Abandoned Ghost Towns

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[00:01:26] and businesses, monuments to forgotten lives, reminders that we too will cease to exist someday. I think about it every time I move into a new apartment. So many people have lived within these

[00:01:31] walls. All the fear and joy and happiness and highs and lows that each person before me must

[00:01:35] have experienced. And in the years before social media, there was no record of that. Those people

[00:01:40] came and went and time took them away. And Time for. Scan the water, that thing. Ed, when I say ghost town, what comes to mind? I don't know California on the west coast, at least.

[00:03:01] I guess I think of prospector towns where,

[00:03:03] you know, the mine went dry and everybody packed up and left.

[00:03:06] Right.

[00:03:07] Do you find those places scary? be a boring episode. This episode is going to go a lot deeper than that because it turns out towns get abandoned for all kinds of reasons. Some explicable, some not, and all scary in their own ways. But first, a little housekeeping. Thank you so much to our Facebook community. You're all the best. As of today's recording,

[00:04:20] we're at 196 people in the Facebook group and on track to cross 200 members probably

[00:04:25] before this episode even drops. Can we get to tenth and final episode of the season will drop the Thursday after Christmas, which I believe is the 28th. And if you're listening to this in the year 2029, then this is irrelevant. But thanks for finding us. Yeah, if you're following day to day and abandoned home probably why they have so many cobwebs. Yes, sir We'll say I live in a house and what do you spiders up to I feel like I clean this house in a week later shit is popping off again Well, this year's been really bad for spiders. Yeah, they are I guess that's because well, it's because mosquitoes were crazy this year

[00:07:03] But spiders and mosquitoes would be the least of your is now North Carolina. The guy who founded it, Ralph Lane, bounced back to England for a few years for supplies and whatever else he needed, and left the colonists behind on Roanoke. When a ship came back to check on the place a few years later, the hundred or so settlers

[00:08:20] who had been left behind were gone.

[00:08:22] And this is where it feels like it's likely that the only reason the settlers were never seen again is because no one ever made it over to Croatoa and to check on them. There was an attempt made but rough seas and a bad anchor forced the expedition back to England before they could make landfall. Wait, so the expedition was from England to Croatoa?

[00:09:40] I don't know if it was going from England to Roanoke and crazy that Roanoke has an alien component to it now? Does it? If it doesn't, it's a good way to get a little fucking traction because it does seem like anything that's weird or mysterious people these days do just throw like, and aliens. Oh, I'm sure somebody has suggested that they were abducted by aliens.

[00:11:01] I can guarantee that that theory's out there.

[00:11:04] If any of our listeners abducted anyone from Roanoke, let us know.

[00:11:08] Let the conductor know, hey, there's someone at the next mile mark or whatever needing a ride to the next major city. And they would stop and grab them. So if

[00:12:23] you're one of these people who live off the grid or what very beautiful, very remote place. Yeah. And portlock was definitely remote. It still is. We'll get to that in a little bit, but this area has been populated for centuries. The earliest records are of the alluit people who lived on this land that became portlock Alaska on the tip of the Kani Peninsula in Alaska. They lived there for centuries.

[00:13:43] And according to one source I found because of that native settlement that vanished, but it wasn't until 1905. Yeah, I wonder if it was gonna do with it. Hey, this land is cheap and or free. You used to live here. I wonder if it has anything to do with that giant pile

[00:15:02] of skulls at the center of town that no one lives in anymore.

[00:15:05] Yeah, a lot of language on in the dark. And this is a time when jobs maybe weren't super plentiful?

[00:16:21] Probably not on the tip of some bay in Alaska.

[00:16:25] Every other job was probably more scary and violent. it's interesting that both the original letter that this woman found, assuming that that letter actually exists, and the letter that she wrote to the editor of Alaska Sportsman in 1935, both predate the 60s and 70s Bigfoot craze in America. And obviously, stories of wild men and ape-like creatures in the woods existed way, way, way before that modern craze. But if anything,

[00:17:43] I think that just gives credence to the idea, which were a fatal blow to his chest.

[00:19:00] Oh my god.

[00:19:01] His creature struck. So Albert came back out in the woods near Port Lock. Guess what? They never returned. And when they were found at least one of the bodies, some of the reports vary, but one or more of the bodies was found horribly mutilated and not in the way that bears mutilate people

[00:20:23] in the way that they weren't torn apart and has decided fish are the only option. Well, you got to get him before the canneries do. You got to get the salmon before the salmon's packed away. So Pet Naughtsonuk? Yeah. So in 1905, people leave the cannery for a season because of a hairy man bothering them. It takes until 1949 for people to flee, and by 1949, the postmaster was the only person left in Port Lough. I can only assume in case somebody was

[00:23:01] writing letters to the Naughtsonuk immediately. You think he had a's not doing great. I need to write a letter to my dad, Mr. Cannery, and say, this was a bad investment from you. I should never have gotten into cannery. This isn't great. Can I still come home? Nobody wants to write that letter. Instead, write a letter to everyone you know saying there's a woman in the long black dress and a hairy

[00:24:20] man punching men to the moon. And then say, I mean, I'm sure a cannery town on the tip of a

[00:25:42] peninsula in the middle of nowhere, Alaska probably laws that are like in, you know, like, tradition, reservation. Well, no, no, it's literally like you can't in these reservations. You literally can't. But it is a thing where, hey, you know what, doesn't help these already rough environments getting fucking

[00:27:03] sauced. Right.

[00:27:04] So it could very well be that, like you said, set and volume in the interrogation room. No, but it's a really interesting documentary because spoiler alert Bigfoot didn't do it. It will show up for the documentary. But it is, I forget if they have someone in the documentary who admits to it or if it's just sort of the what they theorize that essentially these people were murdered and sort of to

[00:28:21] cover it up, rumors were purposely spread in the fucking woods there that have nothing to do with cryptids. But I'm sure they would love to use cryptids as a smokescreen. Yeah. And I imagine Alaska's 10 times higher that level of like I anticipated being alone for whatever weird crimes. Yeah, I grew up in in central Pennsylvania. And

[00:29:42] you know, the town where I'm from Hers care where the fuck you are. Someone knocking at your door that you're not expecting is weird and now I'm in like farm country. I gotta take my roller blades off, swing them over my shoulder to like walk through a dairy farm to knock on a farmer's door to be like, hey, can I use your phone to call my mom

[00:31:01] because I've roller bladed too far from home

[00:31:03] and now I'm scared.

[00:31:05] It was a brutal situation. would know what possible footage they have other than a person being like, honestly, I thought it was going to punch me to the moon. That punch landed and I thought, my God, my soul has left my body or more realistically, the punch barely missed. And now I'm able to sit down with you because if it had hit me, I'd be in the core of the earth right now.

[00:32:25] So to ask the question that we will ask of all of the locations that we're going to talk about today, will you die if you visit?

[00:33:23] that isn't very forgiving to people who aren't prepared for it. There are bears and moose frigid waters and possibly a Bigfoot, so good luck!

[00:33:28] The next town we're going to explore from the safety of Los Angeles...

[00:33:32] That is an oxymoron.

[00:33:34] ...is Dogtown, Massachusetts.

[00:33:36] This place is eerie for a number of reasons,

[00:33:39] and I think might actually have some of the most bizarre stories and lore associated with it,

[00:33:44] even though there isn't much mystery surrounding what actually happened here. Which you and I have stayed at a time with a dog mayor, remember? Idlewild, California, Max, Max the Golden Retriever, adorable. Dog mayor, dude. Dog mayor. Well, as you know, I've driven across this country many times, and I've seen a lot of towns. Fuck it. They're putting us cities that aren't as nice as Max's. So maybe we all need a dog mayor.

[00:35:00] Well, you know, maybe Max should seek higher office.

[00:35:03] He should run.

[00:35:04] He should run in 2024. Yeah, we looked, we double checked guys, we double checked and there's nothing in here that says he can't. And the thing is, all we know is they have to be 35 years old. It doesn't say dog years, it just says 35. What is 35 in dog years? Like two, so a puppy could run for president in dog years. Just an unlearned dog could be president.

[00:36:22] I think it's five years of 35 human years.

[00:36:24] I'm gonna do a nationwide search for five-year-old golden retrievers were dogs. Well, listen, we're going to find this dog in dogtown because there were apparently many, many dogs there, and some people think that it came from the fact that as the town emptied out and everybody left or died,

[00:37:40] that all of the dogs became feral and started living in the woods and howling and stuff.

[00:37:46] But we'll get to that in a minute. they started wandering around and howling. Or another reason the name dog town stuck is because of all the vagabonds or dogs who moved into the empty houses and started squatting on the land. Is that what they recalled? They called hobo's dogs? I don't know if they called them dogs to their faces or if it just was sort of like, oh, yeah that dog town. Do you think this was the birth of Lady in the Tramp?

[00:39:01] Because a tramp is another term for like a vagabond. Right. And it's a dog.

[00:40:06] basically 1800s John Waters characters all started living here. And then of course there were the witches. Rumors spread of strange booms, lights, and fires coming from the area that was dogtown.

[00:40:13] In fact, there was one woman named Tomazine Tammy Younger who was described as the queen of the

[00:40:19] witches by Thomas Dresser in his book Dogtown, you got to get the stink of this non-traveling circus out of here.

[00:41:40] Yeah.

[00:41:41] Yeah.

[00:41:42] So it's just a wooded area that's co-owned.

[00:41:43] You can still go visit and you can still get maps that include the modern streets as Not only was she flying around on this broomstick in her human form, but one day she did Yeah, well, I think- She technically transformed into it because there's a bullet in her leg. I think the legend is a little unclear here. I think- No, this is fact. You're just reading fact. That's true. So basically, they shot this Crow with a button and I guess the Crow must have fallen from the sky to a meteor like on the other side of the woods so that she was able to

[00:44:22] limp back to her house.

[00:44:24] To me, the way I read it was- Well, first I read it as, yes, a Crow on a projection, but you're thinking projection in the technological hologram sense. I'm saying, even if she projected herself as a physical crow, the crow would have to, it can't be two things. It can't be... Bro, you don't know what you're talking about because I am also a bald eagle right now. I'm a bald eagle. Do you think bald eagles know what they are to America?

[00:45:42] I don't know, but I did see one.

[00:45:43] I saw a bald eagle actually fairly up close you'd be doing in the 1800s or the early 1800s. Like you weren't blowing up your meth lab, you weren't building bombs. Well you had dynamite in everything and by this point. That's true. You can also just be banging on like the side of a kettle. Like you can make loud noises pretty easily. Sure, that's true. But I don't know, banging on the side of a kettle wouldn't create a boom.

[00:47:00] It would create a clanking noise.

[00:47:02] I don't know.

[00:47:03] By 1828, the village is all College, he, during the Great Depression, hired some out-of-work stone cutters to go to Dogtown and cut sort of like inspirational phrases into different bowlers that were in the area. So there's bowlers there that just have phrases

[00:48:20] like when work stops, values crumble,

[00:48:23] and very Puritan kind of stuff,

[00:48:25] like stay out of debt, one of the rock says. whatever fish people can provide. So yeah, go visit Dogtown and take some pictures and find a rock. Tell us about the interesting rocks, we love it. If you want to do that, we, for legal reasons, can't tell you to do anything. But if you feel so inclined to go to Dogtown

[00:49:40] and say pictures, touch a rock, see a rock,

[00:49:42] we think that's great and would love to do it ourselves.

[00:49:46] But again, the producers of Scared All Time It established a school, a grocery store, a post office, and it became one of the largest towns in the area at the time. The population spiked up to about 1,500 people, which for that part of Michigan in that time was pretty big. Way more kids than they were in my high school. Yeah, but then in 1893, Diphtheria spread to the village and killed pretty much everybody.

[00:51:01] That's not one of the worst things that can happen.

[00:51:03] It is, but then they bounced back,

[00:51:06] only for Diphtheria to return in 1897. remains about a mile south of where the town once stood. And according to some people who have visited, you can still see imprints in the ground where some of the buildings were, which when I visited an abandoned town, that was one of the eeriest things to me. It was seeing like literally outlines of life, like where there had been a thriving community, and now you're literally just seeing like outlines.

[00:52:20] I mean, those are called ruins.

[00:52:22] Yeah, but they weren't even it was the outlines of where houses had stood was almost even

[00:52:27] more upsetting than crumbling buildings. Well, in any case, the belief is that the diphtheria was the result of a curse that this woman placed on the town went to die. Oh, this is pre-diphtheria. Pre-first diphtheria? I believe so, yes. So this lady was like, if I'm going out, you're getting two rounds of diphtheria. And if that's true, then God bless her because she fucking won. I think the devil blessed her at that point.

[00:53:41] Although, unclear...

[00:53:43] Oh, God, he's done some pretty naughty stuff in the first testament.

[00:53:47] Yeah. But my question is, who are the other eight Midwestern witches in this bracket? I think, you know, Sally Cauldron is probably in there. Yeah, Typhoid Betty. Typhoid Betty. Fucking Broomstick, Broom Hilda. Pretty good. So if you know who any of the other top 10 witch graves in the Midwest are, let us know.

[00:55:00] We didn't dig them up.

[00:55:02] But I'm curious.

[00:55:04] That brings us to the question of the hour.

[00:55:07] Will you die if you visit? Australia. Why was it abandoned? I had a spectral kangaroos. No, blue asbestos, a very, a very real fear and problem. It was approximately 1,420 kilometers north northeast of Perth. It was a thriving mining town for blue asbestos. However, the mine was shut down in 1966 due

[00:56:23] to its unprofability and growing health concerns from asbestos agent in the Mojave Desert. So the war on Christmas is a real thing? Yeah, and this lady, real estate agent Nina Talbot led the charge. She set this place up in the Mojave Desert and it consisted of peppermint-stripe buildings with green shingles and red trimming. It had a Christmas tree and a gift shop, a post office where you could send letters

[00:57:40] that would be postmarked from Santa Claus.

[00:57:43] And it flourished as a holiday-themed destination, but it's also super eerie because although I guess by Mark Fisher's definition This would maybe technically be weird, but it's a Christmas town in the middle of Arizona Which on its own is disgusting to me like I really have a problem with I don't like Christmas in California

[00:59:01] I don't like Christmas anywhere, Sonny

[00:59:02] I never want to vacation in Hawaii during Christmas. There like, are you fucking nuts? You're gonna, you crazy kids with the fuck out of there. So I guess it does elicit a visceral reaction of worry that someone's gonna get hurt in an abandoned town because by virtue of it being abandoned,

[01:00:21] it's already like disarray.

[01:00:23] It's all rotted wood and rusty metal.

[01:00:26] And so I think there's a genuine fear go in the abandoned asylum and get that shit and bring it back to California. Exactly, and if the kids didn't come back, they would just keep sending P.A. It's behind. But it's something that's funny because that rumor permeated to young kids. Like there were children talking about behind the scenes of movies. There were children talking about Dollytract. It's so weird to me, but everyone knew,

[01:01:40] like at some point someone would inevitably say,

[01:01:42] you know they actually left equipment there,

[01:01:44] like they were so scared.

[01:01:45] But there were many, many, I have lots of dreams about being in an abandoned place. I have lots of dreams about being the last person alive or walking outside and everyone's gone. And there's something about that eeriness like that Mark Fisher quote from the beginning of the episode, the eeriness of a place where there's nothing left that really I just find

[01:03:04] haunting and it gets those three sections. And I told them we're going to steal that compartmentalization aspect, and they wrote all yours. And I

[01:04:22] can screenshot that. So we legally have it now. a Christmas episode and the week after that with a year-end wrap-up and we will see you all then. This has been Scared All The Time. I'm Chris Kalari. And I'm Edvacola. And we'll see you next week. Scared all the time. It's co-produced and written by Chris Kalari and Edvacola. Edited by Edvacola.

[01:05:40] Additional support and keeper of sanity test-fifle.

[01:05:43] Our theme is The Track Scared by Perpetual Stew

[01:05:47] and Mr. Disclaimer is f***ing f***ing.