Oddity Shop
This podcast examines the oddities of the world...Cryptids to Conspiracies, Cults to Curiosities, Myths to Mysteries, and so much more! Stop by the shop, where the bizarre is always on sale... Each week your curators, Kara Perakovic and Zach Palmer will be opening the shop and sharing stories with you.
Oddity Shop
Crater Lake Mayhem: Ghosts, Ghouls, Disappearances, and UFOs!
Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale. This week, your Curator Zach is chatting all about the mysteries of Crater Lake.
Join us as we plunge into the mysteries of Crater Lake, Oregon – a place where the veil between worlds seems eerily thin.
We explore the lake's many enigmas: the Old Man of the Lake (a tree that has inexplicably floated upright for over a century), mysterious islands where phantom campers appear without boats, and countless Bigfoot encounters surrounding its shores. We'll share the disturbing story of Charles McCuller, whose remains were found in a way that defies explanation, and the heartbreaking disappearance of six-year-old Sammy Boehlke who vanished without a trace.
From military planes that seemed to slip through reality to UFO activity that indigenous people have documented for generations, Crater Lake collects strange phenomena like the precipitation that feeds its crystal-clear waters.
Whether you're fascinated by cryptids, ghosts, disappearances, or ancient spiritual sites, Crater Lake offers a perfect storm of high-strangeness. Have you ever visited? We'd love to hear your experiences?
Refs:
- https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2009/10/more-few-ghost-stories-swirl-about-crater-lake-national-park4821
- https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/nature/oregon/sinister-story-crater-lake-or
- https://www.ancienthistoryfangirl.com/2023/07/27/the-haunting-of-crater-lake-the-show-notes/
- https://coffeehousewriters.com/oregons-crater-lake-mysteries/
- https://ghostedtravel.com/crater-lake-lodge/
- https://www.southernoregontours.com/blog/myths-and-legends
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake
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I want to dance with the mothman at the ID shop, baked in the moonlight at the ID shop. Creep through the graveyard to the ID shop. The door's always open at the Oddity Shop. What's up, you little oddballs?
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Oddity Shop, the podcast where we tell you creepy, odd, weird, strange and bizarre stories from around the world. Hello, curator Cara.
Speaker 1:Hello, I was going to say I'm your Curator, cara. This is your other Curator, zachary. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good. I am fully caffeinated. I am unfully full. I'm a little bit hungry, so my stomach might make noises. Yeah, it's 1030.
Speaker 1:I'm on my third coffee.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I would die I started at like 630. Not that that makes it any better but, so what's new with you?
Speaker 1:I don't think much. It's a very gloomy morning here. Is it gloomy there?
Speaker 2:You know it is, but I'm wearing shorts and I was able to comfortably do so outside, so I'm not going to complain about that.
Speaker 1:It is 52 here. It's supposed to be like 70 today and tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's like pushing 60 here already, so let's look the humidity helps. Dude, you know what I forgot to tell you about and everybody else. I went on that a couple weeks ago. The little ghost hunt to Robinson man manor it was fun.
Speaker 1:What'd you find?
Speaker 2:um, you know, we got it wasn't the most active evening. Uh, we had some stuff with the mag light giving us a little bit of either. Kind of felt like sometime intelligent response kind of felt, maybe more like residual, like somebody was kind of just walking past, it got to play with the. The seer three out in the field from lauren haunts that's exciting and we got to show it off. Everyone was really like excited to see.
Speaker 2:Oh, I bet everyone was so amped because that sound is so eerie and awesome yes, that that thing is freaking amazing. Um, what I wanted to share with you, though, from it well, I kind of told you already, but there's a gentleman there who's doing psychometry, where he holds objects and like you could bring, like you know, things that belong to a loved one or whatever, and he would tell you about it. Well, I'm like realize, I don't, I forgot that was part of the event, didn't bring anything until I remembered you were giving me shit about it very recently.
Speaker 1:There's that piece of the asylum that was still in my car from the traverse city state asylum that we all collectively wanted to kill zach for stealing anyways.
Speaker 2:So I give it to this guy and I mean, it literally looks like like a piece of bark, like it. You, you can't you can't tell what the hell it is you really immediately.
Speaker 2:He's like this is from a floor and like he's just kind of you know, at first I'm like everything he's telling me about it is kind of I felt like grasping for straws. So I just sat there pretty much emotionless would just say okay. And he's like I feel like this is from a cabin. Everything else is renovated around it and just so everyone knows it came from like one of the unrenovated dorm building. See a lot of trees, a lot of water. All of a sudden he's like is this from traverse city? Like literally gets the city. I've told him nothing about this. We're in alleghen, michigan, and he's like I feel like there was like a lot of people who felt like family, like a lot of emotion in this and he literally described like the building that it came from without he.
Speaker 2:He never put together that it was from the asylum, but had the city, the location, how it was renovated, what it looked like inside, all from this, and then he sets it down, then he goes. I don't know, I'm probably a little bit wrong. I feel like tonight I haven't been getting things right.
Speaker 1:I'm like and what you had said is that everybody else was bringing like family heirlooms, like necklaces and things like that.
Speaker 2:So he's probably like oh, I think he was trying to figure out how to connect it to me, because he's like I feel like it's connected, like not directly to you, but you know, like the people who were here felt like family and it was, um, he's like. You know, I feel like people lived here their entire lives, but not generations, like it was just, it was very, very spot on. I looked at him, I'm like, yeah, you are 100 right, like that's from the asylum in traverse. And I asked him after that I said you know, this is something I felt like I probably shouldn't have done. I, knowing what I know now, like I wouldn't have taken it. You know, and I've always attributed this to bad luck with my car what are your thoughts? He goes well, it has a lot of energy. It's not he goes. It can kind of shift. Some days it might be better than others he goes, but just like I get a sense that it needs to like be displayed and not hidden away.
Speaker 1:So it is now displayed in the office and should be much happier well, he was just kind of saying, just so, like that the memories can be yeah so it can be yeah, presented and kind of not celebrated.
Speaker 1:But well, it makes sense maybe because all of the bad things that were done there were tried. They were quote-unquote hidden, they were tried to be covered up. So it makes sense that if you're locking it in your glove department like, you're also trying to hide and cover up, so if you're displaying it beautifully, the stories could be maybe kind of told so that's so.
Speaker 2:Now I have a nice little display box. It's been cleaned and cleansed. So yeah, that's my excitement. Nothing else too new all right.
Speaker 1:Well, it is still an earlier episode that we're recording because we've got stuff to do. It's a wonderful saturday and we got things we gotta do so you're saying we should open the damn shop I'm thinking we should open the shop because I gotta make so many more bracelets oh boy, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, I have a question for you. What is the question? Have you ever been to kitchity kippy?
Speaker 1:yeah, dang, you should have told me I would have worn my sweater. Oh man, okay, I even have a shirt or a sweater, fair enough. But um, oh, side note, I was gonna make bracelets that said fair enough, would y'all want those?
Speaker 2:yes, okay, I want one. Okay. So for anybody who hasn't been there though, it's a giant natural spring in north michigan, but the thing is is the?
Speaker 1:water is super clear and super deep, like it literally like the edge of it just drops off.
Speaker 2:What is it? A couple hundred feet right yeah, do you? Ever go swimming in something like that there.
Speaker 1:I think I would, because I feel like, because you can see it's so clear, but it's gross, though I don't actually know if I would it's actually really clean um, but it's still kind of swampy around though well, because there's no shore, it's like all the trees.
Speaker 2:I know it's so weird because, like all the trees at the edge fall into it and then there's those giant fish like hundreds of feet down. I literally get like a very intense anxiety when I think about swimming and something like that.
Speaker 1:See, it would creep me out more if it was that and I couldn't see.
Speaker 2:I don't even think I could like people kayak across it. I don't know if I could do that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I could, I could do that easily.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know why it gives me such a weird feeling. Interesting, okay, so you can imagine that. Can you imagine it way fucking bigger?
Speaker 1:I mean I can, but everybody should pause right now and go look at a picture of this so we see we're all on the same page.
Speaker 2:Yes, I can, but then I also cannot okay, perfect, while you Google up once you look at that, we're going to look at a very similar body of water that's a couple miles across. Interesting Because today we're going to Oregon and we're obviously going to be talking about a lake, one that we mentioned relatively recently and I said, oh man, I got gotta do a whole episode on this. This has native land, odd formations, ghosts, deaths, ufos, monsters, every fucking thing that we talk about. We're going to crater lake baby. When did we? It was like three or four episodes back. I can't remember why we mentioned it, but I you said something about. I'm like it's a really odd place. We need to do an episode about it.
Speaker 2:So I immediately for once wrote it down and now we're gonna cover it do they?
Speaker 1:okay, let's go what's your question?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I was okay. You think on it, you ponder on it. When you remember, you let me know. So I think. Crater lake though is and I follow this woman on tiktok who always talks about spooky lakes and stuff Crater Lake is by far the spookiest one I have ever, ever come across.
Speaker 1:I've heard a lot of creepiness, but I can't pinpoint exact stories, so I'm excited.
Speaker 2:And that's why there's a lot of stories. They go really wide but not really deep. So we're going to go. We're going to touch on a lot of shit here, so we're going on a wild ride. But for those who don't know, Crater Lake is located in south central Oregon. It's the main feature of Crater Lake National Park Who'd have thought that? And it's not really far from like Klamath Falls, which is another place that is super native, very spiritual, high energy, OK. So do you know how Crater Lake was formed at all?
Speaker 1:From a crater.
Speaker 2:Technically, yes, it's a crater at the top of a volcano called Mount Mazama Mazama, so it's the caldera. So basically, over 7,000 years ago the volcano blew and, like you know, mount St Helens has that big caldera on it. It's where the top blew off and now it's a crater.
Speaker 1:You know, what's also really weird is our last episode, depending on when we do this. We just talked about Mount St Helens.
Speaker 2:I know I was thinking that. Okay, so the crater lake formed on top of where this volcano blew. Now there's a giant crater, but the weird thing is is it's one of the only lakes in the US that has no inlet or outlet, so there's nothing that feeds in. There's no rivers that come in. There's no rivers that go out.
Speaker 1:So then, is it actually considered a lake? Isn't a lake a yes Okay?
Speaker 2:It's still considered a lake because on the mountain it collects the snowfall, the snow melt and rain.
Speaker 1:And that's what classifies you as a lake-ish.
Speaker 2:I think if it wasn't so massive massive it wouldn't be considered a lake. Okay, I'm gonna search classifications of lakes while you continue, you, you do that. But the thing is, because it comes from precipitation, that's like naturally filtered. It's super, super clean, so it's like almost caribbean deep blue. You can see for hundreds of feet down and, due to evaporation and precipitation, like the water just totally replaces itself every 150 years, so it just stays freaking clean. That's crazy. It's also the deepest lake, yeah, is it? Yes, it's the deepest lake in the United States, with a total depth of 1949 feet, and it's 11th in the world for deepest, which is insane when you have no like actual source feeding it other than precipitation that's weird.
Speaker 1:So the classification of a lake is a large, relatively deep body of standing water, typically surrounded by land, where sunlight can't reach the bottom in all areas and it doesn't have regular currents like rivers.
Speaker 2:Okay, so yeah, cool. It's a real lake Kara.
Speaker 1:I wasn't saying it wasn't, I was just curious.
Speaker 2:So in Crater Lake there's actually two islands that we're going to talk about. There's a couple other landmasses. It's actually really funny. One of them does have a pond in the middle that has a boulder in the middle of it. So if you think, about it there's an island in the lake and the island in the lake, yeah, on top of a mountain.
Speaker 1:An island in a lake, an island in the lake Wait, yep so the boulder in a pond, on an island in the lake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, I feel like we're about to start saying there's a hole in the bottom of the sea. Yeah, okay. So the two islands that we're going to talk about, there's a wizard island and phantom ship island. Oh, I want to go to phantom ship island. I knew you would. It's also about five by six miles across.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Now I had also heard that there's fish in there, and for the longest time. I'm like how the fuck do fish get into this place if it just okay, it was stocked. It was stocked by humans, so it's not that exciting.
Speaker 1:Well, I was thinking that, like a bird that caught a fish somewhere else could have like dropped it or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it was humans, of course. Well, so that's the one mystery we're going to solve today. It's also come on. It's a Zach story, so it's on native land. Well, what isn't? They've done archaeological digs right, and they're finding artifacts like sandals and other tools and stuff from natives underneath the layers of dust, which means they were there for over 7,000 years, which is wild to think about.
Speaker 1:Because if it's below the eruption in the dig and it erupted 7,700 years.
Speaker 2:So it's it's been their land for a very long time. Yeah, and this uh belonged to the klamath tribe there. I'm going to give you from a little bit of reading from wikipedia on them. So their oral history describes their ancestors witnessing the collapse of mount mazama and the formation of Crater Lake. They regard the lake as an abode to the Great Spirit.
Speaker 2:Klamath oral history tells of a battle between the sky, god Skel, and the god of the underworld, lao, and Mount Mazama was destroyed in the battle creating Crater Lake, called the Jiwas in the Klamath language, the klamath people used crater lake and vision quests, which also often involved climbing the caldera walls and other dangerous tasks. Those who were successful in such quests were often regarded as having more spiritual powers, and the tribe still holds crater lake in high regard as a spiritual site. Okay, cool. So basically, this is in their history where, like, the battle of good and evil took place and it destroyed the mountain and created the lake which we love a good, good and evil story right good and evil takeover so the creation of crater lake is also said to almost be a doorway or a crossroads between the darkness of the below world of hell.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of superstition that um came from the natives, that if a person stares at the lake surface too long, you almost get like mesmerized and unable to look away, and that if you stare long enough, the lake should be able to trap people and lure them to their deaths, because it's a portal to the underworld so are we going to talk about hades no, actually.
Speaker 2:So there's no mention of hades but lao, and I think I'm saying that right l l a out a o, I think yeah I think it is like their version of hades okay, I need to cover hades because I'd be loving them, yes yes, you do okay.
Speaker 2:So obviously we could talk about lake and history all day, but that ain't what this freaking podcast about. So let's start. You want to start with the islands yeah cool, we're gonna start with wizard island, because I want to save yours for okay, I was gonna say darn, but then I'm actually happy wizard island or wizard hat island, wizard hat island yes, I think I've seen it called both just wizard island and wizard hat island, but it literally looks like a wizard's hat, which, you know, is where it gets oh, the island's like, shaped like that cute.
Speaker 2:Okay, yes in the caldera another smaller eruption happened which formed this new dome kind of in the middle of it.
Speaker 2:So it sticks out of the water. But it's not the weird shape that give us people, the heebie-jebies, it's the campers and an island in the middle of the lake that no boats. Well, I mean you can take your boat too, but when the campers are seen, no boats have gone there. So, okay, the rangers will regularly investigate the island because they get constant reports of people having fires and moving about the island. So you'll see smoke, you'll see fires, you'll see people walking around, and as you get to the island, there is nobody there.
Speaker 1:Where are we seeing this from? Do you know?
Speaker 2:Wizard Hat Island is basically able to be seen from all the shores, so almost all the shores on a cliff, looking down into it because it's on the caldera. Okay, I understand, so you can see it from all the sides. People can see it from their boats so interesting yeah, so they'll go to investigate because you're not supposed to be like camping on the island and literally nobody will be there are you allowed to visit the island or no?
Speaker 1:I think so, but you just can't camp right, right, okay.
Speaker 2:Now a lot of people tend to like say or claim right, there's no way we can prove this, but that it's the trapped souls of those who died in the eruption 7,000 years ago. Okay, so we're starting pretty tame.
Speaker 1:I guess like okay, whatever, go on. I was thinking that like, because you're saying you can see this from the shore, because you're saying you can see this from the shore. So I'm just thinking in my head, if you're going to see like fire at night, like campers, then like what are you doing late at night on the shore? But it could just be maybe rangers seeing it. But if they're getting complaints, Well, you can.
Speaker 2:There's also a camping lodge on the shore. You can camp, it's a national park.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay this makes so much.
Speaker 2:There's tons. It's a huge, huge tourist location. Okay, I got it. I get it Cool. So your island. Then the Phantom Ship Island, this one you should Google this. It looks really cool, but it's sort of ship-shaped. Obviously. It's these like super tall jutting rocks coming out of the water. This island is like 500 by 200 feet, but it's named this because one. When it sort of looks like a ship, but in the right weather condition so foggy, low light it starts to like look like it appears mysteriously out of the water and then disappears. And a lot of people have mistaken it over time for a ghost ship, like they used to report, like the ship just came out of nowhere and would disappear I do understand where you're coming from, but it almost looks more like a castle to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just a really unique landmark Now that one it doesn't have too much paranormal other than the fact that you know it tricks people into thinking it's a boat or not, but it's just kind of showing there's a lot of really weird formation around here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does look very, very strange.
Speaker 2:Okay, I promise we're gonna get more strange as we go on, though. So, aside from the natural like giant landmarks like that, there's another landmark at crater lake that moves all around crater lake. It's probably like the most famous landmark that it has. Yeah, it's called the old man of the lake. Have you ever heard of this?
Speaker 2:I don't think so okay so the old man of the lake is a petrified mountain hemlock tree. It's at least 35 feet tall and for some reason it floats vertically in the water. So, like the top four feet of the trunk stick out of the water floating with the base down and set, you know, most logs would float on their side. It has been floating in this lake since at least 1896 and it's for sure the same. It's for sure the same, yeah. So it travels about four miles a day all around this lake.
Speaker 2:This is so cute it was first written about by joseph dillard in 1902. He's the one who saw it into uh 1896 and it has been carbon dated and shows it being at least 450 years old. We just don't know when it fell into the water. It's preserved by the water because the water is really cold. Okay, it's turned completely white. A lot of people say it looks like a giant bone stub sticking out of the water, which for me the thalassophobia like what are we calling it?
Speaker 1:the old man?
Speaker 2:the old man. Yeah, it would totally freak me out. I don't know why I seen that stuff like oh, but it's like the um, what's it called?
Speaker 1:the effect where it's the last of phobia.
Speaker 2:I think I just said it wrong, whatever whatever so submechanophobia, anything big, weird things in the water, I don't know. Give us any heebie-jeebies, um. So here's the thing though. Oh yeah, it's. It's been floating there for hundreds of years and there's some superstition tied to it, so the rangers used to like jump off boats and like one of their rites of passage was getting their picture taken climbing up on there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just gonna say there's a ton of pictures of people sitting on it. So, people, I don't know if you want, if you're a visual, oh my god, if you're a visual or if, oh my God, if you're a visual person, you need to not think of it as like a little tree. It's a huge, huge, huge tree looking thing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, it's big enough for a human being to sit on top of.
Speaker 2:So, according to this ranger, dave Grimes, up off their boats to get their picture taken there. He said we don't like to mess with the old man Because, you see, in 1988, a party of submarine explorers feared that while they were doing some research, that they might accidentally hit the old man and damage their submarine. They harnessed it, hauled him off towards shore and tied him off, of course, on the coast of Wizard Island, because why not give the old man his hat? That just seems like a terrible fucking idea. As soon as the tree was tethered, the weather turns ugly. The wind blew, white caps form and storms blew in immediately. It then starts to snow in August, jesus Christ. The researchers fearing that they did something, they decided to cut the old man free free and almost immediately the weather clears up.
Speaker 1:So do we know how long this goes into the water? 35 feet 35 feet.
Speaker 2:Okay, yep, it's a massive tree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just, that's just weird to me.
Speaker 2:So and they don't know why it floats vertically. Some people think it's like the density increased as it soaked the water.
Speaker 1:Because if you're sitting on it, wouldn't you think that then it would like teeter and like.
Speaker 2:Another theory is that there's weights tied to the bottom of it, but that would those weights stay there for hundreds of years. The other thing too is why. So it makes sense to me like, okay, a petrified tree, something's holding it upright, it can't be the only hemlock. Why aren't there other old men floating around the lake? Like other trees of the exact same species had to have fallen in here, it doesn't make sense to me of why there's only one is there other living ones around or no?
Speaker 2:not anymore. Yeah no, it's like it's a pretty common tree in that area okay huh, but, and most of them, as they petrify, end up sinking right it. This is weird. It's now like that's one of the most famous landmarks to look for. There's people who track where it is every day and it's like kind of cute. That's cute. Nobody knows why this one particular one has been floating there, but they do not tie it off anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no don't, I wouldn't even sit on it.
Speaker 2:So we've got weird landmarks so far. I'll give you the choice Do you want murder and mystery, next Cryptids and monsters, or UFOs? Uh I, next cryptids and monsters, or ufos? Uh oh, I feel like give me cryptids. So let's go then to the cryptids and the monsters. Obviously no surprise here, because, uh, we're in oregon that's why I was like I want cryptids oh yeah, it is pretty much the number one state for cryptid sightings.
Speaker 2:And our boy Bigfoot. Okay, whoop, whoop. There are multiple reports of Bigfoot every year, pretty much monthly, regularly. He is seen all over the trails on the edges of Crater Lake. He's never been seen on the islands or anything.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But there is a really famous story of the rangers once receiving some reports of a weird creature and they start to follow this large, dark, putrid smelling creature through the woods Until at one point it kind of lost them, circled back behind them and started screaming and throwing pine cones at them, so they decided to give up on the chase.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's what I would do if somebody was following me.
Speaker 2:Right, scream and throw pine cones. Why not? It's a great plan. Crater Lake isn't even just the spot of Bigfoot sightings, but two Bigfoot deaths.
Speaker 1:Wait like natural deaths. No unfortunately because humans ruin everything.
Speaker 2:One by car, and the body was whisked away by government agents, and the other by train wait, were these both accidental?
Speaker 1:then yes, okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah all right, uh, well, you're gonna get upset about the train one in a second. It was accidental, but it wasn't reported until a couple years later because the people driving the train were drinking on the job I guess if you're gonna drink on any driving driving thing, any type of automobile, I guess a train would probably be the safest right. Yeah, because I mean, unless you derail it. But yeah, I get your logic.
Speaker 1:But then you hit a big foot, so you're true, I guess I don't know if you would have been able to not hit it if you weren't drunk. Yeah, drunk or not, you're probably going to hit it with the train.
Speaker 2:You can't really stop them. In June of 1976, the park's chief naturalist, george Morrison, claims that he saw a Bigfoot or Sasquatch, cross the road at dusk and head into the Annie Creek Canyon. Morrison said the upright creature took only four steps to cross the four lane road. Wow, well, that makes sense. He's like their chief naturalist. He's an experienced nature observer and said he couldn't find any footprints. But this thing is not anything he had ever seen before and he was like pretty shaken by this.
Speaker 1:It's always the experienced people.
Speaker 2:Right, at least we have a reputable one um. Five years later we have another visitor, roger wade. He sees an upright sasquatch.
Speaker 1:50 yards in front of his car yeah reputable, it's reputable, it's a reputable, like your reputation. Potato, potato reputable.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna look this up later and see who's right. I'm probably wrong, um, okay, so anyways, the roger wade. He sees an upright sasquatch 50 yards in front of his car. Three miles west of any spring oh my god sorry people see it running all the time on all fours. I've never heard of that. Look at any grainy video. When they go running that they go gorilla style, okay, anyways, his written statement described the creature as six feet tall your favorite, pulling height out of their ass with light brown, cinnamon colored hair.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Wade did claim to see that, or Wade claimed that he found large footprints.
Speaker 1:Okay, so one didn't, one did.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, all right. So that's the Bigfoot sightings.
Speaker 1:If you were to see a bigfoot, what color would you prefer? It to be cinnamon brown. I know that's kind of what I visualize, always it but yeah, some people say, like black hair that just doesn't. No, no, it doesn't fit for me in my head.
Speaker 2:That's somebody in a ghillie suit. Okay, of course, though, like we're not gonna get through a creepy like story without a water monster, as well, yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought we were going with first.
Speaker 2:Now, surprisingly, there's a lot less of this than there is Bigfoot. But what people start to see is weird disturbances at the top. So like a lot of the cliffs looking over the lake are really high up and look down on it, so they see a lot of weird disturbances at the top of the water that make them think there's something large. Now the natives. They do think that Lao, if I'm saying that correctly resides in the lake, which he's kind of the representative of the evil, right? Okay, yeah, there's not many sightings, except for in 2002, a group of friends were touring in a rowboat which is the last thing I want to see a fucking sea monster in.
Speaker 2:And Mrs Maddie Hatcher looks over the side and she sees something swimming down underneath the boat that shouldn't be there, she says to reporters in the Fort Meyer Star News. She said this thing must have been a city block long. To me it looked exactly like a dragon. I have no idea. That would terrify me. Now there's the weird disturbances on the top of the sea. I think this is probably, if I'm gonna give it some thought about, what it could be. I'm thinking it's probably just something more elemental in nature that maybe shows up like kind of like sam was saying shows up differently to different people yeah, um, I like her thought process and giving a description of how big it is, because to me that makes more sense.
Speaker 1:It's like a city block, instead of saying it was right like an exact yeah, yeah, yeah, like a good comparison.
Speaker 2:I appreciate her for that.
Speaker 1:But I do think that you know. You said there wasn't a lot of sightings in the water at least that makes sense to me, though, because of how deep it is and how, like we don't know, half the species that are real quote unquote real now.
Speaker 2:So that always makes sense to me when there's like I don't think this could be anything real because, remember, the only living things that are in this lake have been stocked by humans. I don't care.
Speaker 1:So I think it's more elemental. I mean it could be, but it still could be a lake monster, because we don't know how lake monsters survive. They might not need anything.
Speaker 2:To disprove this one a little bit. Possibly this is a possible explanation. To disprove her sighting yes, okay, at least hers now the disturbances on water, but there was, in 1977, a uh, really terrible b movie that was like a play on the loch ness monster called uh, the crater lake monster.
Speaker 1:So there could have been some ideas planted, but got you so, surprisingly though, we really only have two monsters out here that is surprising, but then also not because, like you just said it could, it's probably more elemental, it's probably more spiritual, like the native american things like that. So I guess I I guess it sounds surprising with the description of this location but at the same time I I get why perfect, all right.
Speaker 2:Ghosts, murder and mystery ufo what next? Oh god yeah, we got a lot to get through let's do murder perfect, okay, so far we've got some monster sightings, we've got some weird geography. What are your thoughts before we get into the murder and mystery? Like do you, do you think this place is kind of weird? Do you think this is normal? Like where are you at? Oh, of course it's weird. Like, do you believe in all the paranormal stuff so far?
Speaker 1:Of course. Why are you even asking? I don't know why. I'm even asking you that you believe anything.
Speaker 2:I tell you Okay, so we're going to get into. There's a shit ton of people who die, people who go missing, people who unfortunately take their own lives. Of course, we could literally do three episodes on all those, so we're just going to touch on a few of the weird ones.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's go baby.
Speaker 2:So the first is Mr Charles McCuller. He was an outdoorsman and photographer from Virginia who, at the age of 19, heads out to Crater Lake for a few days. He's going to take some photos. It's 1975. Okay, so he was supposed to be gone just for two days and he went by himself, by himself. Yep, he was supposed to go back to a friend's house, but he never returns. Okay, so his disappearance is investigated. Plenty of people witnessed him around the lake, but nobody could pinpoint. The last time he was seen, right, okay, over pinpoint. Like the last time he was seen, right, okay. Over a year goes by. There's search by crown, by air, involvement with the fbi, and he's finally found, well, portions of him. Well, right, okay. October 13th 1976, two hikers from texas make a wrong turn while traveling through the park. They end up in this like remote part of a bog area called sphagnum bog. Upon arrival they find an old, dirty backpack. This was in 76.
Speaker 1:Right when did he take his 75 as a year? Okay?
Speaker 2:cool. A day later, the rangers show up in the area, ultimately coming across the remains of charles mcculler. They can tell because the bag of his car keys are in there. The cameras are gone, but he's about 12 miles from the the trailhead. I could tell you about it, but I found a reddit story that really sums it up well, and I know you love reddit.
Speaker 1:Why is this giving me, like blair witch, vibes? I?
Speaker 2:was thinking more like into the wild vibes a little bit.
Speaker 1:Okay, read the reddit read the reddit redditor, non, non, n-o-n-n-a-a-n.
Speaker 2:Has this to say. So Charles' remains were bizarre. His jeans were reportedly unbuttoned and the belt had come undone. In his pants, investigators found broken off shin bones sticking up. Investigators also found foot bones in his socks Okay, but the rest of his skeletal remains seemed to have vanished, except the crown of his skull, which was found 12 feet away. So foot bones in a sock, shin bones in the pants and crown of his head, and that's it. That's it, nothing that's very strange the.
Speaker 2:The bag is there, the camera equipment is gone, but his pants weren't unbuttoned. Pants were unbuttoned, no, but his shirt and boots and coat are gone. The pants were found sitting on a, but all the money was gone out of the wallet. Ugh, it's really like it seems true crimey, right.
Speaker 1:No, there wasn't any blood or anything that they could find.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no blood and no other remains have ever been found. Like what? How does? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's very weird, like what? How does I don't know?
Speaker 2:okay, so in 2016, stephen mccullough wrote an article about his missing brother and this is really sad. Oh, in it he throws is an interesting conclusion, he said if only those broken off shin bones could have talked to us, what do you think they'd say? I bet they'd say something like this I hitched a ride with a creepy guy who stole my camera equipment money and shot me in the head. Then, on a clear day in the dead of winter, he hauled a ride with the creepy guy who stole my camera equipment money and shot me in the head. Then, on a clear day in the dead of winter, he hauled my body into the most remote parts of crater lake, took my shirt and boots off, set me on a log and left, figuring the animals would destroy the evidence by spring. And hey, I guess it worked because the cops ruled my death to be from natural causes. My dad and family don't buy it, though. That's what the like his brother wrote that from his perspective why does he think that he got shot in the head?
Speaker 2:because of the fact that he was robbed. Obviously somebody like staged the way his body was out there. I would think that he got stabbed, um, and like how the part of it yeah, it's, I mean, you just don't know there's nothing, I don't know, but but it's so weird that, like to me, animals wouldn't leave such little of the bones to like the point where you couldn't find them.
Speaker 1:That's weird no, that whole thing is really weird. I was just thinking I would think that he got stabbed or something, because then there wouldn't be like potential bullets evidence or anything. But that's really weird, yeah, that's unsettling.
Speaker 2:So that that's the one I've got for you on murder. The other ones are going to be a little bit more on the weird side of things. Okay, so we have two strange disappearances during World War II. So the first are two tornado bombers flying across the lake in 1944. Okay, according to one pilot, the only surviving pilot. As they neared the lake he took the lead. Both men had been flying with absolutely no issues, so they were kind of side by side. The one pulls in front clear day, kind of gets some speed going, goes to look back to check on the other pilot. He's gone. He's gone. He had only been out of visual range for a short time, less than five minutes, went through a time slip. Nothing came across the radio, no one saw any plane fall out of the sky because it was still a tourist area, right, it just completely vanished. Portal time slip Following year. Or it went into the doorway to the underworld. Time slip the following year, or it went into the doorway to the underworld the following year.
Speaker 2:A group of seven Hellcat fighter planes were headed north from California to Washington. While over the park, they encountered heavy fog. When the squadron made it to clear skies, they found that one aircraft flown by 22-year-old Frank Lupo had gone missing. So that was the last that anyone had seen Lupo for nearly 25 years, until 1970. What when a newly hired park ranger, dave badass last name, pain Breaker oh Was hiking the park and he came across a human skull. I love this guy. Where's the plane? I wait for it. I love this guy, though. He takes the skull, he puts it in his backpack, heads to the office, goes up to his brand new manager and slams the skull on his desk Love it.
Speaker 2:So the investigators go out to the area. He found it. They're able to recover a piece of the plane.
Speaker 1:I guess I don't love that. He touched it though.
Speaker 2:Right, they use he touched it though. Right, they use dental records to actually ID it. Okay, but with the parts of the plane and what they had, they were unable to identify what happened to the plane to cause it to also just fall right out of the plate or the sky but it took 25 years to find that yeah that seems so weird there are tons of planes that just go disappearing over here.
Speaker 1:That seems so weird that.
Speaker 2:I that, yeah, nobody finds this for 25 years. And then he's hiking and the skull is visible, visible, that's what I mean that's fucking weird.
Speaker 2:Okay, we have another. This one is the last one's, sad, I'm sorry. It's also one of the most confusing of the missing persons cases out here. Okay, and it's of Sam Bulkey, also known as Sammy. So in 2006, sammy and his dad, kenneth, are visiting the park. The two stop to play on a hill and you know like, when it's time to go, ken's like all right, sammy, like we got to go. Sammy refuses to come down the hill. He throws a little temper tantrum and goes down the other side of the hill.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. How old is he?
Speaker 2:he is six years old, oh okay, six or eight something, little young, young kid. He disappears out of the dad's sight as he goes down the other side of the hill and kenneth never sees sammy again, he so he runs over. Can't see the kid immediately. A search was called. They searched the ground with dogs. They had helicopters and he couldn't have got that far. He's a little no. Dogs briefly picked up his scent. Can't see the kid Immediately. A search was called. They searched the ground with dogs, they had helicopters.
Speaker 1:He couldn't and he couldn't have got that far, he's little.
Speaker 2:No Dogs. Briefly picked up his scent, okay, but it led nowhere. It's like all of a sudden he just disappeared. The other really horrible thing is that Sammy was autistic. Oh, so he kind of you know, like I could see. If nothing strange did happen here, you would probably hide from large groups of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:But that's why it's not too uncharacteristic that he ran off and had a temper tantrum.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So the time of the year that it was, though, it was kind of near winter, so they didn't think it was kidnapping at all because they basically talked to everybody who was around there. There weren't many people in the park at this time. Eventually, the search is called off because it is now fully winter a couple months in and they said if he was still out there with the freezing temperatures.
Speaker 1:There's no way. Here's the thing he did. Make it a nice bigfoot.
Speaker 2:Family took him in I I hope so, um still to this day totallyolved and it is an active missing persons case.
Speaker 1:That's sad, poor baby.
Speaker 2:But yeah. So, like I said, though, there's a lot of accidental deaths of people falling in the lake here there's lots of murders that make it look accidental. A lot of people who do take their own life. There's not. We don't know the reasons why people pass away so much here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Something you know a lot of. It's the remoteness or the beauty of it. But if we go back to that native legend about it being a portal to the doorway and luring people in, makes sense Lao spirit, you know All right, give me the alien. All right, you want aliens? I'll give you the aliens.
Speaker 1:Zach's wearing the perfect shirt for today. He has a shirt that.
Speaker 2:I bought him. I wore this one for you because it's got aliens, it's got Bigfoot and Bigfoot, yes.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:We're going to go to February 4th, okay. I can't ever say February Okay.
Speaker 1:February 4th 1997. I like how you say it. I know you do Okay.
Speaker 2:A private pilot is flying near Diamond Lake Junction east of Crater Lake and he reports seeing three disc-shaped objects speeding across the evening sky. Then he also sees that they're pursued by several jet interceptors. Oh, and that same evening tons of people around the lake respond or report hearing a sonic boom that was loud enough to set off car alarms and stuff which could be the jets yeah, it sounds like on this february 4th they were chasing these three discs around.
Speaker 2:Now that was seen during day, so people could identify that it was three disc-shaped UFOs.
Speaker 1:So multiple people did see this, yep.
Speaker 2:Okay, and it's been seen many, many times since, but it's usually at night. So a lot of people, instead of seeing the disc, they say there's these crazy lights that are just always flying around Crater Lake Interesting. This has led a lot of people to then further speculate as they're doing a lot off of New new jersey and stuff now, with everything going on, that there might be an underwater ufo base here, because not only are all these discs and lights seen so often since, like the early 90s, they're also seen going in and out of the water, which is something we're hearing more and more about ufos or maybe, you know, multi-dimensional beings or or something else going on other than aliens from other planets. But, like, I kind of think that this is a perfect place. Oh yeah, ruling out that we don't know what the UFOs are by any means, this would be a great place for them to hide.
Speaker 2:Super super deep place on top of a mountain, like come on. So the UFOs, though, have been around way more than just the 90s, when they started being reported, because that's just popularity of UFO reports, yeah, going back to the Klamath tribe, so the people who lived there for thousands of years they spoke about, and often about the sky, people who come down from the heavens.
Speaker 2:Sky people, so their legends describe bright objects descending from the sky and interacting with the lake. Elders spoke of strange beings emerging from the lake itself, hinting at the uh ancient kind of connection between crater lake and otherworldly visitors, and there are researchers who think that this is actually some of the oldest account of UFO activity and alien contact with humans in the United States.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:We obviously, you know, you and me, our theories of the monsters and the UFOs go hand in hand. And whether it's from another planet or a little bit multidimensional, I'm not surprised that we have a ton of UFO and strange light anomalies going on. With all the Bigfoot sightings. By any means.
Speaker 1:One day I'm going to remember what episode it was and I'm going to go find it and I'm going to figure out how to clip the audio where you made fun of me so bad when I said I thought Bigfoots were interdimensional and you could use trees as portals and stuff and you clowned me so hard. And now and now I've heard it from other professionals and now you're like you know what Actually?
Speaker 2:Actually, actually, actually Listen, we learn and we grow.
Speaker 1:I know, ok, I just every time you bring it up. I have to just bring up how you clowned me so hard.
Speaker 2:You're making me believe more things. You actually. Are you ready for the damn ghost?
Speaker 1:at me so hard and like I was, like whatever I was sticking with it. Never laugh at you, I'd laugh with you somebody figure out what episode that was for me. Thanks, okay, yeah, I want to hear the hot guys okay.
Speaker 2:So monsters, ufos, landmarks not enough, uh-uh, we gotta have ghosts, and we already talked about the wizard island ones. But that is not even the like half of it, okay. So you don't even have to go near the water or the islands, you can just stay at Crater Lake Lodge, let's do it. Built in 1915, meant to be a retreat for the visitors Nobody knows why, but a lot of the visitors just don't tend to leave and hang out throughout the years. But a lot of the visitors just don't tend to leave and hang out throughout the years.
Speaker 2:According to investigating the PNWcom, pacific Northwest, guests have reported night terrors that prevent them from sleeping, as it feels that people are staring at them. Okay, often encountering the spirit of a young girl walking in the hallways, and for some reason, one of the most haunted areas is an elevator that is haunted by the spirit of a Chinese man. So you'll get in the elevator with him and he won't be there when you get out. Or sometimes you'll get in an empty elevator and all of a sudden there is a man there with you hanging out in this elevator.
Speaker 1:Like. I wonder why he likes the elevator so much.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but do you remember a long time ago, you and me had a debate about where you'd want to be in a haunting situation, and you argued for inside. I argued for outside, oh, because you could hide inside. I'm like, well, the ghost could come through walls. I'd rather be able to run.
Speaker 1:I think this was during the goat man episode yeah, I do remember this, but we were debating, if you want to sleep on the bridge or in correct yes but then I think at the end, I don't know if I knew what I really would want.
Speaker 2:But okay, well, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, because here, as soon as you step outside, you have all their friends as well. So the ghostly figure of a woman in white, of course a lady in white. She walks alone on the trails at night and witnesses say she has a sorrowful expression and sometimes she just vanishes into thin air when approached. Many people think that she is a woman who accidentally perished near the lake and is cursed to walk the trails for eternity and is cursed to walk the trails for eternity.
Speaker 1:That whole entire time, what was in my head is I walk alone like Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Oh my gosh, I love, love them what a great song for that exact scenario.
Speaker 2:Perfect, although sometimes she's not alone because there's another gentleman on the trails.
Speaker 1:Oh, a gentleman caller.
Speaker 2:Yes, nobody really knows who this is. A lot of people seem to say that he looks like a gold miner and during the gold rush, lots and lots and lots and lots of gold miners fell to their deaths into the lake. That makes sense to me.
Speaker 1:Okay, so maybe they became friends after life.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I mean they both just kind of hang around on the trails, so I'm sure they've ran into each other at some point.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's kind of cute.
Speaker 2:Now, we did talk about the ghosts on Wizard Island. They see like shadowy figures.
Speaker 1:I don't even remember what we've talked about so far. I know.
Speaker 2:There's also tons and tons of reports of on the regular trails not on the island of these shadowy figures lurking in the dense woods. Always seem to be kind of watching people. They're described as large and humanoid, but they can move unnaturally fast they can vanish when being spotted.
Speaker 2:Whether these are spirit, elemental or something else, nobody really knows, but to me it reminded me a lot of, and it's not terribly far removed from the episode you did on the watchers, oh yeah, so it seems to have that same, yeah, that vibe. Oh okay, I've been going on for almost almost an hour. I I think we've hit everything we could possibly. I don't know. That's the thing with this one. I told you we're gonna go wide, not very deep. Deep, yeah, sense, if any like for you or anybody listening. Like there's a lot more stories out there on this, so if any parts of this stuck into you, definitely urge you to do some of your own research. To go back to the thing at the beginning, though, there is a spot you can swim in, this like you have to jump off a cliff to do it and then, like, pull yourself so.
Speaker 1:So you would never Pretty large?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I am never. No, not with all the other shit that's going on here and the the lake being able to lure you to your death. Would you go swimming in it?
Speaker 1:Probably not. I don't know. I'd have to make the decision once. I was looking at it.
Speaker 2:Fair.
Speaker 1:Well, to wrap us up, I did something I know you'd love and I found you at least one reddit story about. Oh. So I'm like did you go visit when?
Speaker 2:yeah, I did a really quick trip remember that whole thing about me wanting to be a pilot while I'm out there? Um, so killer ben man, though, talks about crater lake, and he, he is not, uh, gonna be rushing back anytime soon. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:That's a good one. I went camping at Crater Lake in Oregon and where we camped it was heavily wooded and there were about two or three people beside us. We get there around midday, set up and relax. By now it begins to get dark, so we decided to cook some food and call it a day after we eat. Now, me, my cousin, my brother shared a tent to sleep in, so I'd say around 2 to 3 am rolls in and I have to pee like a MF-er. Anyways, I do my stuff, head back to the tent and find the zipper wide open and my little brother gone. Oh, so I start freaking out. I wake my cousin up to tell him what happened and essentially we search until sunrise and then we call the rangers. Oh shit, they search for about four to five hours and they find him 10 miles from our campsite. He has no clue how he got there and all he has on is his underwear and nothing else.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:God. Now, after this whole ordeal, our cousin tells us about David Paulides and his whole research on how people go missing in national parks without any explanations. Needless to say, it was one of the most jarring and disturbing things that ever happened in my life. In reality, it honestly ruined camping. For all of us and I used to love camping I will say Crater Lake is the place to go for some creepy, paranormal shit.
Speaker 1:Oh, how long ago did he post that, do you remember? I think this one was about two or three years ago.
Speaker 2:There's tons of other, there's some red stories about more details. I know that one I. I kind of picked that one because it wasn't even related to anything else we talked about. It was just like just a weird yeah, like literally moving 10 miles and having no memory. There was another one, one basically I almost picked of this boyfriend-girlfriend leaving the hot springs at night and hear something chasing them the whole time. It sounded very much like a camouflage Bigfoot, like we've heard those stories. And when they got back to the parking lot there was a single car, old man in a truck, and it's like 11 at night and he gets out and asks them which way to the hot springs, which like why would anybody be going to the nudist hot springs in the middle of the night? They were just like this place is too fucking weird.
Speaker 1:We're never coming back there's always a lot of really, really creepy stories which maybe we should just do a whole episode about hot springs, like natural hot springs yeah because there is so many creepy, weird interactions and encounters around them.
Speaker 1:oh, the heebie-jeebies, I think it was two, two girls, one ghosted, I can't remember where, but um, it was like a hot spring thing, but basically it was like they think that they ran into a, um, like a seductress type entity, interest, interesting Because it was just like this weird, very witchy vibey woman, just like in a hot spring, just singing very it would make sense.
Speaker 2:It's natural water. There's usually a lot of minerals in it because of where it comes from, they're high energy spots. We should do a hot springs that is all of the fucking weirdness that goes on in crater lake packed into one hour yeah, that's a lot and, like you said, it's not, it's very a lot of vague.
Speaker 1:Stories I guess are vague, but like a lot of it, which is just how these places always are. There's like just a lot in one little space I like that.
Speaker 2:Like, while there's not a lot of details in the stories, it's the rangers, the chief naturalist, you, you know, world War Two bombers Like these are all credible, very credible people, and it's so much has happened here that I think it's hard to deny that something fucking weird is happening, for sure in this super high energy area.
Speaker 1:So my friend Darren lives in Oregon, oregon. However, we are supposed to be saying it, we should hit him up and be like hey, we're gonna come chill with you, and how far are you from can we convince him to spend a night there and just report back to us?
Speaker 2:he probably already has perfect, but then write in about it or call in about it oh the key. Or if anybody else has ever seen it or been to crater park, tell us your story. I'll hit him up and be like, hey, have you ever?
Speaker 1:stayed at or been to Crater Park. Tell us your stories. I'll hit him up and be like, hey, have you ever stayed at Crater Lake? And he's probably been like, oh, I went fishing there. He's that type of person. He's probably been there.
Speaker 2:All right, so emoji for this one. Is there a wizard hat? Yeah, let's do a wizard hat or a ship for the two islands. Okay, love it. The island you would rather interact with? The ghostly camper island, or the the ship that disappears? So wizard hat for wizard hat island, ship for ghost ship, island. Okay, pick on, pick your I like it.
Speaker 1:Um all right, well, yeah, good job.
Speaker 2:That was a lot I know I, I tried to like I. I think I did good, though we're just under an hour yeah, no, we did perfect, perfection.
Speaker 1:Um all. My coffee is starting to really hit me, so I gotta go yeah, I'm in that same boat yeah, are we on on the ship, all right?
Speaker 1:uh, thank you guys so much. We love and appreciate you. Leave us some voicemails. We haven't got one in a while. We still need one more listener. Write in or voail, we'll get you bonus episodes if you do. Yep, don't forget, we also have a bunch of bonus content and things like that on our Patreon, so feel free to head on over there. You don't have to pay. There are some free things that we do have on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, coming out with us. No matter who you are, you could just yeah, subscribe to it because you love us.
Speaker 1:That's really all I have. Have a good. If this is a, when are we listening to this Thursday? Have a great weekend, a day, a night, a morning. Wrap it up, kara, let them go. I'm just wishing. I'm wishing them all good things. Goodness gracious, all the good things. Love you. I have to pee. I've had so much coffee, I gotta poop. The most important thing that you can do for us is to creep it real, you little eyeballs.
Speaker 2:And not pee your pants.
Speaker 1:Goodbye, bye. I'm home with the dogman At the Irish shop, closed in the shadows At the Irish shop, and home with the oddballs At the Irish shop. The door's always open At the RE Shop.
