Speaker 1: Hello friends. This video was suggested by longtime subscriber and fan,
Speaker 1: Kendall Berg. She writes in the comments section, Please do
Speaker 1: Crater Lake, Oregon. I'm an Oregon native and would love
Speaker 1: to hear stories from my home state. Also, I love
Speaker 1: your channel. Thank you for all the stories.
Speaker 2: I love them.
Speaker 1: Well, Kendall, thank you for your comment. We appreciate your
Speaker 1: kind words. And we also took your request to heart. So,
Speaker 1: Kendall and everyone, please join us now for five strange
Speaker 1: disappearances and mysteries from Crater Lake, Oregon. Now, some of
Speaker 1: these stories can be found in my latest book, National
Speaker 1: Park Mysteries and Disappearances, Volume 3, The Pacific Northwest, which
Speaker 1: includes Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. It's available from Amazon in
Speaker 1: Kindle and paperback format, and it's also available wherever fine
Speaker 1: books are sold. There is a link in the description. Now,
Speaker 1: on to Crater Lake. First, I feel a little background
Speaker 1: and history is in order. Crater Lake National Park was
Speaker 1: established in 1902 and is located in southern Oregon. In total,
Speaker 1: the park covers 183,224 acres, which includes Crater Lake and
Speaker 1: the surrounding hills and forests. Many years ago, Mount Mazama collapsed,
Speaker 1: creating a nearly 2,118-foot-deep caldera that partially fills Crater Lake.
Speaker 1: The amount of water in the lake is replaced approximately
Speaker 1: every 250 years by rain and snow, which offsets the evaporation.
Speaker 1: This is the deepest lake in the United States, measuring
Speaker 1: some 1,949 feet. For maximum depth, it ranks ninth in
Speaker 1: the world, while for mean-slash-average depth, it ranks third. There
Speaker 1: are two small islands in Crater Lake. Located near the
Speaker 1: lake's western shore, Wizard Island is approximately 316 acres in size,
Speaker 1: while Phantom Ship, a natural rock pillar, is located near
Speaker 1: its southern shore. Because the lake has no inlets or tributaries,
Speaker 1: its waters are some of the purest in the world
Speaker 1: due to the lack of pollutants. There are relatively high
Speaker 1: levels of dissolved salts in the lake as well. Due
Speaker 1: to its high elevation and influence from the Pacific, Crater
Speaker 1: Lake has a subalpine climate. Summers are mild and dry,
Speaker 1: but winters are cold and snowy, with average snowfalls reaching
Speaker 1: 505 inches per year and maximum snow cover of 139
Speaker 1: inches or 3.53 meters. It usually takes until mid-July for
Speaker 1: the snow to melt. Even into the summer, hard frosts
Speaker 1: are possible in the Crater Lake area. The surface temperature
Speaker 1: of the lake ranges from 33 degrees Fahrenheit to 66 degrees.
Speaker 1: In the summertime, the lake normally fluctuates between 50 and
Speaker 1: 60 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result of the collapse of
Speaker 1: Mount Mazama, Crater Lake had no fish until a man
Speaker 1: named William G. Steele decided to stock it in 1888
Speaker 1: in order to allow for fishing. The fish were regularly
Speaker 1: stocked until 1941, when it became evident that the fish
Speaker 1: could maintain a stable population without assistance from the outside.
Speaker 1: Two fish species have survived from the original stocking, cocaine
Speaker 1: salmon and rainbow trout, with the salmon being the most abundant.
Speaker 1: As part of its history, Crater Lake is also known
Speaker 1: for the Old Man of the Lake. a full-sized tree
Speaker 1: that's been bobbing in the water for over a century.
Speaker 1: As a result of the low temperatures of the lake,
Speaker 1: the decomposition of the wood has been slowed considerably. Crater
Speaker 1: Lake is sacred to the Klamath tribe, the Native Americans
Speaker 1: indigenous to the area. Generations ago, they told of it
Speaker 1: being the crossing point between Skel, a spirit from above,
Speaker 1: and Lau, a spirit from below. Andrea Langford, author of
Speaker 1: Haunted Hikes, Spine-tingling Tales and Trails from North America's National
Speaker 1: Parks writes this of Crater Lake. Lau and Skell fought
Speaker 1: gory battles here. Lau ripped Skell's heart from his chest,
Speaker 1: and Skell retaliated by dismembering Lau and throwing the body
Speaker 1: parts into the lake. Hideous monsters gobbled up everything but
Speaker 1: Lau's head, but the lake still holds Lau's spirit. When stirred,
Speaker 1: he may brew up storm clouds. When angered, he may
Speaker 1: appear in the form of a giant crayfish that climbs
Speaker 1: up out of the lake snatches people off the rim
Speaker 1: of the crater that surrounds the lake and drags them
Speaker 1: down into the water. So, now that we know what
Speaker 1: Crater Lake is, how it was formed, and what it
Speaker 1: represents to the indigenous tribes of the area, let us
Speaker 1: look into the first disappearance, that of little Sammy Bulkey.
Speaker 1: In the early afternoon of October 14, 2006, Sammy Bulkey,
Speaker 1: aged 8, was playing near the Cleetwood Cove area in
Speaker 1: Crater Lake National Park with his father, Kenneth Bulkey, 48.
Speaker 1: Sammy disappeared into the woods after running up a cinder slope.
Speaker 1: Despite his passion for life, Sammy was stubborn at times. Also,
Speaker 1: as a result of having a mild form of autism,
Speaker 1: he was terrified of loud noises and bright lights. At
Speaker 1: the time of his disappearance, Sammy stood 4 feet 11
Speaker 1: inches tall, weighed 85 pounds, and had short brown hair
Speaker 1: and brown eyes. The last time he was seen, he
Speaker 1: was wearing a long-sleeved black and green t-shirt, jeans, a
Speaker 1: blue coat, and red suede slip-on shoes with rubber soles.
Speaker 1: While the little boy did have camping experience, he had
Speaker 1: no formal wilderness survival training given his young age. At
Speaker 1: around 4 p.m. that day, the Bulkey family had pulled
Speaker 1: over at a pullout 500 yards east of the Cleetwood
Speaker 1: Cove parking lot area and were walking north along Rim Drive.
Speaker 1: Sammy and his father were playing hide-and-seek on a gravel slope.
Speaker 1: and Sammy saw some yellow that he thought might be gold.
Speaker 1: Sammy stayed on the slope, refusing to come down, and
Speaker 1: as darkness approached, his father walked a short distance to
Speaker 1: their car to return to their Diamond Lake cabin. Kenny
Speaker 1: Bulkey chased after Sammy, but Sammy stayed at least 50
Speaker 1: feet ahead, likely considering it a game. I never caught
Speaker 1: up with him, his father said, and at that point
Speaker 1: he disappeared over the top somewhere and I lost him.
Speaker 1: Within a matter of hours, more than 200 people were
Speaker 1: combing an area of about 6 square miles, or 4,000 acres. Dogs, helicopters,
Speaker 1: and heat-sensing cameras were used to search for the boy
Speaker 1: for a week, but he was never found. Authorities said
Speaker 1: a helicopter crew spotted some tracks, but they turned out
Speaker 1: to be most likely animal tracks. After that, the search
Speaker 1: continued intermittently despite heavy snowfalls in the area. 7,000 feet
Speaker 1: above sea level, the park gets more than 500 inches
Speaker 1: of snow per year. Although it was unlikely Sammy would
Speaker 1: have fallen into the lake because of obstacles on the slope,
Speaker 1: technical climbing crews searched the slopes from the rim of
Speaker 1: the caldera down to the shoreline. Participating in the search
Speaker 1: were SAR teams from Jackson, Klamath, and Deschutes counties, National
Speaker 1: Park Service searchers, and trackers from California, Washington, and Oregon.
Speaker 1: Mount Hood and Mount Rainier rescue teams were also involved,
Speaker 1: as well as volunteers consisting of employees from the Bureau
Speaker 1: of Land Management and the U.S.
Speaker 2: Forest Service.
Speaker 1: It seems more than a little odd that a boy
Speaker 1: of Sammy's age who was just slightly autistic would run
Speaker 1: off into the woods without any reason at all and
Speaker 1: continue going until he was out of sight and hearing
Speaker 1: range of his father. Because it was cold, his first
Speaker 1: instinct we would think would be to turn around and
Speaker 1: return to his dad, especially if he was calling for him,
Speaker 1: no matter how long he'd been hidden from him. Sadly,
Speaker 1: no trace was ever found, and Sammy remains missing. Next up,
Speaker 1: we have the strange disappearance of Derek Ingebretson. East of
Speaker 1: the Cascade Range in south-central Oregon lies Upper Klamath Lake,
Speaker 1: a large, shallow freshwater lake. Pelican Butte rises over 3,800
Speaker 1: feet above the shore of Crater Lake and is a
Speaker 1: steep-sided dormant volcano located 28 miles south of the crater.
Speaker 1: Sometime in the afternoon on December 5th, 1998, Derek Ingebretson,
Speaker 1: His father, Robert, and his grandfather, Bob, 64, set out
Speaker 1: for a densely wooded mountainside above Upper Klamath Lake, about
Speaker 1: 30 miles north of Klamath Falls. They planned to find
Speaker 1: a Christmas tree for the holiday season. Derek was lost
Speaker 1: and never seen again. Because of his love of the outdoors,
Speaker 1: Derek was known as Bear Boy, even at the age
Speaker 1: of eight. A week after he was born, his mother
Speaker 1: carried him on a bear hunt in a pack. In
Speaker 1: his youth, he hunted with his father and picked mushrooms
Speaker 1: with his mother's father. On several of his mushroom expedition outings,
Speaker 1: he had visited Pelican Butte in the past. The Ingebrigtsen
Speaker 1: family did not plan to go Christmas tree hunting that
Speaker 1: year in the woods, although Robert looked forward to a
Speaker 1: family Christmas tree hunt every year. It was his wife
Speaker 1: Lori who convinced him to use an artificial tree that year.
Speaker 1: Lori wanted to keep the mess to a minimum, but
Speaker 1: when a disabled neighbor asked for a tree, Robert decided
Speaker 1: to go into the woods. Bob remembers telling the group
Speaker 1: that since it was already 2 p.m., it would be
Speaker 1: dark around 4 p.m. since it was late in the year,
Speaker 1: and he was driving along West Side Road in his
Speaker 1: red Toyota pickup. On his way to Rocky Point Resort,
Speaker 1: Bob pulled into a turnout at milepost 12. The three
Speaker 1: of them climbed up an embankment into a pine forest,
Speaker 1: and Robert helped Derek get into his blue snowsuit. Derek
Speaker 1: walked behind Robert, who told him to stay with his grandfathers.
Speaker 1: Derek nagged his grandfather that he wanted to catch up
Speaker 1: with his dad as he chopped up small trees with
Speaker 1: his hatchet. At some point, the grandfather relented and the
Speaker 1: boy headed off in search of his father. With the
Speaker 1: darkness closing in, Robert and Bob met back up and
Speaker 1: asked each other, Where's Derek? Robert recalls asking. Grandpa Bob replied,
Speaker 1: I thought he was with you. No, he was with you.
Speaker 1: Despite the steady falling of heavy wet snow, Robert turned
Speaker 1: on his heels and went back up the hill. He
Speaker 1: called out to Derek, but no response came. Robert then
Speaker 1: flagged down a man named Fred Hines, a motorist who
Speaker 1: was driving along at about 4.13 p.m., and requested he
Speaker 1: dial 911 so the authorities could be notified. In the resort,
Speaker 1: two miles away from the area where Derek vanished, Hines
Speaker 1: made the call. Over the course of two weeks, hundreds
Speaker 1: of people searched through several feet of snow, using snowmobiles
Speaker 1: and dogs to search for Derek. Lori slept in a
Speaker 1: donated camper van at the turnout, hoping Derek might see
Speaker 1: the bonfire and come to her. Once, she thought she
Speaker 1: saw Derek waving and smiling at her. However, it turned
Speaker 1: out she was just delirious from lack of sleep. Derek's
Speaker 1: tracks were found by Robert, his dad, and other members
Speaker 1: of the family in the newly fallen snow in the
Speaker 1: hours immediately following his disappearance. Apparently, Derek had laid down
Speaker 1: in a clearing near the road to make a snow angel,
Speaker 1: but his boot prints were spotted near the spot where
Speaker 1: Robert had last seen him. There had been a snow
Speaker 1: plow that came by, and sadly, the tracks leading away
Speaker 1: from the angel were obliterated. There were no tracks leading
Speaker 1: towards the woods from the snow angel. A small area
Speaker 1: of trees near the road was damaged by Derek's hatchet cuts.
Speaker 1: His father was confident that his son did not re-enter
Speaker 1: the woods. Early in the evening, five to eight inches
Speaker 1: of snow had fallen on the point. A candy wrapper
Speaker 1: was found and a makeshift lean-to shelter was found made
Speaker 1: out of branches, but it was unclear whether the candy
Speaker 1: wrapper or the lean-to were the handiwork of Derek. Derek's
Speaker 1: family believed that he had made his way to the
Speaker 1: road and was probably picked up by a stranger, although
Speaker 1: this explanation was, for some reason, dismissed by the sheriff.
Speaker 1: Bob discovered a hole in the ice and a child's
Speaker 1: footprint on the bank during the search. The next day, however,
Speaker 1: divers searched this area and additional searches were carried out
Speaker 1: during the spring thaw.
Speaker 2: However, nothing was found.
Speaker 1: Lori and Robert were informed, sadly, by the Klamath County
Speaker 1: authorities that their son was most likely deceased. eight days
Speaker 1: after he disappeared. During the next seven days, Robert, Lori,
Speaker 1: and about 100 volunteers stayed on the mountain. Speculation intensified
Speaker 1: that Derek had been kidnapped. When sub-zero temperatures forced the
Speaker 1: Ingebretsons to end their search on December 18, 1998, Robert
Speaker 1: drove straight from his graveyard shift at work to the
Speaker 1: mountain to meet Lori every weekend for the next two years.
Speaker 1: These search areas were marked on a map by the couple.
Speaker 1: It was widely believed that the authorities were too slow
Speaker 1: to arrive at the scene the night Derek disappeared, which
Speaker 1: led to criticism of the search and rescue effort. The
Speaker 1: search did not begin in earnest until nearly five hours
Speaker 1: after the first 911 call because the coordinator was reluctant
Speaker 1: to interrupt a Christmas dinner at Molly's Restaurant for the
Speaker 1: annual award dinner of the Klamath County Search and Rescue
Speaker 1: Team before he was certain a rescue was needed. Despite
Speaker 1: passing polygraphs, Robert and Grandpa Bob remained suspects in Derek's case,
Speaker 1: and at least thought to have been negligent in some way.
Speaker 1: Despite the grandfather's insistence, Robert no longer spoke to him.
Speaker 1: The blame for not finding Derek did indeed go to
Speaker 1: the father, but the father, felt to blame for losing him,
Speaker 1: went to Grandpa Bob. Ingebrigtsen was too overwhelmed with guilt
Speaker 1: to even think of talking about it. Robert took leave
Speaker 1: of work for several weeks, and Derek's family spent thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars looking for him. They even paid for psychics
Speaker 1: and a boat to search Klamath Lake. They eventually went
Speaker 1: bankrupt due to these efforts. The authorities claimed that Derek
Speaker 1: had simply wandered off into the woods and died, and
Speaker 1: his remains had been scattered by animals. However, the Ingebrigtsen
Speaker 1: family never really believed that, especially since no remains, torn clothing,
Speaker 1: nothing was ever found. There was even a witness who
Speaker 1: said he had seen a man and a boy struggling
Speaker 1: on a highway nearby. Then, in 1999, strange graffiti was
Speaker 1: found scrawled on a rest area bathroom near Burns, stating
Speaker 1: that Derek had been killed and buried. It was later
Speaker 1: ruled a cruel hoax by the FBI. A boy named
Speaker 1: Derek was found in Texas under unusual circumstances, and he
Speaker 1: looked a lot like the Ingebretsons' son, but was actually
Speaker 1: a different person. Then, later on in 2000, after several
Speaker 1: days of waiting for confirmation, A bone discovered in Pelican
Speaker 1: Butte was identified as being from a deer. In 2001,
Speaker 1: the family mailbox received a handwritten letter. The letter read,
Speaker 1: I know who took your son. On July 11, 2000,
Speaker 1: Frank J. Milligan, 31-year-old state youth authority worker, approached a
Speaker 1: 10-year-old boy at a Dallas park and offered him $ 100
Speaker 1: to mow his lawn. In Milligan's car, the man asked
Speaker 1: the boy, Do you want to live or die? Milligan
Speaker 1: bound the boy's hands with duct tape and then forced
Speaker 1: him to walk down a dirt road where he assaulted him.
Speaker 1: After this vicious assault, Miller left the boy for dead.
Speaker 1: Despite the odds, the boy woke up covered in his
Speaker 1: own blood and got to a road where a passing
Speaker 1: motorist stopped to help him. In this letter to the
Speaker 1: police and the Ingebretsons, admitted that Milligan had confessed to.
Speaker 2: Doing away with Derek.
Speaker 1: The letter arrived at the Ingebretson home in late 2001.
Speaker 1: In another letter that arrived at the home in 2001,
Speaker 1: Milligan's cellmate claimed that Milligan had admitted to him that
Speaker 1: he had been the one that ended young Derek's life.
Speaker 1: A detective from the Oregon State Police who investigated the
Speaker 1: Dallas case confronted Milligan. Milligan reportedly confessed to the crime
Speaker 1: and agreed to lead investigators to the body. The FBI
Speaker 1: used ground-penetrating radar to scam for bones at Silver Falls
Speaker 1: State Park southeast of Salem, Oregon, where Lori and Robert
Speaker 1: drove for five hours. There were no results after several
Speaker 1: days of searching. An assistant district attorney told the Ingebrigtsen
Speaker 1: that Milligan had agreed to plead guilty to killing the
Speaker 1: young boy if they spared him the death penalty. However,
Speaker 1: after Milligan was presented with the paperwork a few days later,
Speaker 1: he refused to sign the confession. Was Derek Ingebrigtsen abducted
Speaker 1: by Frank Milligan or someone else, as the police believed?
Speaker 1: Or did he simply die from the cold or maybe
Speaker 1: even an animal attack? This mysterious case remains unsolved. Next up,
Speaker 1: Charles McCuller, the Melting Man of Crater Lake. January 7th, 1975.
Speaker 1: 18-year-old aspiring photographer Charles McCuller was a free spirit at heart.
Speaker 1: He was living in Virginia when he decided there was
Speaker 1: so much to explore in national parks across the United States.
Speaker 1: Charles was said to be very reliable and kept in
Speaker 1: close contact with his family, even on the long trips
Speaker 1: that he liked to take. Deciding to put more effort
Speaker 1: into his photography and wanting to visit a friend in Oregon,
Speaker 1: Charles packed a small backpack and left everything else behind,
Speaker 1: even his beloved Volkswagen bus. He would make his way
Speaker 1: across the country with the occasional bus ride, but mostly
Speaker 1: by hitchhiking. He wanted to see all the national parks
Speaker 1: in the United States, and one of those parks, in particular,
Speaker 1: caught his attention. Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. It
Speaker 1: was a convenient place for him to start, as his
Speaker 1: friend lived nearby. Very little facts surround this case, and
Speaker 1: Charles passed, so why he decided to leave at the
Speaker 1: very moment he did is still unclear. What was clear, however,
Speaker 1: by a conversation he had with his father, was that
Speaker 1: Charles wanted something different, and he was going to start
Speaker 1: his search at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Charles
Speaker 1: McCullough would leave Virginia the very next day. Sadly, this
Speaker 1: would be the last time his family would ever see him.
Speaker 1: January 8th, 1975, mostly hitchhiking across the United States, Charles'
Speaker 1: first significant stop was in Yuma, Arizona. Between January 16th
Speaker 1: and the 22nd of that year, he had regular contact
Speaker 1: with his parents, calling often to check in and update
Speaker 1: them on his progress and future plans. On January 29th,
Speaker 1: Charles placed one more call to his parents to let
Speaker 1: them know he had made it to Eugene, Oregon and
Speaker 1: was staying with his friend. This was the last call
Speaker 1: the McCullers would receive from their son. He told his
Speaker 1: friends that he would be staying at Crater Lake for
Speaker 1: two days because he wanted to photograph the area's winter
Speaker 1: landscape and that if he wasn't back by February 1st
Speaker 1: to send help. This was the last contact Charles' friends
Speaker 1: ever had with him. It was reported during the search
Speaker 1: several people saw Charles around the Diamond Lake area on
Speaker 1: the 29th and a man that was cutting trees close
Speaker 1: to the park had picked Charles up and dropped him
Speaker 1: off near the park entrance. Not being from the area,
Speaker 1: Charles wasn't well versed with the terrain he planned to photograph.
Speaker 1: The winter months at Crater Lake can be very and
Speaker 1: unexpectedly harsh for the ill-prepared. In fact, it's not rare
Speaker 1: for the area to see several feet of snow from
Speaker 1: one storm. And at the time of Charles' disappearance, The
Speaker 1: weather report for Crater Lake stated there was 24 to
Speaker 1: 90 inches on the ground with snow drifts of over
Speaker 1: 20 feet. Temperatures at that time were well below freezing,
Speaker 1: dipping down into the teens at night and just over
Speaker 1: freezing during the day. Wind gusts themselves hampered search and
Speaker 1: rescue efforts, which were compounded and made worse with the
Speaker 1: blowing snow. February 1st had came and went and there
Speaker 1: was no word from Charles. He was reported missing by
Speaker 1: his friends that day. The search for Charles McCullough was
Speaker 1: underway at a rapid pace. The teams knew they had
Speaker 1: to make haste as the weather was already bad and
Speaker 1: was getting worse and wouldn't hold for very long as
Speaker 1: there was a storm forecast for that night which called
Speaker 1: for more heavy snow and gale-force winds up to 60 mph.
Speaker 1: Ground and aerial searches lasted for that day and into
Speaker 1: the night and early morning hours of February 2nd. The
Speaker 1: search was called off around 2 a.m. due to worsening
Speaker 1: weather conditions. The search continued intermittently over the next several days,
Speaker 1: although with a scaled-down number of searchers, again due to
Speaker 1: the weather conditions. Local police didn't contact the McCullers until
Speaker 1: February 10th, to notify them about their son's disappearance. Also
Speaker 1: notified at the same time was the FBI. Both Charles'
Speaker 1: parents and the FBI made their way to the park
Speaker 1: and joined in the search efforts. The efforts were still slow, though,
Speaker 1: as the snowdrifts from the latest storm were 12 feet
Speaker 1: deep or more, making it almost impossible to even find
Speaker 1: where Charles' camp may have been located. The initial search
Speaker 1: lasted for months without any sign of him being found whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Charles' father stayed at Crater Lake, camping by the shoreline
Speaker 1: throughout that spring and summer, tirelessly looking for his son. Sadly,
Speaker 1: he never found anything. A full year and a half later,
Speaker 1: two hikers that were on the Pacific Crest Trail made
Speaker 1: a long turn and ended up 12 miles into a
Speaker 1: remote and boggy area of the park where they came
Speaker 1: upon a thread-bearing backpack that contained, among other things, a
Speaker 1: Volkswagen key. The hikers marked the area with a piece
Speaker 1: of clothing, then made their way to the ranger station
Speaker 1: and informed them of what they had found, showing them
Speaker 1: the area where to go on a map they had marked.
Speaker 1: While going through the contents of the bag, the hikers
Speaker 1: made a remark about the strange-shaped key that had been found.
Speaker 1: A part-time park ranger that had been part of the
Speaker 1: initial search for Charles, named Marion Jack, happened to be
Speaker 1: at the ranger station that day and overheard the conversation.
Speaker 1: His curiosity aroused, he walked over to the men and
Speaker 1: looked at the key. He remembered the flyers that were
Speaker 1: made when Charles went missing and one of the photos
Speaker 1: on the flyer was of the key. It turned out
Speaker 1: to be an important piece of evidence, one they could
Speaker 1: link to Charles McCullough. A new search party was formed
Speaker 1: and from the information given by the hikers, they trekked
Speaker 1: into Sphagnum Bog, an area that was a full 12
Speaker 1: miles off trail of where Charles was supposed to have been.
Speaker 1: The key that was found was later matched to the
Speaker 1: one Charles owned. Further searches would turn up a mysterious
Speaker 1: scene indeed. Charles' remains were found in a state of
Speaker 1: undress and only his lower half was left. His jeans
Speaker 1: were unbuttoned and his belt undone. His legs were broken
Speaker 1: at the shin bones and they were sticking straight up.
Speaker 1: His socks contained his feet bones. The only other part
Speaker 1: of the body that was found was the crown of
Speaker 1: his skull and it was over 10 feet away from
Speaker 1: the other parts of his body. It was as if
Speaker 1: his upper body simply melted away. His camera equipment, along
Speaker 1: with his money, boots, coat, and shirt were all missing
Speaker 1: just as was the rest of him. The creepiest part
Speaker 1: was his jeans were found in a sitting position on
Speaker 1: a falling log. It was as if he had just
Speaker 1: been sitting, staring at the lake when the unthinkable happened.
Speaker 1: Some have speculated that Charles McCullough was suffering from hypothermia,
Speaker 1: which caused a condition known as paradoxical undressing. This condition
Speaker 1: happens when the core body temperature drops below 94 degrees
Speaker 1: Celsius and because of the heat loss, victims begin to
Speaker 1: think they are too hot. They start removing their clothing
Speaker 1: to alleviate the heat, when in reality, they are freezing
Speaker 1: to death all the more faster. This theory would explain
Speaker 1: his missing clothes, but what about the money and the
Speaker 1: camera equipment? And what happened to the other half of
Speaker 1: his remains? How did he get a full 12 miles
Speaker 1: into this bog and snow that was over 100 inches deep?
Speaker 1: And why was the FBI called in to search for Charles?
Speaker 1: In 2016, Stephen McCullough wrote an article on his brother's case.
Speaker 1: It reads, quote, If only those broken shin bones could
Speaker 1: have talked to us. What do you think they would say?
Speaker 1: I bet they'd say something like this. I hitched a
Speaker 1: ride with this creepy guy who stole my camera equipment
Speaker 1: and money and then took my life. Then on a
Speaker 1: clear day in the dead of winter, he hauled my
Speaker 1: body into the remotest part of Crater Lake, took my
Speaker 1: shirt and boots off, and set me up on a
Speaker 1: log and left. figuring the animals would destroy the evidence
Speaker 1: by spring. And hey, I guess it worked, because the
Speaker 1: cops ruled the death to be from natural causes. My
Speaker 1: dad doesn't buy it, though. At the time of this recording,
Speaker 1: there have been no new developments in the sad case
Speaker 1: of Charles McCullough. Next up, a 70-year-old mystery in Crater
Speaker 1: Lake National Park. On July 21st, 1952, while searching for
Speaker 1: missing United Service Motors executives on a beautiful sunny summer's
Speaker 1: day at Crater Lake National Park, a group of part-time
Speaker 1: park workers found the bodies of the two men who
Speaker 1: had been murdered, execution style. Their neckties had been used
Speaker 1: as gags and remained in their mouths. Could this case
Speaker 1: have been solved 70 years ago? First, let's take a
Speaker 1: look at who they were. The men found on the
Speaker 1: trail that day were 53-year-old Charles Patrick Culhaney of Detroit, Michigan,
Speaker 1: and 56-year-old Albert Marston Jones of San Francisco, California. Both
Speaker 1: men were United Service Motor Executives, an ancillary company of
Speaker 1: General Motors.
Speaker 2: The men were at Crater.
Speaker 1: Lake National Park to do some sightseeing and have a
Speaker 1: relaxing day. They'd been in town attending meetings in Klamath
Speaker 1: Falls for the company. Both men wanted to do some
Speaker 1: fishing at the Union Creek area, and had made plans
Speaker 1: to meet up with business associates John Vaughn, Frank Everland,
Speaker 1: and Everland's 13-year-old son. The fishing trip would be later
Speaker 1: in the day, as Vaughn and Everland had to work
Speaker 1: a half-day before they could close the shop. As the
Speaker 1: local men made their way to the fishing spot, they
Speaker 1: passed the South Park entrance around 3 p.m. and saw
Speaker 1: Albert Jones' car, a 1951 green Pontiac, sitting on the
Speaker 1: side of the road on Highway 62. This was near
Speaker 1: the Annie Creek Canyon area. Jones and Cohaney weren't in
Speaker 1: the car, nor around the area. As Vaughn and Everland
Speaker 1: pulled up alongside the car, they could see the passenger
Speaker 1: door ajar, which seemed to be off to them. Exiting
Speaker 1: their vehicle, they called out for Jones and Cohaney, but
Speaker 1: never got an answer. Luggage could be seen from the window,
Speaker 1: as well as a camera sitting on the seat and
Speaker 1: the car keys still hung from the ignition. Vaughn touched
Speaker 1: the hood of the car and found it to still
Speaker 1: be warm. The three men stood around talking for a bit,
Speaker 1: waiting for the others to possibly return. Around an hour later,
Speaker 1: and having searched a little in the meted area, two
Speaker 1: of the three men left to go call for help,
Speaker 1: while the third remained with the car just in case
Speaker 1: they returned. While the two men were gone, Eberlin, who
Speaker 1: was waiting at the car, heard another car approaching. He
Speaker 1: says one car came through crunching gravel, then really took
Speaker 1: off fast. I didn't think much about it at the time,
Speaker 1: but now I wonder if that was them, and they
Speaker 1: were returning to the car and saw someone inside it,
Speaker 1: and adios, let's get out of here. Once alerted, rangers
Speaker 1: started a search that day for the missing men. One
Speaker 1: of the searchers that day was a man named Rex Ash,
Speaker 1: and he was the one who found the bodies. We
Speaker 1: were working west from the highway, all spread out about
Speaker 1: 20 feet apart, he recalls. I thought, oh lordy, there
Speaker 1: they are. It was a really hot summer day, and
Speaker 1: they had started to bloat. I'd never seen a dead
Speaker 1: body before. Ash alerted the other searchers to the find,
Speaker 1: and they all came rushing over. It was a bunch
Speaker 1: of kids, and everyone was gathering around to see what
Speaker 1: was happening, Ash went on to say. We might have
Speaker 1: accidentally destroyed some of the evidence. We didn't touch anything,
Speaker 1: but we tore up the terrain quite a bit. One
Speaker 1: member of the search crew took his camera out and
Speaker 1: started taking pictures. He stepped over Jones and Culhaney and
Speaker 1: around them and practically got in their faces. He had
Speaker 1: plans to sell these to a true crime magazine and
Speaker 1: make a fortune. but fortunately the FBI took them away,
Speaker 1: recalled John Owings, another one of the searchers. Owings and
Speaker 1: Ash were tasked with staying with the bodies until officials
Speaker 1: could arrive. We were sitting there, scared to death, wondering
Speaker 1: which one of us was going to be next, Owings recounted.
Speaker 1: It was one of the worst nights of my life.
Speaker 1: Ash and Owings finished out the summer at the park
Speaker 1: and returned to their respective homes. On Monday, July 21st, 1952,
Speaker 1: at 3.27 p.m., An FBI agent and Oregon State Police
Speaker 1: Private L.W. Herron arrived at the murder scene and took
Speaker 1: over the investigation. Culhaney was the first to be processed.
Speaker 1: He was laying on his back, legs out, and right
Speaker 1: arm across his chest. His dentures were in his shirt pocket.
Speaker 1: He had been shot once in the back of his head.
Speaker 1: In addition to the gunshot wound, his groin area was bruised.
Speaker 1: Jones' fate was similar. He was also on his back.
Speaker 1: feet towards Culhaney, arms by his side, bruised groin, and
Speaker 1: a single gunshot wound to the back of his head.
Speaker 1: What set Jones' injuries apart from Culhaney was his skull
Speaker 1: was fractured. Both men were shoeless, but their socked feet
Speaker 1: were clean. Their ties had been used as gags. Also,
Speaker 1: both men had been robbed as their watches and money
Speaker 1: was missing, and one man's pair of shoes were nowhere
Speaker 1: to be found. Few other clues were found at the scene.
Speaker 1: State Trooper Herron, who has since passed away, was, quote,
Speaker 1: fascinated by the case and worked on it initially. until
Speaker 1: the FBI took over. He talked about it and looked
Speaker 1: into it for a couple of years, end quote. Now
Speaker 1: that's according to his wife, Ruth Herron, now 77 and
Speaker 1: still living in Klamath Falls. Herron had suspected the killers
Speaker 1: were a couple of men named John Wesley Cole and
Speaker 1: Kenneth Moore, both of Chiloquin. A few years before the
Speaker 1: Jones-Kulhaney murders, Moore had been convicted of tying up and
Speaker 1: robbing two trappers in the woods. A woman came forward
Speaker 1: with a story saying that Moore had confessed to the
Speaker 1: murders and had told her late husband. This was according
Speaker 1: to OSP reports. Justice would come swift and harsh to
Speaker 1: Cole and Moore if they were, in fact, guilty of
Speaker 1: the murders. They were both found frozen to death in
Speaker 1: Klamath County in 1962, however. Aaron had suspected the two
Speaker 1: men because they were outlaws around that area at the
Speaker 1: time that the Culhaney and Jones murders occurred. Days after
Speaker 1: the murders, the police talked to over 200 park employees
Speaker 1: and took statements from several people that had been in
Speaker 1: the area. One of those people was Lincoln Lenz. His
Speaker 1: initial report read he, Lenz, was driving canned goods to
Speaker 1: the lodge that he drove a truck for on July 19, 1952.
Speaker 1: He says he saw two men wearing work clothes with
Speaker 1: two other men that were described as white-collar types. The
Speaker 1: men were being led into the woods where the executives
Speaker 1: were later found dead. As he continued down the road
Speaker 1: toward the lodge, he heard what he described as two
Speaker 1: firecracker-type bangs. Later that day, Lenz was followed and harassed
Speaker 1: by two scruffy-looking men, who also followed him the next day.
Speaker 1: This is what made him surmise they were the killers.
Speaker 1: Lenz gave a description of the men. The older one
Speaker 1: was the most distinctive. He wore a beaded belt that
Speaker 1: appeared to spell out Ralph. He had a tattoo of
Speaker 1: a bikini-clad female on his right forearm, and he was
Speaker 1: missing a finger. Lentz said the FBI dismissed the story
Speaker 1: and called him a smart aleck. If the FBI had
Speaker 1: come back to me, I could have showed them even
Speaker 1: where the killer's car had been parked and beer cans
Speaker 1: that might have had their fingerprints, he recounted. He was
Speaker 1: able to remember more details after the initial interview. After
Speaker 1: the lodge had closed in the fall and I returned
Speaker 1: to the University of Oregon, I tried to contact the
Speaker 1: agent several more times. They never returned my calls, possibly
Speaker 1: because they thought it was impossible for me to see
Speaker 1: them walking those guys into the forest and hearing the gunshots,
Speaker 1: even though the area was a quarter of a mile
Speaker 1: off the highway. Two days after the murders, a man
Speaker 1: that gave a fake identification, J.D. Harney, that supposedly lived
Speaker 1: at 536 Plum Street in Medford, Oregon, made a long-distance
Speaker 1: call from a payphone at the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot
Speaker 1: at 1.15 p.m. He asked the operator to put the
Speaker 1: call through the garage, the only one in Fort Klamath,
Speaker 1: a small community near Crater Lake. The operator contacted the
Speaker 1: FBI after hearing of the murders to let them know
Speaker 1: about the strange phone call and the even stranger request
Speaker 1: made by the caller. She recounted that the man seemed
Speaker 1: rather angry, like he wanted to take my head off,
Speaker 1: because she wasn't able to put the call through until 1.45
Speaker 1: later that afternoon. The business, called Wilmer Garage, was closed
Speaker 1: until then. When he finally got through to the garage,
Speaker 1: he told the owners that a friend of his named
Speaker 1: Jones was in the hospital and needed his car picked
Speaker 1: up from the park and stored at their garage until
Speaker 1: he got out. He said the keys were in the ignition.
Speaker 1: The police quickly descended on the area where the call
Speaker 1: was placed from, but no one was there. However, a
Speaker 1: train depot worker was able to give a description of
Speaker 1: the caller. He was around 5'7, sandy-colored hair, slender, and
Speaker 1: was wearing a brightly colored shirt that was yellow and
Speaker 1: red with short sleeves. The police checked out the name
Speaker 1: and address the caller gave, but both were fake. Fingerprints
Speaker 1: were taken from the receiver and the coins inside the phone, however,
Speaker 1: no one was ever identified. In 1994, the granddaughter of
Speaker 1: one of the murdered men had a different take on
Speaker 1: what happened. While going through her late mother's belongings, she
Speaker 1: discovered two letters that were written but unsent. One stated
Speaker 1: that she, the daughter, thought it was an organized hit.
Speaker 1: The letter read, I think they, the Santos gang, saw
Speaker 1: the fancy car and it was a case of robbery.
Speaker 1: even though people say there is more to it than that.
Speaker 1: I just don't think so. I think it was Jack Santo,
Speaker 1: Emmett Perkins, and Barbara Graham and their gang. Their method
Speaker 1: of operation fits, and their motive was always robbery. This
Speaker 1: particular gang was executed in 1955 for other murders. Retired
Speaker 1: Medford police officer Bob Allen said, The FBI swooped in
Speaker 1: and took over the case because it happened in a
Speaker 1: national park. All they could do was speculate about why
Speaker 1: and who had committed such a crime. It just doesn't
Speaker 1: sound like anyone from around here, Allen said. The town's
Speaker 1: worst crime up to that point were safe robbers and
Speaker 1: bad check writers. Last spring, Cheryl Owsey, 47, was taking
Speaker 1: class at Rogue Community College when she heard about the
Speaker 1: Crater Lake murders and decided to write a paper on them.
Speaker 1: She spent over three months investigating the deaths. Her extensive
Speaker 1: report is now part of the files of the Southern
Speaker 1: Oregon Historical Society. Clahaney was a big muckety-muck with the company,
Speaker 1: and there were problems with the union back then.
Speaker 2: It was a hit.
Speaker 1: She gave the presentation on the murders at the Klamath
Speaker 1: County Museum. A little over 30 seniors showed up. The
Speaker 1: last man to walk in was what was described as
Speaker 1: a suspicious-looking man in a long shirt.
Speaker 2: She said.
Speaker 1: Pousy's friend noticed the man because the way he studied
Speaker 1: the names in the guestbook so intensely, and he was
Speaker 1: missing a finger. As of this recording, the Crater Lake
Speaker 1: murders remain unsolved. Last up, we have the legend of
Speaker 1: the missing prospector. The story of the lost cabin mine,
Speaker 1: the cabin, and a prospector known as Set Em Up
Speaker 1: is a legend about an area of land not too
Speaker 1: far from Crater Lake where it was said that the
Speaker 1: man named Set Em Up had successful prospects of the
Speaker 1: gold rush that was hitting the area. The legend, as
Speaker 1: recited by a group of California prospectors from days gone by,
Speaker 1: was told like this. The argument over the first white
Speaker 1: man to discover Crater Lake has been disputed for years.
Speaker 1: In the 1840s, it was said to have been discovered
Speaker 1: by John C. Fremont, while others claim it wasn't until 1853.
Speaker 1: At that time, Oregon's first major gold rush had hit
Speaker 1: the area, and prospectors came from all around, chomping at
Speaker 1: the bit to find their riches. Having already found the
Speaker 1: Jackson Creek area, new prospectors pushed further into the wilderness
Speaker 1: looking for a rumored lost cabin mine that was said
Speaker 1: to be chock full of gold. A group of men
Speaker 1: from California owned a plot of land that said to
Speaker 1: have a small cabin and a gold mine that produced
Speaker 1: a lot of gold on it. One day, the Oregon
Speaker 1: men that owned the land came under attack by local
Speaker 1: natives and to protect their gold, buried a hoard of
Speaker 1: it to keep the natives from taking it. Three of
Speaker 1: the four men were killed. The lone survivor was said
Speaker 1: to have divulged certain landmarks to set him up, leading
Speaker 1: to where the cabin and buried treasure were. Soon after,
Speaker 1: the man gave the information out and he disappeared as well.
Speaker 1: Neither man has ever been found, and the cabin and
Speaker 1: mine's whereabouts are still a mystery to this day. Years later,
Speaker 1: a group of prospectors, also from California, were relaxing in
Speaker 1: a local saloon one night, telling stories of their successes
Speaker 1: and drinking their fill of whiskey. One of the men,
Speaker 1: having had consumed more than needed to loosen his lips,
Speaker 1: was telling his group about the legend of the lost miner,
Speaker 1: the cabin and the gold mine, and the riches contained
Speaker 1: at the mine as well as the cabin. The miner
Speaker 1: was said to return to town with pockets full of
Speaker 1: gold from prospecting the area. The miner, only known as Set-Em-Up,
Speaker 1: because that was how he always greeted people when he
Speaker 1: came into the local saloon, was rumored to have a
Speaker 1: cabin with maps of the missing mine and a loot
Speaker 1: of gold within. When the old miner would need something,
Speaker 1: he would come to town with pockets full of gold
Speaker 1: nuggets from his secret mine. The man also spoke about
Speaker 1: Set-Em-Up having gone missing under strange circumstances. He was headed
Speaker 1: off into the woods with a couple of shady characters
Speaker 1: from Jacksonville that were known thieves. Sitting not too far
Speaker 1: from the California men, a local prospecting group overheard the
Speaker 1: man's tale and took notice. Glancing at each other from
Speaker 1: around the table as they tossed back a strong shot
Speaker 1: of whiskey, the men leaned into each other and quietly
Speaker 1: started to devise their plan. They would follow the Californians
Speaker 1: to the mine and, hey, if they found the old
Speaker 1: man along the way, even better. They would be town
Speaker 1: heroes and maybe he would tell them where the mine
Speaker 1: was for their troubles of searching for him. This search
Speaker 1: for the lost mine and cabin would lead to the
Speaker 1: discovery of Crater Lake. But for now, both groups of
Speaker 1: men had gold in their sights. They would look for
Speaker 1: the missing prospector and his rumored loot, but little did
Speaker 1: they know, the journey they were about to embark upon
Speaker 1: would almost cause them to become missing as well. Now,
Speaker 1: the lost cabin mine wasn't exactly said to be specifically
Speaker 1: in the Crater Lake area. Other sources said it was
Speaker 1: actually in California. The missing miner would return home to
Speaker 1: Jacksonville with his goal to throw off any would-be thieves
Speaker 1: or snoopy men looking to find his secret mine. But,
Speaker 1: being as the California group had prospected all over that
Speaker 1: state and found nothing that resembled the landscape said to
Speaker 1: inhabit the lost cabin nor mine, they were convinced it
Speaker 1: was in Oregon, and specifically just a few miles from
Speaker 1: where they sat. It's said that as soon as the
Speaker 1: California group left for their search, the Oregon group collected
Speaker 1: provisions and set out hot on their trail to share
Speaker 1: in the imagined wealth. The Oregon party had 11 men,
Speaker 1: and the California party had four. Not long after both
Speaker 1: parties set out, they discovered each other, and it became
Speaker 1: a game of cat and mouse. The California group would
Speaker 1: cut through the thick brush, spread out from each other,
Speaker 1: and then double back to confuse the Oregon group. The
Speaker 1: now large group of men had been searching for the
Speaker 1: cabin and gold for days. Their provisions began to dwindle,
Speaker 1: so a truce was called, and the men joined each
Speaker 1: other in order to survive. Realizing they had wandered off
Speaker 1: their objective, but failing to realize just how far they
Speaker 1: were past where they wanted to be, they were getting
Speaker 1: dangerously close to the Rogue River. It was decided at
Speaker 1: this point the healthier, stronger men in the group would
Speaker 1: forge ahead while the others turned back. When the men
Speaker 1: that were continuing left the camp, They had no way
Speaker 1: of knowing just how close one of them would come
Speaker 1: to death that day and would watch another man die.
Speaker 1: By riding on a small trail on a sloping mountain,
Speaker 1: one of the men soon came upon a rim of
Speaker 1: a lake thought to be Klamath Lake, but it was
Speaker 1: actually Crater Lake. He was within feet of falling off
Speaker 1: the edge before his mule stopped. I was convinced that
Speaker 1: had I been on a blind mule, I would have
Speaker 1: ridden right over the edge to my death, Tillman stated.
Speaker 1: Each man looked on in wonder at the lake and
Speaker 1: stated how beautiful it was before making their way back
Speaker 1: into the forest. The men returned to camp and contemplated
Speaker 1: what to call the lake they had just found. Two
Speaker 1: names were chosen, Mysterious Lake and Deep Blue Lake, were
Speaker 1: the last of the two names chosen as a final name.
Speaker 1: The men documented their find by writing each of their
Speaker 1: names on a piece of paper and fixing the paper
Speaker 1: to a stick at the rim of the lake. It
Speaker 1: was decided they would return to Jacksonville, as they hadn't
Speaker 1: found the lost miner, the cabin, nor the gold. The
Speaker 1: men returned to Jacksonville the next day. Some were excited
Speaker 1: over the find of the lake, and others just didn't
Speaker 1: seem to care. By the time they had made it back,
Speaker 1: most of the men were so exhausted and famished they
Speaker 1: couldn't even call the direction of the lake. The other
Speaker 1: men just didn't care. A few years later, Hillman would
Speaker 1: return to the area where the lake had been discovered.
Speaker 1: He had agreed to take a group of people to
Speaker 1: see it, as word had spread by then, and people
Speaker 1: had become curious. Legend has it that as Hillman approached
Speaker 1: the edge of Crater Lake, This time his horse lost
Speaker 1: its balance and fell over the side. Hillman and the
Speaker 1: horse died at the scene. The lake had tried to
Speaker 1: claim him the first time he had come and was
Speaker 1: successful this time. A local Native American medicine man was
Speaker 1: quoted as saying, If that lake wants you, it will
Speaker 1: find a way to take you.
Speaker 2: It's cursed.
Speaker 1: Well friends, there you have it. What do you think
Speaker 1: of these strange true stories from Crater Lake? I look
Speaker 1: forward to your comments, but please keep it friendly and respectful.
Speaker 1: In the meanwhile, be good to yourselves and each other,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you just a little further down the trail.
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Stockton, and I'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 2: Mount St.
Speaker 1: Helens National Volcanic Monument joined the prestigious ranks of national
Speaker 1: parks in August of 1982. President Ronald Reagan understood the
Speaker 1: importance of preserving the 110,000-acre area.
Speaker 2: Mount St.
Speaker 1: Helens is a national park, but unlike most other national parks,
Speaker 1: it's maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
Speaker 1: Preservation of the area was deemed necessary to protect the geologic, ecologic,
Speaker 1: and cultural resources of the monument, allowing geologic forces and
Speaker 1: ecological succession to continue substantially unimpeded, as per the USDA
Speaker 1: Forest Service. Two years prior to the area being protected,
Speaker 1: the 140-year dormant volcano erupted, sending a blast wave that
Speaker 1: traveled at over 300 miles per hour.
Speaker 2: St.
Speaker 1: Helens' north face was destroyed, along with 200 square miles
Speaker 1: of forest. Fifty-seven people lost their lives. Afterwards, life slowly
Speaker 1: began to return to the area, the first thing being
Speaker 1: spiders and beetles just weeks.
Speaker 2: After the blast.
Speaker 1: However, another life form may have escaped the crater in
Speaker 1: the form of a cryptid called Batsquatch. Yes, you heard correctly, Batsquatch. Soon,
Speaker 1: there would be sightings of the creature, and it would
Speaker 1: beg the question, where did this thing come from? Batsquatch,
Speaker 1: which is a cross between a bat and Sasquatch, is
Speaker 1: said to reside in or on Mount St. Helens, using
Speaker 1: the thick forest as cover and shelter. Described as being
Speaker 1: six to eight feet tall, having a wolf-like snout, blue fur,
Speaker 1: glowing yellow or red eyes, sharp, serrated teeth, bird-like feet
Speaker 1: and bat-like wings spanning up to 50 feet. It's said
Speaker 1: those who've had the misfortune of encountering the beast were
Speaker 1: so frightened by the sighting, some refused to return to
Speaker 1: the area where they saw it. People who've had encounters
Speaker 1: with the strange creature equate the May of 1980 eruption
Speaker 1: of Mount St. Helens to the release of bat squats
Speaker 1: from the Earth's core, along with the molten rock that
Speaker 1: caused devastation to much of the park and left that
Speaker 1: same devastation for hundreds of miles. Even here in St. Helens, Oregon,
Speaker 1: where I live, so named because you can see Mount St. Helens,
Speaker 1: which is across the river in Washington State, I've talked
Speaker 1: to some people that were living here at the time,
Speaker 1: and they told of how they didn't see the sun
Speaker 1: for weeks, and a fine ash covered everything. Now, one
Speaker 1: of the first sightings of this bat-squatch creature was reported
Speaker 1: by Brian Canfield. In the foothills of Mount Rainier, north
Speaker 1: of Mount St. Helens, in April of 1994, Brian Canfield
Speaker 1: was driving through Pierce County, Washington, when suddenly his truck died.
Speaker 1: While Canfield sat in his truck, scratching his head and
Speaker 1: figuring out how to get it started again, he recalled
Speaker 1: looking up and seeing a large creature land right in
Speaker 1: front of him. It was standing there, staring at me,
Speaker 1: like it was resting, like it didn't know what to think.
Speaker 1: I was scared. It raised the hair on me. I
Speaker 1: didn't feel threatened. I just felt out of place, Canfield recounted.
Speaker 1: He continues, After a few moments, the creature's fingers twitched.
Speaker 1: The wings began to unfold, wings that were as wide
Speaker 1: as the whole road, and it took off in the direction.
Speaker 2: Of Mount Rainier.
Speaker 1: The wings were so massive, the wind from the turbulence
Speaker 1: shook Canfield's truck. After a few moments, Canfield tried to
Speaker 1: start his truck up again, and it roared to life
Speaker 1: as if there had never been an issue. Brian Canfield
Speaker 1: continued on his way home and for the remainder of
Speaker 1: his trip never even stopped for traffic signals.
Speaker 2: Arriving home, Brian.
Speaker 1: Quickly grabbed a piece of paper and attempted to draw
Speaker 1: from memory what he could remember the creature. All the
Speaker 1: noise he was making woke his sleeping parents and they
Speaker 1: inquired as to why he was so wound up and
Speaker 1: that's when he told them what happened and what he saw.
Speaker 1: They insisted on Brian taking them to the area to
Speaker 1: look for clues as to what the thing could be
Speaker 1: and a neighbor even agreed to take the family back
Speaker 1: to the area using directions from Brian. When they arrived, though,
Speaker 1: there was no trace of Batsquatch. Interviews conducted by C.R. Roberts,
Speaker 1: the reporter that took the initial counts of Brian Canfield,
Speaker 1: stated he, Canfield, was just an average, normal kid. Brian
Speaker 1: Canfield was 18 years old at the time of encounter
Speaker 1: and not known to give in to flights of fancy.
Speaker 1: Roberts vouched for him after listening to the story, and
Speaker 1: Brian Canfield has what might be the best documented encounter
Speaker 1: with Batsquatch. However, there was a handful of other reported sightings.
Speaker 1: In 1998, an unnamed man reported seeing two similar-looking creatures,
Speaker 1: one of which was injured after being struck by a
Speaker 1: logging truck on a trail in Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens. In 2009, a group of.
Speaker 1: Hikers near Mount Shasta in California reported seeing a winged
Speaker 1: creature with a 50-foot wingspan fly from a crevasse in
Speaker 1: the mountain. In 2011, a man out for a walk
Speaker 1: with his dog reported seeing a blue-furred animal flying in
Speaker 1: the sky around where he was. and watched as it
Speaker 1: flew from sight. And perhaps the last known sighting in 2014,
Speaker 1: Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, Ohio, reported an entire
Speaker 1: class seeing a giant black mass whip past their window
Speaker 1: with incredible speed. Since 2014, it seems as though there
Speaker 1: hadn't been many sightings of the blue-furred monster. Perhaps it
Speaker 1: did escape the depths of the ill-fated Mount St. Helens
Speaker 1: when she erupted, giving a chosen few the chance to
Speaker 1: see into a realm few.
Speaker 2: Will ever have the privilege to. Or, possibly, Batsquatch.
Speaker 1: Simply reveals itself to those it chooses. Whatever set of
Speaker 1: circumstances that brought the winged creature to our forest, one
Speaker 1: thing is for certain. Those that have seen Batsquatch will
Speaker 1: not soon forget the encounter. Another strange area on Mount St.
Speaker 1: Helens is Ape Canyon. This area was deeply affected by
Speaker 1: the eruption. It's located on the north face of the mountain,
Speaker 1: and Ape Canyon is popular with mountain bikers and hikers alike.
Speaker 1: Decades after the heavily scarred ground was able to host visitors,
Speaker 1: people began flocking to the area to enjoy the miles
Speaker 1: of trails Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens has to offer.
Speaker 1: However, before the eruption that would disrupt Visitape Canyon once
Speaker 1: more for a while, there was an encounter between miners
Speaker 1: and ape men that caused people to question what really happened.
Speaker 1: On July 16, 1924, a group of miners, Gabe Lefevre,
Speaker 1: Fred Beck, John Peterson, Marion Smith, and his son, Roy Smith,
Speaker 1: reported that they came under attack by a group of
Speaker 1: what they described as ape men. The miners told authorities
Speaker 1: that they came under siege by the creatures as they
Speaker 1: were attacked with stones being tossed at them from atop
Speaker 1: the mountain down into the gorge where they were taking
Speaker 1: shelter in an old prospecting cabin. The men described the
Speaker 1: ape men as having long, thick, black fur, elongated ears
Speaker 1: that stuck straight up, four short, stubby toes, and walked
Speaker 1: upright like humans, weighing an estimated 400 pounds plus. Known
Speaker 1: in the Bigfoot community as the Ape Canyon Attack, the
Speaker 1: five miners included a man, as we mentioned, named Fred Beck.
Speaker 1: They'd gone to Ape Canyon to do some prospecting for gold.
Speaker 1: Working from sunup to sundown, the men were forced to
Speaker 1: collect water from a nearby spring as it was the
Speaker 1: only water source. They also used the same spring for
Speaker 1: cleaning up and washing their clothing. One hot evening, the
Speaker 1: men returned to their cabin and, needing water, one of
Speaker 1: them headed to the spring to collect it.
Speaker 2: Having arrived at.
Speaker 1: The spring, the man noticed a rather large footprint that
Speaker 1: at first was thought to be a human footprint, but
Speaker 1: upon closer inspection, the man saw just how large the
Speaker 1: print was.
Speaker 2: He measured 19 inches. much too large to be that
Speaker 2: of any human.
Speaker 1: With that, the man made his way back to the
Speaker 1: cabin and informed the other men as to what he
Speaker 1: had discovered at their.
Speaker 2: Only water source.
Speaker 1: Now, the other men were a little upset at the
Speaker 1: blatant disrespect of someone walking through their waterhole. They thought that, well,
Speaker 1: maybe their friend was tired and he'd gotten the measurement
Speaker 1: of the footprint wrong. Driven by anger at the encroachment,
Speaker 1: The men approached the spring, only to find the 19-inch
Speaker 1: footprint in the sand, just as their friend had reported.
Speaker 1: The men started to talk about other weird circumstances they
Speaker 1: had noticed over the last few days and just hadn't mentioned.
Speaker 1: Strange noises came from the mountain above the cabin. The
Speaker 1: men thought it must be the sounds of animals, but
Speaker 1: now the miners were convinced they were being stalked by something.
Speaker 1: The footprint that brought all the other clues over the
Speaker 1: past few days together was a single print, as if
Speaker 1: whatever had left it had dropped from the sky and
Speaker 1: went back up, one miner recounted to the local newspaper.
Speaker 1: Then came the thumping sounds, as if something was beating
Speaker 1: on its chest that the men began to hear. This
Speaker 1: really set the miners on edge. After the thumping noises
Speaker 1: would come what was described as a shrill whistling that
Speaker 1: seemed to come from everywhere. At this point, they were
Speaker 1: too scared to fetch water alone. The miners would go
Speaker 1: in pairs to venture to the spring. On one occasion,
Speaker 1: Fred Beck was asked by Hank, one of the other miners,
Speaker 1: to accompany him to the watering hole. Rifle in hand,
Speaker 1: the two men made their way to the water and
Speaker 1: started to quickly fill canteens. As Hank stood guard, he
Speaker 1: noticed a dark figure behind a pine tree. This allegedly
Speaker 1: hairy bipedal beast darted off behind a tree before Hank
Speaker 1: could get a shot of. But soon after he saw
Speaker 1: the first creature, a second one was sighted. This time,
Speaker 1: Hank raised his weapon, aimed, and fired. Fred watched bark
Speaker 1: fly from the tree as Hank almost.
Speaker 2: Hit his mark.
Speaker 1: The hairy, ape-like beast quickly slipped back into the cover
Speaker 1: of the forest within seconds before the men had another
Speaker 1: chance to fire upon them. The men took note of
Speaker 1: how fast the creatures were running, far too fast to
Speaker 1: be human. Making haste back to the cabin, the men
Speaker 1: convened and decided to pack it in and head home.
Speaker 1: It was too late in the evening for them to
Speaker 1: leave that night, so it was decided they would wait
Speaker 1: until morning. The camp consisted of a few tents and
Speaker 1: a log cabin that had just been erected a few
Speaker 1: months prior to the men living semi-permanently at the camp.
Speaker 1: There wasn't much to their shelter, but it was not
Speaker 1: meant to be an indefinite living situation. The main structure,
Speaker 1: the cabin, was a small one-room shelter where the men
Speaker 1: could stay dry should inclement weather hit. As the men
Speaker 1: discussed the final details of their return trip, smoking their
Speaker 1: pipes and maybe sipping some whiskey, it was agreed they
Speaker 1: would leave at first light. With the details planned out,
Speaker 1: the weird miners turned in for the night and fell
Speaker 1: fast asleep. That didn't last long, however. The men all
Speaker 1: woke with a start as something large pummeled the side
Speaker 1: of their cabin. The cabin was under attack! The first
Speaker 1: hit caused the chinking between two logs to fall onto
Speaker 1: the floor. This created a hole in the wall where
Speaker 1: they could look out and see what was happening. Hank
Speaker 1: was able to see three creatures that looked like the
Speaker 1: one he had taken a shot at in the forest
Speaker 1: and they were circling around the structure.
Speaker 2: Another hit.
Speaker 1: This time Hank was able to see what was striking
Speaker 1: the cabin. The eight men were using boulders to slam
Speaker 1: into the walls, dislodging the chinking in several more places.
Speaker 1: Hank and Fred grabbed the only thing they had as
Speaker 1: protection and took aim. Shots rang out through the darkness,
Speaker 1: and all fell quiet but for a few moments. Another
Speaker 1: rock hit the roof. The creatures were trying to drive
Speaker 1: the men out of the shelter and were doing a
Speaker 1: good job of scaring them in the process. The two
Speaker 1: men in charge of firing only did so when rocks
Speaker 1: hit the cabin. Their thoughts were that if they only
Speaker 1: fired when under active attack, the ape men would stop
Speaker 1: the attack and leave them alone. The attacks continued, though,
Speaker 1: on the roof of the cabin and from all sides.
Speaker 1: The miners were doing all they could to hold off
Speaker 1: these attackers while making an escape plan. The door began
Speaker 1: to rattle. This was their last line of defense. They
Speaker 1: knew the door was the weak spot and wouldn't hold
Speaker 1: much longer. Another shot rang out and a hole ripped
Speaker 1: through the door, and then all fell silent. The men
Speaker 1: used this time to try and reinforce the door, and
Speaker 1: as they tried to decide their next move, all heads
Speaker 1: turned and watched as one of the creatures reached through
Speaker 1: a hole in the cabin wall and grabbed an axe.
Speaker 1: Fred grabbed the axe and turned the head so that
Speaker 1: it wouldn't fit through the hole, then used his weapon
Speaker 1: to fire at the ape man. This was the last
Speaker 1: bold attempt from the would-be intruders to gain access to
Speaker 1: the cabin, although the attack wasn't over. As the night
Speaker 1: wore on, the attacks were further apart and shorter, but
Speaker 1: they continued. A few more rocks were thrown and chests
Speaker 1: thumping along with growls, followed by the shrill whistles. Exhausted,
Speaker 1: but refusing to give in to the incursion, the men
Speaker 1: held the beasts off until daybreak. As the sun peeked
Speaker 1: over the mountains, the attack stopped altogether. The sun was
Speaker 1: all the way up before they felt safe enough to
Speaker 1: venture outside the cabin. They went outside to see the
Speaker 1: rocks littered the ground all around it. The cabin held together,
Speaker 1: but just barely. Holes littered the walls and roof. It
Speaker 1: looked like a war zone where the rocks had knocked
Speaker 1: so many holes in it. There was no sign of
Speaker 1: the ape men, but Fred and Hank knew what they
Speaker 1: had observed earlier the day before. These creatures knew how
Speaker 1: to blend into the forest very well. Knowing this, Fred
Speaker 1: looked up on the mountain and spotted an ape man
Speaker 1: skulking around the tree line, about 150 yards away. Fred
Speaker 1: picked up his weapon and fired several times and apparently
Speaker 1: hit the target. He saw the beast drop, roll, and
Speaker 1: fall into the canyon below. Taking only what they had
Speaker 1: in their hands at the moment, the men made haste
Speaker 1: and ran for it. Luckily, they made their way to
Speaker 1: Hank's Ford vehicle and back home to Kelso, Washington. Left
Speaker 1: shaken and confused about what happened to them, the men
Speaker 1: reported everything that had occurred. People were shocked at the
Speaker 1: story and glad the men were able to escape. And
Speaker 1: as many stories where events are unexplainable, the men were
Speaker 1: heavily scrutinized by citizens and the media. When news outlets
Speaker 1: from Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon came to interview the
Speaker 1: miners and get details of the story, the men agreed
Speaker 1: to take the reporters to the area where they'd encountered
Speaker 1: the ape men. Upon arrival, they were able to find
Speaker 1: visible footprints, and these were photographed as evidence. These helped
Speaker 1: make the miners' story more credible. They searched a good
Speaker 1: while for the body of the ape man Fred had shot,
Speaker 1: but there was no remnants or anything in the gorge.
Speaker 1: Called mountain devils in the story, the newspapers ran the
Speaker 1: miners' accounts of the events they endured that night. Many
Speaker 1: people saw the story as credible, now that photographic evidence
Speaker 1: was taken by a reputable source. The story of the
Speaker 1: ape men of Mount St. Helens and the miners that
Speaker 1: came under attack by them still had its skeptics. But
Speaker 1: there were also people that believed in it. The men
Speaker 1: never returned to prospecting Ape Canyon. Now, as a side note,
Speaker 1: there is a story about a group of Boy Scouts
Speaker 1: that were supposedly camping on Mount St. Helens at the time.
Speaker 1: Many people believe these Boy Scouts were the source of
Speaker 1: the attack. However, that wouldn't account for the hairy arm
Speaker 1: that reached through and grabbed the axe, or the large
Speaker 1: figures of the beast that the men observed through the
Speaker 1: cracks in the walls. In 1978, Fred Beck penned a
Speaker 1: book called I Fought the Ape Men of Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens.
Speaker 1: The book was short, just five chapters long, but was
Speaker 1: almost word for word what the miners had reported back
Speaker 1: in 1924. Beck was at that point 78 years old
Speaker 1: and with not a care in the world about skeptics,
Speaker 1: and he told the story in his own words. In
Speaker 1: an interview, Beck also explained that he was a clairvoyant
Speaker 1: since childhood and as an adult had a premonition about
Speaker 1: prospecting Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens.
Speaker 1: In his vision, they were able to find the mine
Speaker 1: as they were led by Native American spirits and told
Speaker 1: her to blast a hole for the entrance. The spirit
Speaker 1: told Beck that they were to follow a white arrow,
Speaker 1: and it would show the men exactly where to go.
Speaker 1: In the book, Beck claimed that all the men saw
Speaker 1: this vision, and stated that the spirit told them, Because
Speaker 1: you have cursed the spirit leading you, you will be
Speaker 1: shown where.
Speaker 2: The gold is, but it is not given to you.
Speaker 1: Beck goes on to explain the men felt like the
Speaker 1: mind would let them take some gold, but not all
Speaker 1: of it. And that's exactly what happened, Beck stated. There
Speaker 1: is a pocket of gold in that cliff if someone
Speaker 1: is fortunate enough to find it. We gave up looking
Speaker 1: for it. When asked why only certain people can see
Speaker 1: otherworldly beings, Beck had this to say. When the condition
Speaker 1: and vibration is at a certain frequency, they, the beings,
Speaker 1: can easily, for a time, appear in a very solid body.
Speaker 1: They are not animal spirits, but also lack the intelligence
Speaker 1: of a human consciousness. They simply exist on a different
Speaker 1: plane than most humans, and some of us are more
Speaker 1: sensitive to those vibrations they exist on. Next up, I
Speaker 1: have the story of Ape Cave, which is near Ape Canyon.
Speaker 1: In 1947, a logger by the name of Lawrence Johnson
Speaker 1: was driving along in his vehicle when a sinkhole swallowed
Speaker 1: his truck. Thus, Ape Cave was discovered. However, the cave
Speaker 1: wouldn't be explored until three years later by a Boy
Speaker 1: Scout troop. Made up by lava flow, The cave had
Speaker 1: never been explored by anyone before the troops stepped inside
Speaker 1: after being lowered over a 17-foot overhang one by one.
Speaker 1: The Boy Scouts would explore the very fragile inner workings
Speaker 1: of the cave system that is about two miles long
Speaker 1: and eventually named it after their sponsor of the exploration
Speaker 1: and troop, the St.
Speaker 2: Helens Apes.
Speaker 1: Tours of the cave are available to the public, but
Speaker 1: be forewarned. Rumor has it that if you spend overnight
Speaker 1: in the cave, that you will lose your mind. And
Speaker 1: now let's look at some of the missing person cases
Speaker 1: on Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens.
Speaker 1: In May of 1950, a man named Jim Carter, along
Speaker 1: with a climbing party of 20 people, started the day.
Speaker 2: On Mount St.
Speaker 1: Helens at Ape Canyon, ready to climb, ski, and have
Speaker 1: a day of fun. On the descent, Carter left the
Speaker 1: party at the Dog's Head area to take a picture
Speaker 1: of the larger group as they skied past him. Being
Speaker 1: an experienced skier and mountain climber, the others went to
Speaker 1: that he would be the best person to ski ahead
Speaker 1: of the group. Moments later, the larger group witnessed Carter
Speaker 1: skiing at a high rate of speed, jumping crevasses and
Speaker 1: taking chances that were deemed reckless. They said that he, Carter,
Speaker 1: was going like the devil down the slope, seemingly frightened
Speaker 1: of something, a witness stated. It wasn't long before he
Speaker 1: was out of sight of the others. Despite the group
Speaker 1: looking for Carter, he was nowhere to be found. Carter
Speaker 1: was reported missing later that day. The search for 30-year-old
Speaker 1: Jim Carter lasted for weeks. Authorities discovered a discarded film
Speaker 1: box for a roll of camera film, but nothing else
Speaker 1: was ever found. A plane traced Carter's route as he
Speaker 1: had skied right down canyon walls where rangers and search
Speaker 1: teams couldn't reach. The search party thought they would find
Speaker 1: the man at the bottom of the canyon, but his
Speaker 1: tracks went from the walls across Ranger Creek and the
Speaker 1: Ranger Station and into the thick of the forest. Bob Lee,
Speaker 1: an experienced mountaineer and a member of Seattle Mountain Search
Speaker 1: and Rescue, stated, Every time I got cut off from
Speaker 1: the rest of the search team and was alone, I
Speaker 1: felt like something was watching me. There was something strange
Speaker 1: on the high slopes of the mountain. It was the
Speaker 1: most eerie experience I've ever had. I could feel the
Speaker 1: hair on my neck standing up.
Speaker 2: It was eerie.
Speaker 1: I was unarmed, except for my ice axe, and believe me,
Speaker 1: I never let go of that. We combed the canyon
Speaker 1: one end to the other for five days. Sometimes, there
Speaker 1: were as many as 75 persons in the search party,
Speaker 1: but no sign of Carter or his equipment was ever found.
Speaker 1: After two weeks, the search was scaled back and then
Speaker 1: called off. Over 70 years has passed since Jim Carter
Speaker 1: went missing under baffling circumstances in 1950. No sign of
Speaker 1: him or his equipment has ever been found. If you'll recall,
Speaker 1: this disappearance was in the same area as the attack
Speaker 1: on the miners in 1924, and one of the theories
Speaker 1: put forth was that he was possibly being chased by
Speaker 1: a Sasquatch that caused him to take such a reckless
Speaker 1: ski run down the mountain. On Saturday, August 11, 2018,
Speaker 1: a gray Subaru was found in the parking area of
Speaker 1: Blue Lake Trail by search and rescue teams after 40-year-old
Speaker 1: Matthew Metheny asked to borrow the car from his friend
Speaker 1: to go for a hike at Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens. After the man didn't return, he was reported missing.
Speaker 1: A group of some 40 volunteers scoured the mountain looking
Speaker 1: for the Ohio man. On the sixth day Matheny was missing,
Speaker 1: he was spotted on a ledge and rescued. In an
Speaker 1: interview with authorities, he stated, amazingly, that he had survived
Speaker 1: by eating berries and bees. It was reported that Matheny
Speaker 1: had been a Boy Scout when he was younger and
Speaker 1: used his training to help himself while lost. He was
Speaker 1: in surprisingly good condition and was released from the hospital
Speaker 1: the next day. The Sheriff's Department utilized tracking dogs, drones,
Speaker 1: and a helicopter in the search. On July 21, 2021,
Speaker 1: 25-year-old Army First Lieutenant Brian Yang, who had been missing
Speaker 1: on Mount St. Helens, was found deceased. He'd only been
Speaker 1: missing for a couple of days. The last time Yang
Speaker 1: was seen was on the Coldwater Trailhead previous Sunday. Reports
Speaker 1: state that the 25-year-old fell down a steep embankment to
Speaker 1: his demise. No further information is available on this case.
Speaker 1: And then arguably the most memorable incident ever to happen
Speaker 1: on Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens.
Speaker 1: On May 18, 1980, 57 people lost their lives after
Speaker 1: Mount St.
Speaker 2: Helens erupted.
Speaker 1: Earlier that day, people were evacuated and others were warned
Speaker 1: to leave the area. One of the victims, 83-year-old Harry
Speaker 1: Randall Truman, refused to leave his home of over 50 years.
Speaker 1: Seen as a hero and a folk legend due to
Speaker 1: his bravery for staying and trying to defend his property
Speaker 1: from the monster, this time the volcano, about to engulf
Speaker 1: his home, Truman gave an interview to National Geographic just
Speaker 1: days before the volcano erupted where he stated that, I'm
Speaker 1: going to stay right here because I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: My home and my expletive life's here. My wife and I,
Speaker 1: we both vowed years and years ago that we'd never
Speaker 1: leave Spirit Lake. We loved it. It's a part of me.
Speaker 1: and I'm a part of that expletive mountain. Truman resided
Speaker 1: at the lodge with his late wife that he lost
Speaker 1: just a few years before the eruption and their 16
Speaker 1: rescue cats. Sadly, Truman and all of his cats perished
Speaker 1: in the eruption. No remains were ever found. Also on
Speaker 1: the mountain on that ill-fated day back in 1980 was
Speaker 1: 30-year-old volcanologist David A.
Speaker 2: Johnston.
Speaker 1: Johnston was on the mountain monitoring the activity at the
Speaker 1: Coldwater 2 station that was thought to be a safe
Speaker 1: area and away from the destruction path should an eruption happen. Tragically,
Speaker 1: this was not the case, and Johnston perished in the eruption.
Speaker 2: David A.
Speaker 1: Johnston was employed through the United States Geological Survey, the USGS.
Speaker 1: The last transmission from the Coldwater 2 station was from Johnston,
Speaker 1: who spoke into the microphone, Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it.
Speaker 1: His remains were never found. An observatory was erected in
Speaker 1: the area where Coldwater 2 once stood in remembrance of Johnston.
Speaker 1: He was credited with saving thousands of lives after warning
Speaker 1: the Forestry Service of the dangers going on within the
Speaker 1: volcano weeks before the eruption occurred. The Forestry Service took
Speaker 1: heed and evacuated the park. Hello, friends. In this video,
Speaker 1: we're going to bring you the story of a Canby
Speaker 1: man His daughter and dog were all rescued after 48
Speaker 1: hours being lost. Now, we're so used to hearing stories
Speaker 1: and accounts of people who go missing in the wilderness,
Speaker 1: somewhere in the world, and they're never seen or heard
Speaker 1: from again. It's almost like it's a common occurrence because, basically,
Speaker 1: it is now. This happens so much, and many people
Speaker 1: don't even realize what's going on. How is this possible?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because of the lack of the reporting. whether
Speaker 1: by authorities in charge, the news media, or perhaps even
Speaker 1: government entities who are trying to figure out what's going
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes so as not to cause a
Speaker 1: global panic. Whatever the reason, it seems we in this
Speaker 1: community are still consumed by these occurrences. We've been bringing
Speaker 1: to your attention these cases and so much more and
Speaker 1: will always continue to do so. Today, though, we have
Speaker 1: one of our less common occurrences. We'll be talking about
Speaker 1: a case of a man, his daughter, and their dog
Speaker 1: who were missing but then rescued alive. Needless to say,
Speaker 1: it's always a great day when we can bring you
Speaker 1: a story like this as it happens far less often
Speaker 1: than when someone goes missing and never comes back or
Speaker 1: is found unfortunately deceased. So here it is. A Canby
Speaker 1: man and his family rescued after being lost for a
Speaker 1: harrowing 48 hours in the wilderness. 37-year-old Peter William Monroe,
Speaker 1: his 7-year-old daughter Layla, and their dog, Buck, were hiking
Speaker 1: in Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest and were going to
Speaker 1: make a family trip of it. Peter's wife, Camille, was
Speaker 1: planning on joining her husband and daughter on this trip
Speaker 1: the day after they left. Camille said she'd arrived at
Speaker 1: the family's Kenzo Lake campsite to join them on a
Speaker 1: camping trip, but when she got there, they were nowhere
Speaker 1: to be found. She assumed they had gone on a hike,
Speaker 1: but when they never returned, she set off the next
Speaker 1: morning to search for them. Camille had no luck. and
Speaker 1: called police after she found Peter's truck at the Devil's
Speaker 1: Peak Trailhead, with his keys and Layla's stuffed animal still inside.
Speaker 1: I just want to point out here that, once again,
Speaker 1: the name Devil is involved with a place where people
Speaker 1: have gone missing in the wilderness. It was around 2.30
Speaker 1: in the afternoon on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, when Camille
Speaker 1: Monroe called 911 from the Devil's Peak Trailhead to report
Speaker 1: that her husband Peter, their daughter Layla, and their dog, Buck,
Speaker 1: had been missing for at least 24 hours. Clackamas County
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office search and rescue coordinators activated a rescue mission
Speaker 1: immediately that same afternoon. The search area featured challenging terrain,
Speaker 1: and the mission would soon involve volunteers from the CCSO
Speaker 1: SAR Trail Running Rescue Team, search canines, rope teams, and
Speaker 1: ground teams. This included support from Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue,
Speaker 1: Arms Reach and Treat Team, Mountain Wave Emergency Communications, Portland
Speaker 1: Mountain Rescue, Oregon Office of Emergency Management, 304th Rescue Squadron,
Speaker 1: 125th Special Tactics Squadron, Special Forces Unit of the 142nd
Speaker 1: Fighter Wing of the United States Air National Guard, and
Speaker 1: the Hood River Sheriff's Office Air Unit. Over 50 searchers
Speaker 1: ended up participating in the mission. Most of these volunteers
Speaker 1: sprung into action immediately upon being called and were eager
Speaker 1: and willing to help out in any way they could.
Speaker 1: Searchers worked through the night with additional resources from the
Speaker 1: 304th Rescue Squadron and the 125th Special Tactics Squadron deploying
Speaker 1: to the field at about 2 o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: to assist the tired crews who had worked through the night.
Speaker 1: At approximately 6 a.m. on Thursday, September 3rd, searchers from
Speaker 1: the 304th Rescue Squadron were able to make voice contact
Speaker 1: with Peter. It took at least another hour for them
Speaker 1: to reach the trio, though, due to the harsh and
Speaker 1: difficult terrain. Peter, Layla, and Buck were found northwest of
Speaker 1: the Kinza Lake trailhead in a ravine that was located
Speaker 1: about 1.25 miles and approximately 1,200 feet below where they
Speaker 1: had first set out for their hike on Tuesday. Peter
Speaker 1: was injured and unable to walk.
Speaker 2: Layla and Buck were in.
Speaker 1: Good spirits but needed assistance. Crews quickly began to assess
Speaker 1: and provide first aid. They learned Peter had become lost
Speaker 1: and had been moving downhill to where he thought a
Speaker 1: trail was located, injuring himself in the process. After stabilizing Peter,
Speaker 1: crews began the exhausting process of carrying him out of
Speaker 1: this remote location through the difficult terrain. They reached a
Speaker 1: waiting medical crew on Still Creek Road, about seven miles
Speaker 1: from Highway 26, near Rhododendron, at about 12.30 in the
Speaker 1: afternoon on Thursday, September 3rd. Peter, Layla, and Buck were
Speaker 1: lost and stuck in the wilderness for over 48 hours
Speaker 1: without supplies. This means no water and no food. It's
Speaker 1: an absolute miracle they survived relatively unharmed. Peter was transported
Speaker 1: to an area hospital for his injuries. Buck and Layla
Speaker 1: were reunited with the rest of the family and were
Speaker 1: getting some much-needed rest. After his rescue and hospitalization, Peter
Speaker 1: spoke to reporters from the Backwood Ambulance and made this statement.
Speaker 2: I just want to thank.
Speaker 1: All the first responders and everybody else that helped get
Speaker 1: me out of that hole. I don't think I would
Speaker 1: have made it out, especially without any other adults, so
Speaker 1: I owe you guys my life.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Search crews want to offer special thanks to a nearby
Speaker 1: construction crew working on the Still Creek Bridge repair project.
Speaker 1: The construction crew sped up the rescue operation by using
Speaker 1: a crane to hoist the Special Forces vehicles over the river.
Speaker 1: Authorities mentioned that without this help, it would have taken
Speaker 1: an estimated additional four hours to take the longer route
Speaker 1: to reach the location. This was definitely a dramatic and
Speaker 1: dangerous rescue operation, and the crews and volunteers who participated
Speaker 1: are true heroes. We're glad to report that Peter, Layla,
Speaker 1: and even Buck are all fine and have suffered no
Speaker 1: long-term injuries or lasting effects from this terrifying ordeal they
Speaker 1: endured when out for a simple family hike. It just
Speaker 1: goes to show you, please be careful out there. Whether
Speaker 1: alone or with a group or even with your pet,
Speaker 1: no one is immune to the rough and tumble ways
Speaker 1: of Mother Nature. Always be prepared. Peter and his family
Speaker 1: were extremely lucky and have survived and been rescued. Well friends,
Speaker 1: there you have it. What do you think about this
Speaker 1: amazing story? Please be careful out there. I look forward
Speaker 1: to your comments, but please keep it friendly and respectful.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, be good to yourselves and each other,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you just a little farther on down
Speaker 1: the trail. I'm Steve Stockton, and I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 2: Hello friends.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our latest video. Today we bring you the
Speaker 1: strange tale of the mysterious skeletons of Crater Lake.
Speaker 2: Join us.
Speaker 1: Crater Lake is the only national park in the state
Speaker 1: of Oregon. Just like all the other national parks throughout
Speaker 1: the United States, this one is known worldwide for its
Speaker 1: breathtaking landscapes and stunning scenic views. This is certainly a
Speaker 1: well-deserved reputation, as if you've ever been there, you would
Speaker 1: know how absolutely gorgeous the park is as a whole.
Speaker 1: It's a humbling experience when you're out there in nature,
Speaker 1: and it's so incredibly awe-inspiring, yet eerie all at the
Speaker 1: same time. Crater Lake is special. It stands out from
Speaker 1: other parks for a few reasons. The one we're going
Speaker 1: to discuss today is perhaps the most bizarre. This interesting
Speaker 1: characteristic isn't widely known, and has mostly gone undiscovered by
Speaker 1: the millions of people who flock there from all over
Speaker 1: the world every single year. Park officials and whoever's in
Speaker 1: charge definitely want it to stay a secret as well, because, well,
Speaker 1: it's a lethal secret, quite literally. Most of us in
Speaker 1: this community know it's not unheard of for people visiting
Speaker 1: national parks to accidentally take a deadly plunge off of
Speaker 1: a cliff or get stuck and possibly freeze to death
Speaker 1: in the common blizzard conditions, depending on the season of course,
Speaker 1: or even to crash their cars into ravines. Besides airplanes
Speaker 1: and helicopters falling out of the sky as well, believe
Speaker 1: it or not, there have even been far more homicides
Speaker 1: than one could possibly imagine out there under the clear
Speaker 1: blue skies and beautiful starry nights. While many of those
Speaker 1: wonderful topics would make interesting discussion in one of our
Speaker 1: videos and perhaps may come very soon, Today we're going
Speaker 1: to discuss the tragedies that have left some things behind,
Speaker 1: and it seems to be happening in Crater Lake far
Speaker 1: more often than anywhere else. Today we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about the skeletons of Crater Lake Park. Let's start with
Speaker 1: what's known as the case of the Phantom Flyer. In
Speaker 1: the summer of 1970, Dave Panabaker took a job as
Speaker 1: a seasonal ranger in Crater Lake National Park. During that
Speaker 1: first summer there, Dave kept hearing talk about a lesser-known
Speaker 1: site in the park, one that interested him greatly. Apparently,
Speaker 1: there was a dark blue Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter that
Speaker 1: had crashed a month or two after World War II,
Speaker 1: and it remained in the park as it was unable
Speaker 1: to be recovered and moved out. The Hellcat took a
Speaker 1: fast and hard landing, with only a short hike's distance
Speaker 1: to cover in order to be able.
Speaker 2: To see it.
Speaker 1: Dave decided he just had to go out there and
Speaker 1: check it out. One of its machine guns was even
Speaker 1: embedded in a cliff face, and the blue wing with
Speaker 1: its white star insignia was clearly visible through the underbrush.
Speaker 1: Everyone simply assumed that the pilot had perished immediately upon impact,
Speaker 1: or perhaps even while parachuting out. Either way, Dave decided
Speaker 1: to go for the hike on his day off to
Speaker 1: the cliff where this aircraft was supposedly located. However, it
Speaker 1: wasn't long before the seasonal ranger found himself lost while
Speaker 1: trying to locate the wreckage. Now, we see this all
Speaker 1: the time. Someone goes out on a hike in the
Speaker 1: deep wilderness, even during the day, and once they get
Speaker 1: turned around, they continue on and just hope for the best.
Speaker 1: Dave Panabaker, however, was no fool, and had heard too
Speaker 1: many horror stories to keep on going before he got
Speaker 1: his bearings on where exactly he was and where he
Speaker 1: was going. He remembered some advice given to him on
Speaker 1: his first day. and decided to follow it, lest he
Speaker 1: become another victim of the park itself, and perhaps end
Speaker 1: up a subject in one of our videos. He remembered
Speaker 1: a man named Herman Walk's voice, and could clearly hear
Speaker 1: it in his head, saying, When in danger or doubt,
Speaker 1: run in circles, scream and shout. So, he sat down
Speaker 1: on a nearby log, and thought about how he was
Speaker 1: going to get himself out of this predicament. He still
Speaker 1: wanted to see the plane wreckage, but didn't want to
Speaker 1: become another park statistic. He thought long and hard about
Speaker 1: his options and how he could get himself back to civilization,
Speaker 1: perhaps to try another time when he was possibly more
Speaker 1: well prepared. As he sat and thought, though, he suddenly
Speaker 1: felt like he was no longer alone. He got the
Speaker 1: distinct feeling that someone, or something, was watching him. He
Speaker 1: looked up and immediately locked eyes with the culprit. Rather,
Speaker 1: he locked eye sockets with it, as it was not
Speaker 1: a human being, at least not anymore. but a skeleton
Speaker 1: that was lying underneath a nearby log and staring straight
Speaker 1: at him. Now there is no complete description of what
Speaker 1: the reaction of this young and fairly new seasonal ranger
Speaker 1: was when he found what turned out to be the
Speaker 1: skeletal remains of a long lost World War II pilot.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine he was terrified and possibly in
Speaker 1: shock even as his own mortality kicked into high gear
Speaker 1: in his mind. He was, as previously stated, fairly new
Speaker 1: to his job and might have realized that he was
Speaker 1: almost in the same predicament as his long-lost deceased friend
Speaker 1: there under the log staring at him. Both were lost
Speaker 1: and nobody knew who they were. Did he panic and
Speaker 1: realize that if nobody could find the pilot then, perhaps
Speaker 1: nobody could find him either? He was already fighting the
Speaker 1: urge to panic as it was. We can only speculate,
Speaker 1: but as you would imagine, it was most likely quite
Speaker 1: the dramatic scene. Sometime later, during an oral history review,
Speaker 1: David remembered, The chief ranger wasn't too happy with me
Speaker 1: when I talked to him in his office and pulled
Speaker 1: the skull out of my pack.
Speaker 2: And put it on his desk.
Speaker 1: A Whidbey Island Naval investigative team came to the park
Speaker 1: a few days later. The Navy authorities were able to
Speaker 1: make a positive ID of the skull using dental records.
Speaker 1: The skeleton belonged to Ensign Frank Lupo from New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Ensign Lupo had been part of a squadron of seven Hellcats.
Speaker 1: flying from Redmond to Red Bluff, California, in December of 1945.
Speaker 1: All seven of them had been struggling with some of
Speaker 1: the weather, and the cloud ceiling was at about 6,000 feet,
Speaker 1: less than 2,000 feet above the rugged terrain they were overflying.
Speaker 1: The ceiling steadily lowered until the planes were at 500
Speaker 1: feet above the treetops. The snow and mist had closed in,
Speaker 1: and the pilots could no longer see the ground. They
Speaker 1: were flying purely on instruments now. When they emerged from
Speaker 1: the fog, however, There were only six of them. The
Speaker 1: Navy returned the skull to Frank's mother, who finally, after
Speaker 1: waiting 25 years to find out what had happened to
Speaker 1: her son, was able to lay him to rest. Rest
Speaker 1: in peace, Ensign Lupo. Then, on February 26, 1975, a
Speaker 1: woman named Jean Nunn dropped off her husband Dave, their
Speaker 1: daughter and grandchild, at the airport, now called the Crater
Speaker 1: Lake-Klamath Regional Airport. order for Dave to fly them back
Speaker 1: home to Salem in his private plane. It was a
Speaker 1: blue Cessna 182. Two 17 year old student pilots named
Speaker 1: Jim Pryor and Matt Perkins were also in the plane
Speaker 1: so as to get some more flight hours to put
Speaker 1: towards their eventual pilot's license. The plane landed in Salem
Speaker 1: without a hitch and after saying their goodbyes the passengers
Speaker 1: got off and Dave and the two students strapped back
Speaker 1: in for the return trip.
Speaker 2: A short flight back to Klamath Falls.
Speaker 1: Jean wasn't feeling well that night and decided to turn
Speaker 1: into bed early. She later said she awoke too early
Speaker 1: and with a bad feeling. She was quoted as saying,
Speaker 1: I woke up at 9.30 p.m. with the sensation of
Speaker 1: a hand on my leg. she recalled in a 2000
Speaker 1: interview with Lee Beach of the Klamath Falls Herald and News.
Speaker 1: She continues, I looked at the clock. I knew. I
Speaker 1: called the airport and told them the plane had gone
Speaker 1: down at 9.20 p.m. and that he had died at 9.30.
Speaker 1: They confirmed that they had lost the plane off the
Speaker 1: radar at 9.20 at 11,000 feet. Jean knew from the
Speaker 1: start her husband had made it out alive. Now that
Speaker 1: creepy yet peaceful feeling of that hand on her leg
Speaker 1: that night didn't stop the search parties from going out
Speaker 1: and looking for Dave, Matt, and Jim. It was all
Speaker 1: in vain, though, as indeed not a single shred of
Speaker 1: evidence as to where the three ended up could be found.
Speaker 1: Most speculated that they had ended up in the lake
Speaker 1: and were far beyond anyone's help anyway. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: seven years later that a hiker who was traveling just
Speaker 1: outside of the park's boundary near a Huckleberry campground spotted
Speaker 1: what looked to be a severely mangled small aircraft wreckage.
Speaker 1: The hiker approached the wreck cautiously and indeed found three
Speaker 1: skeletons slumped over and still inside the cabin. Though Jean
Speaker 1: had been right all along, it was a sure relief
Speaker 1: that her husband and his students were now found and
Speaker 1: could be put to a proper burial. Identification of the
Speaker 1: three skeletons was easy enough. All three had their identifications
Speaker 1: in their wallets. And perhaps the most tragic of all
Speaker 1: was a small folded piece of paper Dave had in
Speaker 1: his wallet that said, Lose not thine airspeed, lest the
Speaker 1: ground rise up and smite thee.
Speaker 2: Indeed.
Speaker 1: Decades later, Jean published a book about her spiritual journey
Speaker 1: through the trauma of losing her husband. It's titled, We
Speaker 1: Fly Away. Yet another strange occurrence in the park. In 1974,
Speaker 1: 19-year-old Virginia resident Charles McCullough ordered a bus in his
Speaker 1: home state, and decided to take an extended vacation. He
Speaker 1: would be taking buses and also hitchhiking across and throughout
Speaker 1: the country. He left behind his beloved Volkswagen, but being
Speaker 1: a dedicated and very talented amateur photographer, he took his
Speaker 1: camera equipment and set off on his adventure. In late
Speaker 1: January 1975, Charles was staying with a friend in Eugene, Oregon,
Speaker 1: but left to go on what was only meant to
Speaker 1: be a short excursion. hitchhiking to Crater Lake to take
Speaker 1: winter photos. He told his friend he planned to be
Speaker 1: back in two days, but he never returned and was
Speaker 1: in fact never seen or heard from alive again. Once
Speaker 1: the friend reported him missing, the FBI got involved, and
Speaker 1: Charles' father dropped everything and hopped on a plane, took
Speaker 1: a flight to the west coast. He spent the entire
Speaker 1: summer at Crater Lake searching for his son to no avail.
Speaker 1: There was no trace of Charles until a full year
Speaker 1: after he'd gone missing. At the end of the season,
Speaker 1: almost exactly one full year later, two hikers just happened
Speaker 1: to have taken a wrong turn. They ended up in
Speaker 1: a little travel canyon where they came upon a dirty
Speaker 1: old ripped backpack with a car key in one of
Speaker 1: the side pockets. It was the key to Charles' beloved
Speaker 1: Volkswagen he had left home at the start of his
Speaker 1: journey west. Immediately upon the discovery of the pack being reported,
Speaker 1: Mark Ranger started a search effort. A horse patrol took
Speaker 1: only a couple of hours to locate Charles' remains. Now
Speaker 1: here's where this particular story takes a turn for the worse,
Speaker 1: if you can believe that. And a little on the
Speaker 1: sinister and bizarre side too, if we're being honest. Charles'
Speaker 1: body was found 12 miles away from the trailhead. And
Speaker 1: on the day he disappeared, there were 102, yes that's 102,
Speaker 1: inches of new snow on the ground at Crater Lake.
Speaker 1: How did a 19-year-old kid, totally inexperienced in dealing with
Speaker 1: the rough and rugged terrain of the wilderness, let alone
Speaker 1: the seven and a half feet of fresh snow on
Speaker 1: the ground at those 102 inches equal, it's simply not possible.
Speaker 1: And that's according to many professionals who have claimed even
Speaker 1: they couldn't do it, especially not with the lack of
Speaker 1: skill and gear that Charles had. The condition of the
Speaker 1: skeleton itself is another thing that left everyone scratching their heads.
Speaker 1: While his foot bones were in his socks, which is common,
Speaker 1: his jeans were completely empty of leg bones, except where
Speaker 1: the broken off ends of his shin bones were sticking up.
Speaker 2: His jeans were unbuttoned, but the.
Speaker 1: Rest of Charles was completely gone, as if the rest
Speaker 1: of him had simply vanished or melted away. Again, this
Speaker 1: doesn't seem possible. The only other thing ever found was
Speaker 1: the crown of his skull, about 12 feet away from
Speaker 1: the rest of him. His shirt, coat, and boots were
Speaker 1: also never found. The empty pair of pants was sitting
Speaker 1: on a log quite eerily, with nothing but socks and
Speaker 1: foot bones inside. Some have speculated that perhaps he was hypothermic,
Speaker 1: and we have heard about people doing strange things when
Speaker 1: dealing with that particular condition. This made perfect sense, as
Speaker 1: the stripping off of clothing in a disoriented and confused
Speaker 1: state is extremely common. Also, it's the Cascades in the wintertime,
Speaker 1: so most likely more than a few foxes came along
Speaker 1: and helped the feet detach from the body, and probably more. So,
Speaker 1: what makes this so strange? Well, the location of the body,
Speaker 1: for one. as previously mentioned, missing boots and socks. Charles
Speaker 1: had some rather expensive equipment with him to take the
Speaker 1: winter photographs. Well, none of that was ever found either.
Speaker 1: The reigning theory is that perhaps Charles hitched a ride
Speaker 1: with the wrong person, who stole all of this expensive
Speaker 1: camera equipment, took a chance, and did away with him.
Speaker 1: And most likely, stole his money too. This alleged killer
Speaker 1: then hauled the body to the most remote part of
Speaker 1: Crater Lake and left it sitting on a log. figuring
Speaker 1: between the elements and the animals, there would be nothing
Speaker 1: left of poor Charles by the time spring came and
Speaker 1: most of the hikers and visitors were back around. Despite
Speaker 1: all the evidence pointing to the contrary, the police ruled
Speaker 1: Charles had died of natural causes. His father never did
Speaker 1: believe this, that the cause of his son's death was natural,
Speaker 1: and though he wasn't the only one and so many
Speaker 1: questions remained, there was never any proof to be found
Speaker 1: one way or the other. And once again, the park
Speaker 1: kept her secrets closed, eerily quiet, throughout all these years.
Speaker 1: Is it so hard to believe that with all of
Speaker 1: the millions of acres of land across the United States
Speaker 1: and all over the world where people go to to
Speaker 1: visit for whatever reason or another, you would think that
Speaker 1: there would be more skeletal remains left behind from some
Speaker 1: accident or incident or something? No. Do murders happen and
Speaker 1: do bodies get dumped in precisely these types of environments?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Will we ever have all the answers? Resoundingly, no. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure at least most of us could agree on
Speaker 1: one thing. Being as we only spoke of a few
Speaker 1: of the old skeletons found in this one particular park
Speaker 1: and area of land, it is a bit strange that
Speaker 1: they were all found in this one particular what amounts
Speaker 1: to a small area in the grand scheme of things. Again,
Speaker 1: considering the vastness of the great woods and outdoors across
Speaker 1: the world. Well, folks, there you have it. What do
Speaker 1: you think of these strange cases from Crater Lake? I
Speaker 1: look forward to your comments, but please keep it friendly
Speaker 1: and respectful. In the meanwhile, be good to yourselves and
Speaker 1: each other. Stay safe out there. I don't want to
Speaker 1: have to make one of these videos about you. As
Speaker 1: for me, I'll see you a little farther on down
Speaker 1: the trail. I'm Steve Stockton, and I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: next time.