stories like that. And I feel like we so rarely hear it. For grandparents, it's usually like someone realizing that, like, their daughter or something was the spirit that they saw, like, three years before. That is incredible. Oh, my gosh. What an uplifting, lovely story. After some horrors, you know, I was

like, I'll give the people some relief.

Yeah.

Or via Crystal. You know, Crystal, technically is the one who did it. It is the last story in her email, too.

Geez. Crystal has had quite the haunted life.

Like, I'm also very curious if Krystal's mom and sister had any dreams that night. Like, did they dream of her stepdad too?

What's interesting, because it's like there's so much going on with hauntings, but Crystal's haunting is like in a dream where everyone else has just encountered things, like in person. Like, it's mostly been visual sightings.

Oh, well, there's like thousands of more stories where there's plenty. It's not just in dreams.

Oh, my gosh.

I think Crystal's just got a paranormal life.

Like, is it the family or is it the area? I mean, it's certainly that one home because we know that everyone who's lived there, it seems, or at least one other group who's lived there.

But it is so eerie that the families came together at some point. Like, I don't know. That's like. That feels. That feels a little bit invisible. Straight.

The house is like not letting anyone leave. Truly.

Ugh.

Creepy.

Creepy. Anyway, yeah, plethora of stories, but also Bigfoot.

Also Bigfoot. And if you have a Bigfoot encounter, a cryptid encounter, or just any paranormal weirdness happened to you, Please email [e-mail] youm can also rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts. And most importantly, tell other people about the podcast. That certainly helps.

Pyramid scheme.

Bring back the pyramid scheme.

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Shout out to Jamie Ryan who edits and produces our podcast. Thank you to Emma who also helps with Do Girls one Ghost. And we are grateful for all of you. Thank you.

Oh, and one last thing. Sorry this is at the end of the episode, but there's a survey for two girls, my ghost listeners. Because we want to hear from you, from our listeners. We want to know what kind of topics you want to hear. What are things that we've covered in the past that you were like, oh my God, loved or on the other end, oh my God, hate. Let us know. There's a survey. It's linked in the show notes of this episode. We would love to hear from you so that we can, you know, better curate our future episodes to your desires and what you want. We do this for you new.

Yes, we do. And we love you and we will see you on the other side.

Very spooky.

Thanks for listening.

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