Today’s podcast will feature 2 stories about ghost towns. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#2 -- "Portlock" -- A ghost town with a very dark history (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2u2_q4tFp8)#1 -- "Ghost Town" -- A place so evil, it is illegal to go there (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLxVfVdr8-g)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What are the ghost towns featured in this episode?
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature two stories about ghost towns. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.
The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Portlock, and it's about a town in Alaska with a very dark history. The second and final story you'll hear is called Ghost Town, and it's about an abandoned town in an off limits forest. Okay, let's get into our first story called Portlock.
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Scattered across the North American continent are many ghost towns, places that used to be vibrant and alive that are now dead and abandoned. In these places, you can find old churches and buildings and schools that are usually in a pretty significant state of decay. The reasons a town might die varies.
Sometimes it's because a new railroad or highway is put in that bypasses the town, or the town has just exhausted all of their natural resources, which were the original draw to the town. Mining towns are a good example of that. Other reasons are wars, natural disasters, political wranglings. There's a whole bunch of reasons why towns just suddenly stop existing.
But there's one ghost town in North America that has a really unique and very dark reason for why it ultimately was abandoned. And that town is Portlock, Alaska. Portlock, which is also called Port Chatham, is located on the farthest southwestern tip of the Kenai Peninsula. It's easily one of the most beautiful areas in all of Alaska, but it also happens to be very remote.
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Chapter 2: What is the dark history of Portlock, Alaska?
And Portlock specifically, even by Kenai standards, is considered extremely remote. You can only get there by boat or by bush plane. The town was technically founded in 1787 when Captain Nathaniel Portlock of the Royal Navy landed there, but it wasn't really turned into a real settlement until the early 1900s when commercial fishermen built a cannery there.
By 1921, the town's fishing economy was doing so well that the US government believed they would be the next major commercial fishing hub, and so they actually established a post office there. Everything seemed to be going great for Portlock until the 1930s when rumors began seeping out along the Kenai Peninsula that there was something wrong with Portlock.
Men from this cannery town were going missing at an alarming rate, and the few that were found again were always found dead and mutilated in a nearby lagoon. Initially, the townspeople believed these were bear attacks, but the natives of the Kenai Peninsula that found out about what was happening in Portlock, they stopped by and they said, those are not bear attacks.
Those are almost certainly attacks by a creature we call the Nantina, which means half man, half beast. And they are tall, two-legged, hairy creatures that live in the forest right near you.
Now, of course, this just sounds like folklore, but when you consider the fact that from 1930 to 1950, dozens of Portlock residents disappeared in that forest or were violently killed and then dumped in the lagoon right outside of the forest, it makes you wonder what's in the forest.
But since none of the people who went missing were ever found alive again, there was never any good description of what it was that was causing them to disappear in the first place. Well, with the exception of one case,
In 1943, John Meyer, who was a resident of Portlock, was at his campsite and he was crouched down when he felt something leap onto his back and start pummeling his head and hitting him on the side. And he kind of went into the fetal position. And then at some point his dog started barking and caused whatever was on his back to get scared and run off.
And so John has been badly beaten, rolls over and he looks towards the tree line and he sees this enormous, tall, hairy man running into the woods. And so John gets up and he stumbles his way into town to try to get help. And he's able to tell someone what happened to him before he ultimately succumbs to his injuries and dies.
After the John Meyer incident, another group of Portlock men were up in the forest doing some hunting when they discovered these enormous 18 inch long tracks. And they followed them to a clearing where it looked like there was this epic death struggle that clearly two huge animals had gotten into a struggle here. There's blood everywhere. There's pieces of what looked like a bear or maybe a moose.
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Chapter 3: What mysterious events led to the abandonment of Portlock?
Besides the fishermen, the only people that have gone to Portlock are people that want to come face to face with whatever it is that drove the people out of that town. But to put in perspective how few people do that, there's almost no modern photographs or videos of Portlock. But there is one very eerie modern photograph of this building that's right in the heart of Portlock.
It's one of the very few buildings that didn't collapse. And it's located right next to the forest where many of the men who went missing were last seen. And it's also not far from the lagoon where many of the dead men and dead people that were taken were found.
And even if you don't believe there's some non-Tina running around the forests of Portlock, you have to understand that something was killing and taking these people, and to date, we still have no idea what it was. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories?
Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart.
There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung, or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue, or this town everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years.
And so that's why I created Mr. Baughlin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers.
You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest,
Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
Lamont Jones' world is shattered when his cousin dies in custody just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. From Wondery comes Death County, PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups that begins as one man's search for answers but soon reveals a disturbing pattern.
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Chapter 4: What happened to the residents of Portlock?
We continue to find ourselves at an impasse. I'm declaring a mistrial in this case.
But now the case is back in the spotlight. And one question still lingers. Did Karen Reid kill John O'Keefe? The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reid is innocent. How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen? I'm Kristen Thorne, investigative reporter with Law & Crime and host of the podcast, Karen, The Retrial. This isn't just a retrial. It's a second chance at the truth.
I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance, and it shouldn't be.
I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her.
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The next and final story of today's episode is called Ghost Town. It was a bright summer day in 1906, and Dr. William C. Clark and his wife Harriet were driving slowly through a beautiful part of northwestern Connecticut called Litchfield County.
Litchfield is a rural, very hilly area with lots of winding country roads, and the Clarks were there to try to scout out an area to build their second home. The couple lived full-time in New York City, where Dr. Clark was an oncologist, which is a cancer doctor, and he was also a professor at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.
And while the Clarks' lives were very exciting and fulfilling in the city, they were also very hectic and chaotic. And so the reason they had settled on Litchfield as the place to look for a location for their second home is because it was the total opposite of the city. It was quiet, it was peaceful, it was perfect.
And so as this couple from New York City drove along these winding backcountry roads, they eventually reached this beautiful covered wooden bridge. And after they drove across it, they got this view up onto this mountainside off to their right. And high up on this mountain was this huge, shaded, beautiful forest.
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Chapter 5: What is the next story about ghost towns?
Chapter 6: What was the story of Dr. William C. Clark in Litchfield County?
But in quick succession, the Brophy family's sheep all died, then the mother died of tuberculosis, then the two sons were accused of theft in a nearby town, and then they just disappeared, leaving one person, John Brophy, the father. But the Brophy family home burned to the ground, and so John, who was overcome with grief, just wandered off into the forest and was never heard from again.
At that point, Dudleytown officially became a ghost town. No one lived there. And it was at that point in 1906 when Dr. Clark and Harriet had their beautiful summer's day walk through the forest and discovered where they wanted to build their second home. So, fast forward back to 1918, and Dr. Clark, he's on his medical emergency leave to New York. It winds up being very quick.
He's back on a train within 36 hours, and he pulls into the station right near Dark Entry Forest, and he's expecting to see Harriet waiting on the platform for him. But when the train rolled into the station, she wasn't there. Now, Dr. Clark was not a superstitious person, but for some reason, when he didn't see his wife there, he just felt like something was off.
There's no reason she wouldn't have come out here to greet him. I mean, she was worried about being all alone in the cabin, and she knew he was going to be arriving at that moment. And so, feeling a little bit panicked, Dr. Clark left the train station and, on foot, made his way over to the dark entry forest.
And when he got there and began walking on that overgrown road path that led to his house, immediately, as soon as he was within the shade of the trees, he began hearing these owls hooting very loudly off in the distance. Now, normally, the sound of these owls hooting made him feel welcome, but this time he felt scared. He felt like something was wrong up ahead.
And so he began jogging through the forest and it's very dark and all he can hear is the sound of these owls and it's getting louder and louder and louder. And then finally he reaches the clearing where his property is. And at this point it's a cacophony of owls hooting practically right on top of him. And he looks up towards his house up on this hill and he sees the front door is slightly open.
And so now with his heart racing, wondering what's going on with his wife, Dr. Clark runs up to his front porch. He gets to the door and he flings it open the rest of the way. And then right before he stepped into his house, this sudden high-pitched noise began up on the second floor inside of his house. And it was so startling to Dr. Clark that he just froze where he was. And so suddenly it's...
so loud from the owls all around him in the woods behind him and whatever this noise is that he just stood there unsure what to do. And so as he's sitting there getting the courage up to go investigate his house, he realizes what this high-pitched noise is. It's the sound of maniacal, insane laughter coming from the second floor.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of the covered wooden bridge in Litchfield?
Sensing his wife had to be in danger, the doctor charged up the nearby steps up to the second floor, and he could tell this laughter, this high-pitched laughter was coming from the master bedroom. And so he ran down the short hallway, he got in front of the closed door that led into the master bedroom, he slowly opened it up, and there in the back corner of his room was his wife.
She was on the ground, rolled up in a ball, facing the door. Her hands were clenched in fists. Her eyes were open and unblinking, and her mouth was open wider than was humanly possible. And as he's staring at his wife, wondering what's going on, he realizes this insane high-pitched laughter is coming from his wife. But it doesn't even look like it's coming out of her. Her chest is just heaving.
Her mouth is staying open, and the laughter is just coming out of her. And so the doctor just stood there watching his wife who's staring directly at his eyes. And finally, he just got so scared, he turned and he ran. During Dr. Clark's 36 hours he was away in New York, something happened to his wife. We don't know what it was, but it caused her to lose her mind.
The only thing she would talk about was the strange creatures she saw out in the forest. By some accounts, Harriet spent the rest of her life in a mental asylum. By other accounts, she went back with Dr. Clark to New York, where she took her life. Today, Dudleytown is not only still abandoned, but it is also illegal to visit.
However, people do still sneak into Dudleytown and walk around the ruins, and many of them have reported feeling these pockets of cold air where there shouldn't be cold air, and also some others have said as they've been walking, they've felt phantom hands slap them and push them.
Some have said they've taken photographs inside of the Dark Entry Forest near Dudleytown, and they've captured strange, shadowy figures that they couldn't see with their naked eye. The famous paranormal couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren, shot a special series in the 1970s inside of the Dark Entry Forest, and they declared the area around Dudleytown was demonically possessed.
Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts, not just this one, but also Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, bedtime stories, wartime stories, and run full. Just search for Ballin studios on any podcast platform and you'll find all of them.
If you want to watch hundreds more strange, dark, and mysterious stories, just head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
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